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Rome shocked by stickers of Hitler in Roma shirt

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

26 Jan, 2023

Incident occurs ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri has slammed as "an unacceptable disfigurement" the appearance of stickers around the city showing Adolf Hitler wearing a jersey of the AS Roma football club.

The stickers depicting the Nazi dictator appeared on Wednesday in various districts of Rome on shutters and road signs between Piazza Vescovio and Corso Trieste, as well as in the north-eastern suburbs of Talenti, Montesacro and Tufello.

"The stickers depicting Hitler with the Roma shirt that appeared in the city today are a real infamy", Gualtieri wrote on Twitter, noting that the incident comes a couple of days before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Una vera infamia gli adesivi raffiguranti Hitler con la maglia della #Roma apparsi oggi in città, uno sfregio inaccettabile a pochi giorni dalla Giornata della Memoria. Ci siamo attivati per la loro immediata rimozione. Vergogna per gli autori. https://t.co/B4GTVeLZ6O
— Roberto Gualtieri (@gualtierieurope) January 25, 2023

"We have taken action for their immediate removal" - Gualtieri said - "Shame on those responsible for this."

The story recalls an incident in 2017, when Lazio 'ultra' fans used anti-Semitic stickers against their AS Roma rivals in the Curva Sud section of Rome's Olympic Stadium.

The stickers portrayed the teenage diarist and Holocaust victim Anne Frank wearing a Roma jersey, an incident strongly condemned by the Lazio club.

This time however the finger of suspicion for those behind the Hitler stickers would appear to point at a fringe of Roma supporters with fascist sympathies, according to state broadcaster RAI News.