Novara Green Pass protest on Saturday slammed for 'Auschwitz prisoner' uniforms.

Italy's Jewish community has condemned Green Pass protesters who demonstrated in the northern city of Novara dressed in grey and white striped vests that recalled the uniforms worn by prisoners of Nazi concentration camps.

The protesters filed through the streets of Novara, two by two, clinging on to knotted ropes made to look like barbed wire, in an attempt to link Italy's Green Pass mandate for workers with Nazi fascism and the Holocaust.

• Green Pass: Auschwitz survivor Segre says 'crazy' to compare Italy's vaccine rules with Holocaust

The demonstrators carried signs that read "We are like prisoners of Auschwitz" and "Stop dictatorship", reports Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Reaction

"In the face of ravings like this one cannot invoke the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution" - said Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) - "We have witnessed an abuse and an offense to memory."

The images also received widespread condemnation on social media in Italy, with the nation's health minister Roberto Speranza describing the scenes as "shocking."

• What are Italy's Green Pass rules for workers?

The Green Pass is a digital or paper certificate showing that people have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from covid-19.

On 15 October the government made the pass mandatory for all workers in a contentious move that affects 23 million people, leading to sporadic protests in cities around Italy.

Cover photo La Stampa