NEWS Italian and International Media Devote Their Attention to UCEI Campaign against Free Distribution of Hitler’s Mein Kampf  

By Adam Smulevich
 
The firm reaction of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) against the free distribution of Adolph Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf (My Battle) made the front pages of Italian newspapers and captured the attention of many international media such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Times, BBC, Le Figaro, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine. The communication campaign opposing the choice of right-wing Italian newspaper, Il Giornale, which distributed a copy of the book to every reader on Saturday, June 11, was also covered by the news of the main radio and TV stations. There were tens of thousands of posts on social networks.
 
“It is a squalid fact that is light years away from all the logic of studying the Shoah and the different factors that led the whole of humanity to sink into an abyss of unending hatred, death and violence. Nothing has changed. It must be stated clearly: the Giornale’s operation is indecent,” the president of the UCEI Renzo Gattegna said in a statement sent out by UCEI press office. 
 
In an editorial published also in many media such The Huffington Post, L’Espresso and Tablet, the editor-in-chief of the Italian Jewish newspaper Pagine Ebraiche, Guido Vitale said about Il Giornale: “It is time to open our eyes to reality and to call things by their names. Neither the Jews nor the State of Israel know what to do with ‘friends’ like these.”