Memorial events were held around Europe yesterday to mark the 68th anniversary since the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops.
Survivors, their relatives and politicians were among thousands of people who gathered at Holocaust Memorial Day ceremonies in Poland and Russia, among other countries.
But the sensitive commemorations were marred by political gaffes in the UK and Italy, with former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi triggering outrage from the political left with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at an event in Milan.
Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany’s lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that in other respects he had been a good leader.
“It’s difficult now to put yourself in the shoes of people who were making decisions at that time,” said Berlusconi, who is campaigning for next month’s election at the head of a coalition that includes far-right politicians whose roots go back to Italy’s old fascist party.
“Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler’s Germany rather than opposing it,” he said.
“As part of this alliance, there were impositions, including combating and exterminating Jews,” he told reporters.
“The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well,” he said, referring to laws passed by Mussolini’s fascist government in 1938.
His comments were condemned as “disgusting” by the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which is leading in the polls ahead of the February 24-25 election.
“Our republic is based on the struggle against Nazi fascism and these are intolerable remarks, which are incompatible with leadership of democratic political forces,” said Marco Meloni, the PD’s spokesman for institutional affairs.
In the UK, organisers of a memorial day for victims of the Holocaust “utterly condemned” Liberal Democrat MP David Ward who accused “the Jews” of atrocities against Palestinians.
Mr Ward has apologised for the comments posted on his website and is facing disciplinary action by his party.
In his original blog, the Bradford East MP said: “Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said: “We utterly condemn those original remarks that he made.
“The Holocaust was a unique event. It was a tragedy of unique proportions and scale.
“We condemn utterly any attempts to make comparisons between that event and any other atrocities that are going on across the world. We are glad to hear he has made an apology.”