Wiesenthal Centre to Italian Interior Minister: "Associating Vaccination with Genocide is an Assault on the Memory of Italian Victims of the Nazis - both Jewish and Gentile"

February 22, 2019

"A campaign against possible chemical contaminants in vaccinations cannot be associated or compared with mass murder and the Holocaust."

Paris, 22 February 2019

In a letter to Italian Minister of the Interior and Vice-Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels expressed "outrage at an anti-vaccination campaign by an unknown group 'Siamo' (We Are), allegedly associated with 'Corvelva' (Veneto Regional Coordination for Liberty of Vaccination)." See: https://vaxopedia.org/2018/12/19/what-is-corvelva/

The letter described "Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Banalization and Holocaust Abuse, considered open to criminal prosecution in several European jurisdictions."

Samuels viewed "the Siamo campaign banner as a very offensive example of Holocaust abuse in its visual comparison of a child concentration camp prisoner alongside a contemporary non-vaccinated child."


He characterized the text as "nothing less that disgusting:
'History repeats itself
The theory of a superior Aryan race justifies exclusion [of children] from schools - doctors and scientists in 1939
The theory of a mass immunization of humanity justifies exclusion [of children] from schools - doctors and scientists in 2019
What scientific study can confirm these discriminatory theories?' "

The Centre urged the Minister "to investigate 'Siamo' and ask the appropriate authorities to apply punitive measures... A campaign against possible chemical contaminants in vaccinations cannot be associated or compared with mass murder and the Holocaust."

Samuels added: "I recall our role in bringing Erich Priebke from Argentina for trial in Rome for his role in the Ardeatine Caves massacre. I attended both trials from 1995 until 1998, together with the families of the 335 martyrs. We received overwhelming applause from the Italian public and media"... "Mr. Minister, we also expect your condemnation of this assault on the memory of Italian victims of the Nazis, both Jewish and Gentile," he concluded.

For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at +33 147 237 637, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).