Anne Frank diary to be read at Serie A matches this week

Italy's football authorities, reacting to an anti-Semitic outburst by Lazio fans, ordered stadiums this week to hold a minute's silence at their next matches while a passage from the diary of Holocaust victim Anne Frank is read out. Stickers of Anne Frank wearing the jersey of Lazio's city rival AS Roma were found on walls and bathrooms in a section of Rome's Olympic Stadium used by Lazio supporters during their Serie A match against Cagliari on Sunday. The incident was sharply criticised by Italian politicians and media, with President Sergio Mattarella calling it "inhuman and alarming for our country". At the next match in all Italy's football divisions, a minute's silence will be held "to condemn the recent episodes of anti-Semitism and to continue to remember the Holocaust," the football federation said in a statement.

Passage of Anne Frank's diary to be read at football games in Italy after Lazio fans displayed anti-Semitic slogans https://t.co/C0yVT5qlVf

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 25, 2017

While the players line up in the centre of the pitch a poignant passage from Anne Frank's diary will be read out over the loudspeakers. The passage reads: "I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more." On Monday, Lazio president Claudio Lotito and other team officials laid a wreath of flowers at Rome's synagogue in an effort to made amends with the Jewish community. Rome Jewish community leader Ruth Dureghello welcomed the gesture but said it was not enough.

Lazio fans plastered Rome’s Olympic stadium with photoshopped pictures of Anne Frank in a Roma shirt https://t.co/R0fgcps8vF pic.twitter.com/eNt9rPhICc

— The Times of London (@thetimes) October 24, 2017

She said "collective awareness" was needed to bring an end to such anti-Semitic acts. Episodes of racism are commonplace in Italian football and Lazio supporters, who have a reputation for right-wing extremism, have often run into trouble with the authorities. The team's hard-core fans, known as "ultras," left the stickers and anti-Semitic slogans such as "Roma fans are Jews" in a section of the stadium where Roma supporters usually sit when their team is playing. The two sides share the same stadium.

Lazio to take 200 fans to Auschwitz after Anne Frank slur https://t.co/1igBm4xSmu pic.twitter.com/7lJoeBimJ3

— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) October 24, 2017

Anne Frank was born in Germany but her family fled to the Netherlands to escape the Nazi takeover. They lived in hidden rooms in Amsterdam before they were discovered by German occupiers and deported to concentration camps. She died in the Bergen-Belsen camp aged 15 and her diary recounting the family's time in hiding became a centrepiece of Holocaust literature.