Shoah 'virus' could reawaken -Mattarella

(ANSA) - Rome, January 24 - President Sergio Mattarella warned on Thursday that the hatefulness that caused the Holocaust could return. He compared this "evil" to a "deadly virus" that is "hidden in the gutters of society, in the hidden folds of ideology, in the blinding darkness of stereotypes and prejudice".
    He said it was "ready to reawaken, to strike, to infect, to destroy, as soon the the conditions reoccur", during a ceremony at the presidential palace for 'Women of the Shoah' ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday. "Acts of anti-Semitism and racism, inspired by old doctrines and new, perverse ideologies, are increasing in Italy and around the world," the head of State continued.
    "It's true that they are minorities. But they are minorities that are increasingly out in the open, that astutely exploit modern forms of communication, that poisonously worm their way into stadiums, schools and situations of distress".