President Sergio Mattarella led the
tributes to Liliana Segre as the Holocaust survivor and
Life Senator celebrated her 90th birthday on Thursday.
The head of State called Segre and thanked her for her efforts
to combat hatred, violence and discrimination, sources said.
In an interview published in Thursday's edition of La Stampa,
Segre expressed dismay about the case of Willy Monteiro Duarte,
a 21-year-old who was beaten to death at the weekend at
Colleferro, near Rome.
"We are in the grip of the problem of a Fascist mentality which
still pervades and which we have not done enough to free
ourselves of," she said.
She added that she felt the young man's death was "like a
personal defeat.
"It made me think that all that I have tried to do against
violence and hatred has served for little," she said.
"If there are still people who go around trying to resolve their
personal defeats by beating up others, we are still disant from
being a civilized society".
Segre was assigned a security detail last year after she was the
target of online threats and anti-Semitic insults.
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