Rome - Italy Apologizes For Holocaust Cartoon

Rome - Jewish pressures had led the Italian Lower Chamber Speaker Fausto Bertinotti, leader of the Communist party, to apologize for the publication of a cartoon perceived as anti-Semitic printed in the communist newspaper Liberazione.

The official apology noted, “In these hard times, satyr which can harm the Jewish community should be avoided.”

The caricature depicted the separation fence with a gate bearing the sign "Hunger Liberates," similar to the welcome sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz extermination camp, which read "Work Liberates." Yasha Reibman, spokesman of Milan's Jewish community called the cartoon publication a very severe act and demanded that the newspaper editor be dismissed immediately in a bid to prove that the stances presented by the journal do not represent the stances of the party it represents.