An Italian politician suggested using Nazi tactics to punish immigrants.
Giorgio Bettio, a city councilman from the northern city of Teviso, said “we should use the same system the SS used” and 10 immigrants should be punished for every one immigrant who disobeys the law, Reuters reports.
Bettio later admitted he made a mistake in citing the SS.
His suggestion was reminiscent of the Ardeatine Caves Massacre of 1944 in which Adolf Hitler ordered the execution of 10 Italians for every one of 33 German soldiers killed by partisans in Rome.
Bettio is a member of an anti-immigration party, the Northern League, in a region where tension has flared between local residents and immigrants.
Ricardo Pacifici, a spokesman for the Jewish community of Rome, said of Bettio’s suggestion in the Daily Mail of Britain, “We are considering legal action. It is absolutely abhorrent.”
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