Chilling echoes of Nazi-era Europe reverberated throughout a march in Milan, Italy, Saturday, in the bitterest of ironies. As descendants of the Jewish Brigade — Jews from then-Palestine who traveled to Italy to help fight against the Nazis — and other Jewish groups marched alongside Italians celebrating the downfall of fascism at the end of World War II, pro-Hamas Jew haters at the march surrounded the Jews, hemming them in as they hurled insults at them. “Murderers” was among the tamest of the slogans shouted; worse yet were such choice words as “You’re just failed soap bars,” “Long live Hitler” and “All Zionists out.”

Finally, for their own safety, police escorted them out of the rally and told them to leave.

Iranian dissidents and people carrying the Ukrainian flag were also targeted.

Speaking to a local Italian outlet, Emanuele Fiano, the son of a Holocaust survivor and former MP, said, “We were kicked out, I can’t describe it in any other way. The Jewish Brigade that fought alongside the partisans against the Nazi-fascists [and other Jewish groups] were all kicked out of a rally that was supposed to celebrate freedom.”

“The climate is horrible,” he added. “From legitimate political criticism, we have started to see the worst old-fashioned slogans against Jews. It’s terrible, I don’t know what else to say.”

Like other countries around the world, Italy has suffered from rising antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, using self-righteous disapproval of the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza to mask plain old Jew hatred. The number of anti-Jewish incidents in Italy has kept pace with the rest of the world, rising every year since.

Daniela Ovadia, a rally attendee who belongs to the Jewish community, described the awful experience on Facebook.

“We joined the rally behind the banner of the left-wing Jewish scouts, grandchildren of camp survivors and partisans,” she wrote. “My daughter was stopped by someone in the rally, [who told her] ‘You are lucky you are not a soap bar.’”

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced the treatment of Jews and supporters of Ukraine at the rally.

“If these are the people who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I would say we have a problem,” she wrote on X.

Indeed. We have a problem, and it’s raging like a wildfire all over the world.