Hungarian-born writer Edith Bruck refused on Tuesday in an open letter to accept a peace prize as a Holocaust survivor in Anzio, Italy, because the city has not yet revoked the title of honorary citizen of the former fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.

Edith Bruck emphasized that Mussolini, who created Italian fascism, still has "many followers all over Europe, who have a short memory". The ninety-year-old writer believed that "active nostalgia" surrounds the most shameful and indelible historical era.

Anzio, located sixty kilometers from Rome, honors Italian and foreign personalities it deems worthy with a peace prize every year. Edit Bruck was chosen this year, who refused the recognition because

Benito Mussolini is still an honorary citizen of the city in Anzio.

Mayor Candido De Angelis, formerly a Christian Democrat and now a politician of the League party, called what happened a misunderstanding and invited the Hungarian writer to a meeting. He emphasized that Mussolini was given honorary citizenship in 1924, when it was mandatory for all cities. He reminded that Anzio was bombed to the ground in the Second World War.

Born in Tiszakarád, Edith Bruck's entire family was deported during the Second World War, she visited several concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Dachau and Bergen-Belsen. Her mother died in Auschwitz, her father and brother died in Dachau, but she survived the camps with her sister named Edith Eliz.

The poet, writer, director, who has lived in Italy since 1955, was included this year among the finalists of another prestigious Italian literary award, the Premio Strega

with his work Lost Bread. In February, he published an article in the cathedral's daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, after which Pope Francis visited him at his apartment in Rome to apologize to him on behalf of humanity for what happened during the Second World War.

In July, he was appointed vice-president of the Dante Alighieri Society, which is responsible for the international dissemination and protection of the Italian language. In August, he became one of the winners of the Viareggio-Repaci literary prize.

Source: MTI

Photo: Hungarian writer Edith Bruck (Photo: MTI/ Noémi Bruzák)