Sidewalk plaques commemorating Romans deported by Nazis are vandalized in Italian capital

ROME (AP) — Italian politicians and Jewish leaders are condemning the antisemitic vandalizing of four memorial plaques. The tiny plaques are embedded in Rome’s sidewalks in front of apartment buildings where four Roman Jews had been living when they were deported from the Nazi-occupied city in 1944 and sent to their deaths in Auschwitz. The vandalism happened this week in the Trastevere neighborhood known for its nightlife. The plaques name the residents and cite the date they were hustled away during German occupation in World War II. Known in Italian as “tripping stones,” bronze plaques have been placed around Rome in front of residences of deported Jews – most of whom perished in Nazi-run death camps abroad.