Nazi skinheads surrounded a Bulgarian hotel housing Italian Jewish teenagers, yelling threats and chants of ‘Sieg Heil.’

Shocking footage captured on August 2 in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital city, showed the skinheads trying to make their way into the hotel. 

When they couldn’t make their way in, they turned to the group, who appeared to be in a first-floor room, and repeatedly made Nazi salute gestures and chanted ‘Sieg Heil’.

The group, made up of five, also threateningly told the group of teenagers to come down to meet them. 

The video then cuts to the skinheads getting moved on. 

Italian media reported that the teenagers were from Rome and Milan, and were in Sofia for a summer camp. 

They were staying at the hotel with their teachers. 

Victor Fadlun, the president of the Jewish Community of Rome organisation, wrote in a post to Facebook: ‘Our children are not free to travel in Europe without being exposed to the violence and verbal aggression of anti-Semites. 

Shocking footage captured on August 2 in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital city, showed the skinheads trying to make their way into the hotel

Italian media reported that the teenagers were from Rome and Milan, and were in Sofia for a summer camp

‘There were long minutes of tension, also because after the police intervened, the Neo-Nazis returned and once again blocked the entrances, threatening and shouting at our boys. 

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The surge of Europe’s hatred for Israel

‘The Jewish Community in Rome strongly condemns this latest episode of antisemitism, which affects Italian Jewish teenagers and their educators, in a country of the European Union. 

‘We ask the Bulgarian authorities to shed light on this aggression and to identify and prosecute those responsible as soon as possible.’ 

The Union of Italian Jewish Communities added that it expressed its ‘solidarity with young Italian Jews following the incident of anti-Semitic threats that occurred at the end of the Bene Akiva summer camp near Sofia, Bulgaria’. 

The group warned that incidents like this were on the rise in Europe: ‘These incidents continue to recur, with an increasingly worrying escalation.

‘For our part, we will take all possible measures to ensure that Jewish life in all its forms can continue to unfold in safety and tranquillity for Italian and European Jews.’

And Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said this afternoon: ‘I express my solidarity with the group of young Italian Jews who were attacked and threatened inside a hotel in Sofia. 

‘I condemn this latest episode of antisemitism, a seed that must be fought, a form of hatred and discrimination that must be eradicated.’ 

Europe’s growing hostility towards Israel has led to a surge in anti-Semitic incidents across the continent.

From LGBTQ+ saunas in Spain and German hotels to Slovenian airports, places that purport to welcome all are increasingly shutting their doors to Jewish customers.

On May 29, a Jewish lesbian couple were thrown out of a Spanish LGBTQ+ sauna after one of the other customers saw one of them wearing a Star of David pendant

The North American women became involved in a row with other visitors, with one chanting ‘free Palestine’, before the argument spilt out on to the street 

‘Hate speech, notably antisemitism and Holocaust denial, has reached levels not seen since World War II,’ said UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany in a recent report on anti-Semitism in schools.

Additionally, almost half of Europeans believe anti-Semitism has increased in their country over the past five years, especially in the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, according to data from Eurobarometer. 

On May 29, a Jewish lesbian couple were thrown out of a Spanish LGBTQ+ sauna after one of the other customers saw one of them wearing a Star of David pendant.

The incident – which Israel has described as an ‘anti-Semitic attack’ – took place at Sauna Thermas in Barcelona, which on its website advertises itself as a ‘gay sauna’ that ‘welcomes everybody’. 

The North American women became involved in a row with other visitors, with one chanting ‘free Palestine’, before the argument spilt out onto the street.

The sauna has since condemned the incident, and blamed the organisers of the private event held at its premises that night.

A video of the argument shows one of the women being asked: ‘Are you a Zionist person?’ 

The Israeli government described the incident as ‘another anti-Semitic attack in Spain’ and called for ‘determined’ action from local authorities. 

Spain’s Left-wing government has imposed an embargo on arms sales to Israel, demanded that the EU terminate its trade deal with the country, and was one of five states that boycotted this year’s Eurovision Song Contest after Israel was allowed to compete.

The country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of Israel’s most vocal critics in the EU, having accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing genocide in Gaza.

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel retaliated by launching a military campaign in the Strip, during which tens of thousands of people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry. 

An Israir flight scheduled to arrive in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on June 3 was denied permission to land and diverted to Zagreb, Croatia, according to the airline.

The jet arrived at Ljubljana Airport, but air traffic controllers refused to let it touch down, according to Hebrew media reports.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced the incident as ‘completely unacceptable’. 

A hotel in the southern German state of Bavaria was also heavily condemned for a message refusing a reservation to an Israeli guest.

Israel’s consul general to southern Germany, Talya Lador-Fresher, posted the rejection message on X on June 2.

She wrote in German: ‘Have we returned to the 1930s?’

A screenshot in her post shows an English-language message from the Hotel zum Hirschen, telling the guest that ‘there are no Jews allowed in our hotel’.

The hotel’s junior director, Andreas Vogl, told the DPA news agency that the message does not reflect the company’s ‘world view at all’.