ROME, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Italian capital of Rome would remove the street names of scientists, who had signed a racial manifesto issued under Italian fascism, according to Italian media on Tuesday.
Mayor Virginia Raggi made the announcement during an interview released for a film documentary on Italy's racial laws, Ansa news agency reported. "We hope to rename the streets by the end of this year," she said.
The so-called "Manifesto of Race" was unveiled by Mussolini's regime in mid 1938, and racial laws were approved and implemented in the second half of that year.
The laws targeted the Jewish communities in the country, stripping Italian Jews of their citizenship, purging them from all jobs in public offices, government positions, and major professions, and denying children to attend school.
Ten high-profile Italian scientists from various fields underwrote the Manifesto, including two renowned physicians, one zoologist, one anthropologist, and one statistician.
Speaking for the documentary "1938: When we discover we were no longer Italians" -- which gathered stories of persecuted Italian Jews, and addressed a recent surge of neo-fascist feelings in Italy -- mayor Raggi stressed Rome has strong anti-fascist roots.
In her interview partly published by media on Tuesday, she also vowed to use "every available tool to fight against the resurgence of violence and discrimination, which we do not tolerate."
The necessary procedures to rename the streets carrying the names of signatory scientists would "have already been started," Turin-based La Stampa daily cited Raggi as saying.
Rome counts a street bearing the name of the Savorgnan family -- to which statistician Franco Savorgnan belonged -- another street dedicated to zoologist Edoardo Zavattari, and a street and a square carrying the name of neuropsychiatrist Arturo Donaggio,
This year will mark the 80th anniversary of the implementation of Italy's fascist racial policies, which were finally abrogated in January 1944, after the fall of the regime.
The announcement of Rome mayor also came shortly ahead of the celebrations for the International 2018 Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.
