Moment Nazi skinheads surround Bulgarian hotel housing Jewish teenagers, chant 'Sieg Heil' and yell threats in latest evidence of Europe's growing anti-Semitism

By PERKIN AMALARAJ, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:15, 4 August 2026 | Updated: 15:18, 4 August 2026 This is the moment Nazi skinheads surrounded a Bulgarian hotel housing 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.  '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.'