A group of about eight boys punched and hurled anti-Semitic attacks at a former lawmaker who was celebrating New Year’s Eve with his family in Venice, Italian officials said Wednesday.

In a Facebook post just hours after the incident, Arturo Scotto said he was walking in the city’s St. Mark’s Square with his wife and son around midnight when the assailants began shouting, "Duce! Duce!” — a reference to Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist leader during World War II.

The group also punched him at least three times and then attacked a young man who had tried to intervene, Scotto said. Police are investigating the case, but no one has been arrested so far.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called the attack “disgusting” and said fascist-like incidents like this one “will never be tolerated” in Venice.

The leader of Rome’s Jewish community, Ruth Dureghello, expressed her solidarity with Scotto and thanked him for not staying silent.

“We must not give in to any form of anti-Semitism and racism,” she tweeted.

Scotto said he did confront the boys during the attack, telling them their behavior was “unacceptable.” But the group kept screaming at him and even shouting disparaging phrases about Anne Frank, the young Jewish woman who died in a Nazi death camp and whose diary became famous around the world.