ROME—Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi stirred new controversy Wednesday by likening the alleged judicial hounding suffered by his family to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.

“My children say they feel what Jewish families must have felt in Germany during the Hitler regime. We really have everybody against us,” Berlusconi told political journalist Bruno Vespa, according to a statement published on his conservative party’s website.

The remarks drew sharp rebukes from Jewish leaders.

Comparisons between the Holocaust, in which more than 6 million Jews died, and the legal woes of the Berlusconi family are “not only inappropriate and incomprehensible, but also offensive,” said Renzo Gattegna, head of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

“We are outraged,” said Riccardo Pacifici, the leader of Rome’s Jewish community. “We count on him to promptly rectify” his words.

Renato Schifani, the chief whip of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party in the Senate, said his leader’s remarks had to be “interpreted with a pinch of salt. Clearly, they had no intent to be offensive toward a tragedy of humanity.”

Berlusconi is no stranger to historical faux pas. In January, during a ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he said Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini “in many ways did well.”

He added that the 1938 racial laws barring Jews from universities and many professions were Mussolini’s worst fault, and suggested that he sided with Hitler during the Second World War because he was “frightened” by German military might.

His latest gaffe came as he was being interviewed for a book that Vespa is due to release on Friday.

Berlusconi answered a question on whether his children were considering selling the family’s vast media, publishing and insurance holdings and moving abroad due to their father’s continuing legal problems.

In August, the scandal-prone politician was handed a four-year jail term for tax fraud. He is expected to serve only one year of his conviction, doing community service, but is due to lose his Senate seat because convicted lawmakers cannot sit in parliament.

The Senate is expected to vote on Berlusconi’s expulsion on Nov. 27.

In addition, he is appealing convictions for the illegal use of wiretaps, abuse of power and soliciting sex from a minor. He also faces a new trial starting on Feb. 11 on charges of bribing an opposition lawmaker.

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His family’s holding company, Fininvest, has also been in legal trouble. In September it lost a final appeal against a court order to pay about $675 million to CIR, a business rival.

Berlusconi denies all charges against himself and his family’s business, and insists he is a victim of politicized magistrates.