The historical destiny of the Jews is such that this folk have experienced constant persecution under various occupying or oppressive regimes that would deny them their right to enjoy human rights, national mentality and religion on a historically possessed or foreign territory, with the Jews assimilating into indigenous population, by virtue of by use of brute force or imposed legislation. Starting with the ancient Romans, who evicted Jews from Jerusalem by spreading them all over the world, obliterated any recorded memory from the annals of history, and severely persecuted the remaining minorities, the folk had not had at least a spell of a much coveted stability.
Nor did they start feeling any better with the ascension of Benito Mussolini, a bloody fascist dictator, a 20th century emperor-like political figure who made it one of his priorities to exterminate and squash Italian Jews in the same vein as Germany was doing. Radical ideology, or fascism, in the Kingdom of Italy was at its most twisted and arguably second most extreme to that of Nazi Germany, but extreme nonetheless. In Italy, fascism, an attempt to resurrect Roman Empire, brought about those same values that denied Jews minorities their basic rights as ancient Romans used to do in their time. In 1938, Benito Mussolini signed a number of inhumane ruthless anti-Jews legislative acts that unleashed fierce persecution of all who belonged to this racial minority, based on well-established characteristics, with all types of infringements and constraints that these laws implied.
Ethnic persecution started with The Manifesto of Race being published in Il Giornale d’Italia on 14th July 1938 after being revised by Mussolini himself as well as 10 officials from the Ministry of Popular Culture. Italians were proclaimed to be Arian, thus racially superior and biologically distinct from non-Europeans groups, such as Jews and Africans. The manifestation as such was meant to flatter Nazi Germany, following the visit of its leader, Adolf Hitler, back in May 1938 (“Three Documents on Race” 172). Both countries were extreme of ideology, had imperial ambitions, and were obsessed with world dominance, re-carving the geopolitical map of the world along with militant Japan. For the record, Italy came to sign the Pact of Steel the following year, strengthening the bipartite intercourses. With that in mind, Germany’s ideological satellite, Mussolini’s Italy, would repeat after its “Big Brother” all ideological policies, including those establishing racial purity. According to “Three Documents on Race” (172), the relationship between Italy and Germany and thus mutual ideological influence became particularly strong in the wake of Italy’s 1935 Ethiopia invasion and subsequent isolating penalties and sanctions imposed by the League of Nations.
What motivated Italy to embrace racial intolerance were political opportunism, imperial ideology, the influence of anti-Semitic individuals in Catholic Church and the National Fascist Party, a press campaign of 1936 against Jews, and Mussolini’s fearing lest Hitler should become the sole beacon of international fascism. Strange was such a swerve since a skillful orator in his own right, Mussolini had previously been very vocal about how important for public life Jews were, which means the about-turning leader used not to take that racist political stance, without showing any signs of inconsistency before. Ben-Ghiat (148) notes that, of 44 million Italians, there were 44 thousand Jews that used to live a peaceful life prior to 1938 legislative acts. Also, it was none other than Mussolini who had openly slammed Germany for its racial prejudices back in 1933-1934. In doing so, the Duce supposedly attempted to contrast peaceful Italian Fascism with violent Nazism of Adolf Hitler, whom he thought nobody else but a jumpstart (Ben-Ghiat 148). The Manifestation could not but breed adverse sentiments, causing Jews to give a hostile reception to legal shifts in the way they were supposed to be treated from then on. Not until 25 April 1942 did the Higher Council of Demography and Race blueprint a new version of the Manifesto (“Three Documents on Race” 172-173).
The Manifestation italicizes the fact of Italian people belonging to a minor ethnic group of Mediterraneans that composes a true human race along with Nordics, Dinarics and a number of other groups. Another provision is screaming superiority of Italians to other nations in its nature and legacy. There is a very clear division line drawn between the Italians and other European nations by the principles primarily other than simply language and history. The matter is that titular Italian nation is considered to have been left untouched by historic processes, which could be explained in terms of racial blending. No mixture of population that could have deducted from racial purity is admitted except for a few facts of lesser importance and impact, such as the invasion of Lombards. Important is the provision that links Italian nation to Aryans, by whom Italy of those days was being said to be constituted. Italians openly declared themselves to be Aryans of descent, taking ultimate pride in their new-found genetic lineage. Italian nation can build the bridge between their illustrious generations and their contemporaries, which gives Italian nation the privilege of nobility provided that Italian race retain its blood purity for years to come (“Three Documents on Race” 173-175).
As Manifesto authors are recounting their ideals and propagandistic viewpoints, outright racist attitude is starting to build. It is suggested among other things that racism be viewed from a purely biological perspective, without taking religious or philosophical approaches to interpreting into consideration. Denied also is the fact as if German racism could be easily projected onto Italian soil without due modifications. Psychological and physical national uniqueness as well as distinctions from all non-European nations is the one of the focal points of the Manifestation. The escalation comes with the document authors’ clearly separating Mediterranean Europe inhabited by Occidentals and the Oriental and African Mediterranean, refuting all the theories possible that might theoretically wash this difference away, considering them totally unacceptable (“Three Documents on Race” 174-175).
Lastly and most importantly, Jews are all but considered to be an ethnic subgroup. There was said to be nothing left from the Semites to have originally landed on the “fatherland’s sacred soil”, in other words, there was a shell of the Jews’ former self. Those living in Italy allegedly never underwent the process of assimilation as all other ethnic groups would do in their time, possibly due to the former being constituted by non-European ethnic elements. A concluding provision hinges on racial purity as well as the possibility for Italian nations to enter into an alliance with European peoples so that racial balance might not be disturbed. Tight cooperation and alliance with countries other than European is regarded as crossbreeding (“Three Documents on Race” 174-175). While the Manifesto as such does not call for rapid ethnic purging; still, it did have little room for racial tolerance, stressing the place to be occupied by now marginalized Jews.
According to Ben-Ghiat (149), Italian anti-Jewish laws consisted of three major positions. Firstly, Italy was to have become “the race of hardy conquerors and child-bearers”, secondly, country’s indigenous traditions needed protecting, while, thirdly, national purging was meant to have cured nation’s “backwardness”. Jews were blamed for holding Italy on the margins of the modern civilization. Not only did this manifestation reflect the attempt of being in the vanguard of the Axis Powers as well as the New World Order on the part of the Duce, Benito Mussolini, but also showed national aspirations for economic, political and cultural revival (Ben-Ghiat 149). It is absolutely safe to suppose that the competition between two political heavyweights in Germany and Italy was in place, determining each other’s political moves both on the international political scene and at home.
As far as discriminations and persecution personifications were concerned, Jews were forbidden to teach, visit schools and universities. Postsecondary schools students were permitted to receive degrees while those studying at academies and cultural institutions were subjected to expelling. Jewish professors being terminated was supposed to help dispose of “treacherous people”, secure national purification as well as resurrecting universities. However, there used to be exceptions to this rule in the so-called “Aryanized Jews” or “non-Jewish” Jews, whose exceptional merits granted them a guaranteed status and exemption from all discriminations. Rarely did Jewish cultural elite members manage to leave the country to be engaged in their creative activities elsewhere (Ben-Ghiat 150).
According to Zimmerman (n.p.), “Laws for the Defence of the Race” come to prohibit any marriages between the Aryans and non-Aryans. More than that, Jews were no longer permitted to perform service in the army, whether it be in peace- or wartime. This ethnic group was also prohibited to run a business that would employ more than 100 workers and obtain defense contracts. Also, Jews were barred from occupying state positions, owning land that exceeded 5000 lire rate taxable value as well as urban buildings, which worth excelled that of 20,000 lire. Nor were they allowed to provide employment for domestic servants of the pure Aryan race. Parental guardianship over children of different religion usually resulted in the loss of parental control. The 1919 granted citizenship was no longer in force, being abolished as from 1938, which meant that foreign Jews were to leave the country or be expelled, saving for those exceeding the threshold of 65 years or being married to Italian citizens. The 1939 law came to bar Jews from occupying skilled professions, such as architects, lawyers, engineers, dentists, doctors and such. (Zimmerman n.p.).
Those forced to stay felt the effects of Casini’s campaign of “taking Jewish writers out of circulation” by banning all publication possibilities. The outlawed writers were coerced into ghostwriting for their colleagues under unreal pseudonyms or being financially sustained by them. Publishing companies owned by Jews had to change their names as well as excluding Jewish names from the list of employees (Ben-Ghiat 150-151). According to Jews Have Reason to Fear Italian Fascism (n.p.), apart from being forbidden to visit elementary and secondary schools, Jewish population had themselves stripped of their jobs, property, to say nothing of forced labor imposed on them after Mussolini’s declaring war on Britain and France in 1940. The 1938 census was a well-calculated move that enabled Mussolini and other Racial Laws power activists to arrange massive arrests to take place between 1943 and 1944 (Jews Have Reason to Fear Italian Fascism n.p.).
However the Jews felt what was written between the lines of manifestation, if so, in the course of the Second World War. According to Picciotto (209), following the coup of July 25 1943, which displaced Benito Mussolini, aka the duce of Italy, southern Italy landing allied troops were moving northwards, liberating region after region from occupation German troops. What they had to witness were the series of internment camps where the Jews were being held (Picciotto 209). Italy must have clearly adopted Germany’s leverage of solving “The Jewish question” through incarceration, forced labor, and physical elimination by way of cremation; however, Italy seemed to have been showing less intensity and cruelty until Germany started keynoting the conjuncture in the wake of Mussolini imprisonment. Picciotto (209) asserts that both Nazi Germany and Repubblica Sociale Italiana or RSI found themselves fighting for who would have the right to intern the Jews, with the latter finding themselves in the middle of fighting for survival between Nazis’ annihilation policy and Italians’ anti-Jewish policy (Picciotto 209).
As many as 23,778 Jews happened to avoid being put in camps due to help extended by non-Jewish population. The Regime of RSI had 8,529 Jews arrested in approximately 20 months’ period (Picciotto 210). Clearly, Adolf Hitler made Mussolini a gift of a new Republic, though partly partitioned and seized by the Allies or occupied by his superior troops. Political ally restoration efforts generated a Muppet government trying to exert control over a rump territory, which means Mussolini internal ethnic politics was in accord with that of Germany. According to Picciotto (210), there was surely no time to be lost; hence, Germany rushed into The Jewish Question solving with extreme intensity and brutality, without putting customary policy on hold for 8 months. Nor had Italian ideological machine been inactive before, with public opinion jelling on Jews thanks to the antebellum Anti-Judaism propaganda, with the Department for Demography and Race established to implement anti-Jewish legislation as a part of the interior ministry. Frankly speaking, Italy would have never gone as far as to arrange for Auschwitz-like genocide against Jews to happen by confining itself to general discriminations, as originally planned, save that Mussolini and other top echelon officials had been forced to follow Hitler’s political vector as political protégés (Picciotto 210). Seemingly, what started as the movement for the purity of the nation went on to become a bloody genocide.
As from September 23, 1943, Nazi authorities took control of Jewish policy in Italy in their own hands. Italian citizens of Jewish descent, being abroad, were subject to deportation. Launched in the spring of 1942 the wheels of extermination machine started spinning at that moment in Italy following its occupation by Nazis. Germany felt it was about the time they dealt with The Jewish Question. Adolf Eichmann, the chief of Gestapo Anti-Jewish department, was the one to take over to begin massive repressions. The first months of German ideological dominance would see secret police arranging massacres and roundups multiple times. Germany was phasing in exterminations towards refugees to occur at hotels and at private homes at the very first stages (Picciotto 210). According to Zimmerman (n.p.), in the course of the first 20 months of Jews’ persecution in the new-found Republic of Salo there were 8,529 individuals arrested, of whom as many as 6,806 Jews were transported to concentration and death camps.
According to Jews Have Reason to Fear Italian Fascism (n.p.), Mussolini reinstated to his position unleashed unprecedented persecution of the Jewish population. Starting with December 1, 1943, all the Jews who reside in Italia were declared foes of the nations and were liable to internment in concentration camps. Italian police forces together with carabinieri proceeded to arrest people by thousands only for them to be delivered to Auschwitz camp while a considerable number of Jews estimated at 200 individuals were murdered by both Nazis and Italian collaborators. The fact that 85% of Jews were fortunate enough to outlive Mussolini regime as well as inhumane Racial Laws was by no means due to benevolence and goodwill of Italian leader and other politicians of like mind (Jews Have Reason to Fear Italian Fascism n.p.).
Overall, the Italian Racial Laws were similar to those implemented by Nazi Germany; however, Italian laws were signed into law by Benito Mussolini, the man who used to take a tough stance on racial cruelty put on display in Germany by Adolf Hitler. Not willing to surrender his positions as the number one fascist leader, the Duce reversed his decision by arranging for a number of anti-Jews laws to be prepared. According to the legislation passed, Jews were barred from holding skilled positions, visiting schools and universities, owning large estates as well as land possessions that were seized nonetheless during the Second World War. Intellectuals, such as poets and writers, felt the direct effects of new legislation, prohibiting them to publish their works. The events of 1943, such as the displacement of Mussolini, his release from prison, reinstatement and the resurrection of the regime brought about Germany along with its ideological machine straight to Italy. Italian collaborators in league with carabinieri arrested thousands of Jews to hand them over to German Gestapo and send to death camps. There is an assumption that Mussolini would have never resorted to brute activities he had to practise save for Germany excessive control of Italy; however, it does not change the fact that thousands of Italian Jews received a firsthand knowledge of what it feels like to live in a country where the distorted vision of racial purity is the highest value.
Works Cited
Ben-Ghiat, Ruth. “Fascist Modernities. Italy 1922-1945.” University of California Press. n.d. 148-157. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
“Jews Have Reason to Fear Italian Fascism.” The New York Times. Opinion. 04 May 1994. n.p. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
Liliana Picciotto. “The Shoah in Italy: Its History and Characteristic” Cambridge University Press. September 2009. 209-221. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
“Three Documents on Race. The Manifesto of Race (1938), Critique of the Manifesto of Race (1941-42), and New Revised Draft of the Manifesto of Race (1942).” n.d. 172-175. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
Zimmerman, Joshua D. “Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922-1945.” Cambridge University Press. n.d. n.p. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
