Encyclopaedia Judaica

Mussolini

How the dictator Mussolini got into Hitler's dependence and drove against the Jews since 1938

from: Mussolini; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 12

presented by Michael Palomino (2007)

[1922-1936: Mussolini's opportunistic policy towards the Jews]

<MUSSOLINI, BENITO

(1882-1945), Italian dictator, founder of Fascism. Mussolini's policy toward the Jews was opportunistic, while his personal view of them, although unsystematic, was not unbiased. As early as 1908, in his essay "La filosofia della forza", Mussolini the socialist adopted *Nietzsche's view that Christianity, as a "reevaluation of all values", was the spiritual revenge by which the Jews in Erez Israel overcame their secular enemies, the Romans.

In June 1919, reflecting the line of the extreme right wing "fasci" [[Fascists]] he had created shortly before, Mussolini attacked world Jewry in his organ Popolo d'Italia, defining it as "the accomplices, the soul of both Bolshevism and of capitalism".

However, he reversed this stand in October 1924, saying that "Bolshevism is not, as is believed, a Jewish phenomenon", and further claiming that "Italy does not know anti-Semitism and we believe that it will never know it". At the same time he excluded Zionism, declaring that "the new Zion [nuova Sionne] of the Italian Jews is found here, in our beloved land, that many of them heroically defended with their blood."

By its very nature, Mussolini's opportunistic maneuvering delayed a systematic anti-Jewish policy, to a greater extent than did the presence of Jews in the ranks of Fascism from its earliest phases. From 1922, when he acceded to power, to 1938, when he branded them as racially impure, Mussolini endeavored to use the Jews as an instrument of policy, especially on the international level, in conformity with his distorted view of Judaism as an "international, occult body". At the same time, he permitted a parallel undercurrent of anti-Semitism (see *Preziosi, *Farinacci) which he repudiated or encouraged in turn, whenever he saw a chance of blackmailing the Western democracies. As a rule, anti-Semitism was deemed counterproductive as a propaganda tool, as well as on the official level.

In November 1923, Mussolini declared to Angelo *Sacerdoti, chief rabbi of Rome, that "the Italian government and Italian Fascism have never intended to follow nor are following an anti-Semitic policy". Concerning mixed marriage, however, Mussolini's views were strictly Catholic. In 1929, the year of the Concordat with the Vatican, he forbade his daughter Edda's projected marriage with a Jew as "a real and proper scandal".

[Mussolini and Zionism]

His attitude to Zionism was similarly ambivalent. To Chaim *Weizmann he said, shortly after his accession, "You know, we could build your state en toute pièce" [[as a whole]].

In February 1928, he personally approved and encouraged the creation of the Italy-Palestine Committee, but rebuked the Italian Zionists in November of the same year (probably in deference to the Vatican, with whom he was about to sign the concordat) charging them with disloyalty to Italy: "We therefore ask the Italian Jews: are you a religion or a nation?" (Popolo di Roma, Nov. 29, 1928). Subsequently he resumed his pro-Zionist policy, purely from expansionist (col. 718)

motives, and maintained it until after the conquest of Ethiopia.

[since 1936: Mussolini is adopting anti-Jewish policy]

As long as Mussolini kept an open window on the Western world, he was eager to present an image of Italian Fascism as "Latin" and unprejudiced, in contrast with "savage and barbarous" National-Socialism. Anti-Semitism remained a "German vice" and Hitler "a fanatical idiot". Racialism was "the Aryan fallacy" (Popolo d'Italia, Aug. 4, 1934).

Mussolini soon reversed his position. From 1936 to all intents and purposes he dissociated himself from the Western world and drew near to his derided disciple and future master.

[[By the ugly war in Eritrea (with poison gas, with the final idea of the resurrection of the Roman Empire) England stopped the coal delivery to Italy. At the same time the war in Spain broke out and whole Europe was split. So Italy needed coal from Nazi Germany and Mussolini had no other choice, and together with the war situation in Spain the "axis" between Nazi Germany and Italy was created]].

He blamed "international Jewry" for the sanctions which castigated Italy for its Ethiopian adventure and marked the end of his rapprochement with the Western democracies. As a result, the Italian Jews had become expendable, and could finally be treated in conformity with Fascist latent intolerance toward "alien groups". Undoubtedly, Mussolini also sought to please his new German ally, but the Italian Jews were not sacrificed merely for the sake of Hitler's "brutal friendship". In search of a formula which would bind his own irresolute hands, create an unbridgeable gap between non-Jews and Jews in Italy, and enable him to be rid of all the latter in one stroke, Mussolini resorted to racialism which he now saw as politically profitable.

The Dichiarazione della Razza of July 1938, introducing racial measures in Italy, was largely compiled and edited by himself and due entirely to his initiative; there is no evidence whatsoever that he was subjected at any moment to pressure by Hitler. His acceptance of the racial vice, deliberate and cynical, was rejected by the Italian people in their great numbers. The extent to which he was personally willing to cooperate in the physical destruction of Jews is shown by events occurring during World War II.

[[On 7 September 1938, Mussolini deprived all Italian Jews of their citizenship who had become Italian citizens since 1919. By this there was a big emigration wave of the Italian Jews; see: Yehuda Bauer: American Joint Distribution Committee, chapter 6-11 ]].

In August 1942 the Germans asked the Italians to hand over to the German-Croatian authorities the Jews who had gone into hiding in Dalmatia, in the Italian occupation zone, and a memorandum on the subject, indicating the terrible fate in store for the Jews, was submitted to Mussolini. He scrawled in the margin: "nulla osta" ("no objection").

See also *Italy.

Bibliography

-- R. de Felice: Storia degli ebrei italiani sotto il fascismo (1961), passim
-- L. Salvatorelli and G. Mira: Storia d'Italia nel periodo fascista (1956), index
-- G. Bedarida: Ebrei d'Italia (1950), index
-- L. Poliakov and J. Sabille: Jews under the Italian Occupation (1955), 137ff.
-- L. Fermi: Ebrei d'Italia (1950), index
-- Ch. Weizmann: Trial and Error (1966), index
-- N. Goldmann: Sixty Years of Jewish Life (1970), index
-- E. Ludwig: Talks with Mussolini (1933), 69ff.
-- M. Michaelis, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 4 (1960), 7-41
-- D. Carpi, in: Revista di studi politici internazionali, 28 no. 1 (1961), 35-56
-- idem, in: Moreshet, 10 (1969), 79-88> (col. 719)

Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Mussolini, vol. 12, col. 718	Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Mussolini, vol. 12, col. 719

Ergänzende Meldungen über Mussolini

14 October 2009: First World War: Mussolini was a British agent			14.10.2009: Erster Weltkrieg: Mussolini war britischer Agent
from / aus: 20 minuten online; 14.10.2009; translation by Michael Palomino, http://www.20min.ch/news/dossier/weltkrieg/story/20892759
[Weekly wage of 100 Pound in 1917 - corresponds to 6,000 Pounds today] <Benito Mussolini who was "Duce" of Italy in an alliance with Nazi Germany during Second World War, he was during First World War a British secret agent of British secret service MI5. For this job the latter Italian dictator had really a good salary in 1917: 100 Pounds per week, this reported London newspaper "The Guardian" on Wednesday referring to British historian Peter Martland. Today this sum corresponds to an amount of 6,000 Pounds per week (about 10,400 Swiss Francs). Martland found the indications about Mussolini's wages as an agent in the documents of the gone operations manager for British spies in Rome during First World War, Samuel Hoare. Hoare had written in his memoirs 55 years ago already that the latter leader of Italian Fachists had been a British agent during First World War. The detail about the wages was published in a book by Christopher Andrew about British secret service MI5 now, where Martland had collaborated. First a Socialist, then a "traitor" [first against the war - and then Mussolini founds a war's newspaper in 1914] Mussolini began First World War in 1914 as a Socialist and was officially against any war and belligerency of Italy, but then he changed his position in September 1914 already. Then he founded the newspaper "Il Popolo d'Italia" ["Italian Population"] which made propaganda for an entry into the war of Italy with the allies (Entente), and as a consequence Mussolini was excluded from the political Socialist Party of Italy. His party friends reproached - not without reason as came out now - that he was a bribed traitor of Socialism. (dhr/ddp)>			[Wochenlohn von 100 Pfund im Jahre 1917 - entspricht 6000 Pfund heute] <Benito Mussolini, der Italien als «Duce» im Bündnis mit Nazi-Deutschland in den Zweiten Weltkrieg führte, hat im Ersten Weltkrieg für den britischen Geheimdienst MI5 gearbeitet. Dafür sei der spätere italienische Diktator 1917 geradezu fürstlich bezahlt worden: 100 Pfund die Woche, berichtete die Londoner Zeitung «The Guardian» am Mittwoch unter Berufung auf den britischen Historiker Peter Martland. Das entspricht heute einem Wochenlohn von 6000 Pfund (rund 10 400 Franken). Martland fand die Angaben über Mussolinis Agentenlohn in Unterlagen des verstorbenen Einsatzleiters für britische Spione in Rom im Ersten Weltkrieg, Samuel Hoare. Hoare hatte schon vor 55 Jahren in seinen Memoiren geschrieben, dass der spätere Führer der italienischen Faschisten im Ersten Weltkrieg britischer Agent gewesen sei. Das Detail über die Höhe seiner Bezahlung wurde nun in einem Buch über den britischen Geheimdienst MI5 von Christopher Andrew veröffentlicht, bei dem Martland mitgearbeitet habe. Vom Sozialisten zum «Verräter» [zuerst gegen den Krieg - und dann gründet Mussolini noch 1914 eine Kriegszeitung] Mussolini, der als Sozialist zu Beginn des Krieges im August 1914 offiziell noch gegen die Kriegsteilnahme Italiens eintrat, änderte seine Position schon im September 1914. Er gründete die Zeitung «Il Popolo d'Italia», die für den Kriegseintritt Italiens auf Seite der Entente warb und wurde in der Folge aus der Sozialistischen Partei ausgeschlossen. Seine Parteifreunde warfen ihm vor — nicht zu Unrecht, wie sich erst jetzt herausstellt —, ein von den Westmächten bestochener Verräter des Sozialismus zu sein. (dhr/ddp)>

And there is some other news about the same topic:


13.10.2009: Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini

aus: The Guardian online; 13.10.2009; http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/13/benito-mussolini-recruited-mi5-italy

<Documents reveal Italian dictator got start in politics in 1917 with help of £100 weekly wage from MI5.

Benito Mussolini was paid £100 a week by MI5 to keep Italy in the first world war.

History remembers Benito Mussolini as a founder member of the original Axis of Evil, the Italian dictator who ruled his country with fear and forged a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany. But a previously unknown area of Il Duce's CV has come to light: his brief career as a British agent.

Archived documents have revealed that Mussolini got his start in politics in 1917 with the help of a £100 weekly wage from MI5.

For the British intelligence agency, it must have seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper. He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home.

Mussolini's payments were authorised by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP and MI5's man in Rome, who ran a staff of 100 British intelligence officers in Italy at the time.

Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who discovered details of the deal struck with the future dictator, said: "Britain's least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after revolutionary Russia's pullout from the conflict. Mussolini was paid £100 a week from the autumn of 1917 for at least a year to keep up the pro-war campaigning – equivalent to about £6,000 a week today."

Hoare, later to become Lord Templewood, mentioned the recruitment in memoirs in 1954, but Martland stumbled on details of the payments for the first time while scouring Hoare's papers.

As well as keeping the presses rolling at Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he edited, Mussolini also told Hoare he would send Italian army veterans to beat up peace protesters in Milan, a dry run for his fascist blackshirt units.

"The last thing Britain wanted were pro-peace strikes bringing the factories in Milan to a halt. It was a lot of money to pay a man who was a journalist at the time, but compared to the £4m Britain was spending on the war every day, it was petty cash," said Martland.

"I have no evidence to prove it, but I suspect that Mussolini, who was a noted womaniser, also spent a good deal of the money on his mistresses."

After the armistice, Mussolini began his rise to power, assisted by electoral fraud and blackshirt violence, establishing a fascist dictorship by the mid-1920s.

His colonial ambitions in Africa brought him into contact with his old paymaster again in 1935. Now the British foreign secretary, Hoare signed the Hoare-Laval pact, which gave Italy control over Abyssinia.

"There is no reason to believe the two men were friends, although Hoare did have an enduring love affair with Italy," said Martland, whose research is included in Christopher Andrew's history of MI5, Defence of the Realm, which was published last week.

The unpopularity of the Hoare-Laval pact in Britain forced Hoare to resign. Mussolini, meanwhile, built on his new colonial clout to ally with Hitler, entering the second world war in 1940, this time to fight against the allies.

Deposed following the allied invasion of Italy in 1943, Mussolini was killed with his mistress, Clara Petacci, by Italian partisans while fleeing Italy in an attempt to reach Switzerland two years later.

Martland said: "Mussolini ended his life hung upside down in Milan, but history has not been kind to Hoare either, condemned as an appeaser of fascism alongside Neville Chamberlain.">

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