Holocaust
Period.
[Fascist
propaganda against minority groups - Jews with "alien
character"]
<From *Mussolini's accession to power in 1922 until
late in 1937, the Fascist government did not formally
interfere with the social and legal equality enjoyed by
Italian Jewry.
however, even in its early stages, the Fascist movement
showed evidence of intolerance toward minority groups.
Some of the party leaders, including Mussolini, made
particular mention of the potential danger to national
unity inherent in the "alien character" of the Jews, with
their international, cosmopolitan contacts. When the
Fascist movement acceded to power, the government gave
priority to real or imaginary pragmatic considerations
over ideological principles. The government wanted to make
use of "international Jewry" in order to strengthen its
policies as a whole, and increase its penetration into the
Levant in particular. The Fascist government also sought
to prevent the [[racist Free Mason]] Zionist movement from
being attached solely to British interests in the Middle
East. However, many Fascist leaders feared the fancied
political and economic strength of the Jews.
[Eritrea
occupation and coal dependency from Nazi Germany - copy
of the German Nazi ideology]
The Abyssinian War of 1935, the worsening of relations
between Italy and Britain,
[[The "democratic" Free Mason government of England did
not accept the Italian occupation of Eritrea]]
the attempts at a rapprochement with the Arab nationalists
[[Mussolini tried the coalition with the Arabs against the
big "democratic" colonial powers and culture destroyers
England and France]]
and, above all, the strengthening of links with Nazi
Germany in late 1936, reversed the political
considerations which had been paramount until then.
[[After the Italian annexation of Eritrea the "democratic"
English Free Mason government stopped any coal delivery
for Italy so Mussolini's Italy became absolutely dependent
on Nazi Germany coal which was delivered through "neutral"
Switzerland]].
Italian Fascism then turned to militant anti-Semitism. In
this, as in other matters, the Fascist government was
forced to present a united front with its ally, Germany,
and to foster the ideological program and the
organizational and legislative network of Nazi racial
anti-Semitism. The change of attitude was heralded by a
section of the press which condemned "the Jewish and
[[racist Free Mason]] Zionist danger".
[Anti-Jewish
books since 1937]
Early (col. 1132)
in 1937, Pietro Orano published his book, Gli Ebrei in Italia
[["Hebrew people in Italy"]] stressing the "alien"
character of the Jews.
[[Nationalist definition of a "Jewish nation" made the
Jews an enemy everywhere, with more or less negative
effect depending on the local policy]].
The book sparked off a vociferous anti-Jewish and
anti-Zionist campaign in the Italian press; when the party
newspaper, Il Popolo
d'Italia, joined in, it was clear that the die
had been cast.
Dichiarazione della Razza appeared in
July 1938, the work of a group of scientists, apparently
edited by Mussolini himself. The manifesto asserted the
existence of a "pure Italian race of Aryan stock", into
which the Jews had never integrated, and called for the
implementation of a clear racial policy of a "northern
Aryan character". In (col. 1133)
[Restricting
regulations since September 1938: universities -
expulsion of Jews from since 1919 - anti-Jewish laws]
September [[1938]], the first two laws against Jews were
passed, one forbidding them to study or teach in any
school or institution of higher learning, the other
ordering the deportation of all Jewish aliens who had
found refuge in Italy after 1919 [[this hit above all Jews
from eastern Europe]]. A "department for demography and
race" was established to coordinate the policy of racial
discrimination in all branches of the government, and to
conduct a census of Jews living in the country.
On October 7, the Supreme Council of the Fascist Party
determined the principles on which detailed anti-Jewish
legislation was to be based. This legislation, passed on
Nov. 17, 1938, (col. 1134)
included prohibitions on marriages between Jews and Aryans
and decreed severe civil and economic restrictions, such
as interdictions against Jews serving in the army, working
in the government, municipal service, or in any other
public institution, employing Aryan servants, and the
confiscation of Jewish property. The law defined a member
of the "Jewish race" as a person with one Jewish parent
but exempted Jews in special categories, such as
recipients of military awards and those who were wounded
in World War I. The restrictions gradually grew more
severe as decrees or mere instructions from the party
secretary were enacted and executed. Jews were forbidden
to own radio sets, visit holiday resorts, enter public
libraries, publish newspapers, or be partners in business
firms with "Aryan" Italians.
The opening of the racial campaign severely affected the
small Jewish community, not only from the economic point
of view but also ethically and organizationally. Many
Jews, who from birth were accustomed to complete social
equality and who regarded themselves as Italians in every
sense, found it hard to understand the meaning of the
discrimination and persecution to which they were now
subjected. Some were unable to stand the test, and tried
to find a way out by conversion to Christianity.
[Conversion
movement, emigration movement - numbers - cultural life]
In 1938-39, 3,910 cases of apostasy were recorded, as
against 101 in the previous two years. Over 5,000 others
preferred to emigrate. The Jewish community in Italy,
which according to the official census of 1931 numbered
47,485 persons, was reduced by 1939 to 35,156 persons, or
0.8% of the total population. Nevertheless, Jewish
institutions managed to surmount the crisis, organized
themselves for efficient action, gave help to the needy
and refugees, and established Jewish elementary and high
schools.
[1940-1945:
43 concentration camps - work legions - parted Italy
since 1943 - confiscations and deportations in Nazi
occupied northern Italy]
Italy's entry into World War II as Germany's ally (June
10, 1940 [[against France]]) caused no drastic change in
the status of most of the Jews. In the early months of the
war, 43 concentration camps were set up in Italy for enemy
aliens, and several thousand Jews of foreign nationality
as well as about 200 Italian Jews were interned; however,
conditions in the camps were, on the whole, bearable. In
May 1942 the government decreed that all the Jewish
internees would be mobilized into special work legions in
place of military service. This order was only partially
carried out, and the number of Jews actually mobilized did
not exceed 2,000 men.
The fall of the Fascist regime on July 25 and Italy's
surrender on Sept. 8, 1943 were turning points. The county
was cut in two, with the south in the hands of the allies,
while central and northern Italy were in German hands.
(col. 1135)
The Italian Jewish community, which for historical reasons
was concentrated in Rome and in the north, found itself in
the German-occupied area, i.e., the Fascist protectorate
called the Italian Socialist Republic, headed by
Mussolini. Within an extremely short period of time, these
Jews passed from a regime of civil and economic
discrimination (September 1938-July 1943), through a brief
period of liberty and equality (July 25-Sept. 8, 1943), to
find themselves victims of the horrors of the "*Final
Solution", together with thousands of Jewish refugees from
France and Yugoslavia who had escaped into Italy during
the early years of the war.
At first, the authorities in the Italian Socialist
Republic contented themselves with a declaration of
principles which defined members of the "Jewish race" as
aliens and, for the period of the war, as members of an
enemy nation (Nov. 14, 1943). This was followed by an
order issued by the Ministry of the Interior that all Jews
without exception should be interned in special
concentration camps and all Jewish property confiscated
(Nov. 30, 1943). In the meantime the occupation
authorities, through Theodor Dannecker, Eichmann's
emissary from the *RSHA's IVB4 office
[[Reichssicherheitshauptamt]], or through *SS and *Gestapo
officers, completely took over the administration of the
move to exterminate Italian Jewry.
When the German occupation began, the first outbreaks of
violence occurred against Jews in Merano (Sept. 16, 1943),
and around Lake Maggiore (Sept. 22, 1943). With a detailed
list of names and with the assistance of the Fascist armed
forces, the Germans hunted out Jews in the principal
towns. In Rome, the Germans surrounded the Jewish quarter
and on a single day (October 16) arrested over 1,000
persons, who were dispatched directly to *Auschwitz;
immediately on arrival (October 22 or 23) most of them
were murdered [[resp. from Auschwitz brought to the tunnel
systems with mass death by cold and hunger]]. Similar Aktionen were held in
Trieste (October 9), Genoa (November 3), Florence
(November 6), Milan (November 8), Venice (November 9), and
Ferrara (November 14).
Jews who were caught were at first imprisoned in local
jails and later sent to special concentration camps set up
in northern Italy, especially in *Fossoli and Bolzano.
When the camps were full, the inmates were sent on to
extermination camps, mainly to Auschwitz [[resp. from
Auschwitz to tunnel systems]]. It is hard to estimate the
exact number of Jews arrested in this early stage, but it
may be as many as half the total number of Jews deported
from Italy during the German occupation. (col. 1136)
[Italian
Jewry underground]
A second stage began toward the end of 1943 when Jewish
life in Italy went underground and organized Jewish public
worship became impossible in the country for the first
time in 20 centuries. Numerous Jews managed to cross the
border into Switzerland; others found their way through
the front line, in spite of many obstacles, to southern
Italy, or joined the groups of anti-Fascist partisans in
the mountains. However, the great majority preferred to
seek sanctuary among the Italian population, in the homes
of "Aryan" acquaintances, among peasants and the working
classes, and even in Catholic religious institutions.
Manhunts were, however, regularly carried out by the
German and Fascist police, with the concomitant danger of
betrayal by Fascist or avaricious citizens, and the
constant need to seek new shelter. However, at the hour of
greatest danger, many discovered that the greater part of
the Italian people were willing to help the persecuted for
humanitarian reasons alone, and despite the heavy
penalties that they risked by their actions.
[Jewish
partisans in Italy]
Of the approximately 2,000 Jews who fought against the
German and Fascist forces in the ranks of the partisans,
over 100 fell in battle, and five won the highest medals
for bravery. Others served in the Allied armies or
intelligence services.
[General
number of Jewish victims in Italy 1940-1945]
The number of Jewish victims in Italy is estimated at
about 7,750 out of a Jewish population of about 35,000 at
the beginning of the German occupation.
[D.C.]
Italian Jewry's losses resulting from Fascist persecutions
can be estimated at about 40%:
-- by deportations (7,749 dead out of 8,360 deportees,
around 16% of the Jewish population in 1938)
-- conversion to other religions (5,705 cases during the
period 1938-43, around 12%)
-- and emigration (approximately 6,000 persons, around
13%).
Indirect consequences of the persecutions were a drastic
decline in the birth and marriage rates, which further
aggravated the already precarious demographic (col. 1137)
conditions of Italian Jewry. In the course of the
persecutions, the small communities in particular, which
were already declining in numbers, suffered severely. At
the end of World War II, 29,117 Jews remained in Italy,
and a further 26,300 refugees originating mainly from
central and eastern Europe were added to this number.
Italy was a main gathering place for the refugees en route
to Palestine and the great majority later reached
Palestine, legally or illegally.
See *Berihah (Beriḥah); "*Illegal" Immigration.>
(col. 1138)
[[During the German Nazi occupation of Northern Italy also
lots of Italian forced laborers and all north Italian
industry were dismantled and brought to Germany (the
"Reich"). These transports were also performed through
"neutral" Switzerland, and the Swiss railway lines were
protected by Swiss military for this project. The Swiss
government helped the Nazis very well. But when the
frontier came to Switzerland the Swiss Nazi government
blocked the border for the allied troops so the allied
troops could not pass through Switzerland to reach
Southern Germany. So, the Swiss government did not only
admit lots of Jewish refugees which was good news for the
censored press in Switzerland, but the Swiss Nazi
government helped the Nazi regime at Berlin very much up
to the end to destroy Italy. This is missing in the
article...]]
Encyclopaedia Judaica
