Jews and Africans , signed by King
Victor Emmanuel III,
Benito Mussolini,
Galeazzo Ciano,
Paolo Thaon di Revel, and
Arrigo Solmi (17 November 1938) For a significant time Mussolini as leader of the Fascist movement considered Italian Jews to be Italians, but this belief may have been influenced more by his anti-clericalism and the general mood of Italy at the time, which denounced the abusive treatment of the Jews in the
Roman Ghetto by the
Papal States until the
Unification of Italy. In the early 1920s, Mussolini published an article which stated that Fascism would never elevate a "
Jewish Question" and that "Italy knows no antisemitism and we believe that it will never know it" and then elaborated "let us hope that
Italian Jews will continue to be sensible enough so as not to give rise to antisemitism in the only country where it has never existed". In 1932 during a conversation with
Emil Ludwig, Mussolini described antisemitism as a "
German vice" and stated: "There was 'no Jewish Question' in Italy and could not be one in a country with a healthy system of government". On several occasions, Mussolini spoke positively about Jews and the
Zionist movement. Mussolini originally distinguished his position Hitler's fanatical racism while affirming that he himself was a
Zionist. More broadly, he even proposed building a
mosque in
Rome as a sign that
Italy was the "Protector of Islam" in
colonial Africa, a move blocked by a horrified
Pope Pius XI. There were however some fascists,
Roberto Farinacci and
Giovanni Preziosi being prime examples, who held fringe and extremely racist views before
Fascist Italy formed its alliance with
Nazi Germany. Preziosi was the first to publish an Italian edition of the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in 1921, which was published almost simultaneously with a version issued by
Umberto Benigni in supplements to
Fede e Ragione. However, the book had little impact until the mid-1930s. One of Mussolini's mistresses,
Margherita Sarfatti, was Jewish. There were even some Jewish members in the
National Fascist Party (PNF), such as
Ettore Ovazza, who founded the Jewish Fascist paper
La Nostra Bandiera in 1935. Mussolini once declared "Anti-Semitism does not exist in Italy... Italians of Jewish birth have shown themselves good citizens and they fought bravely in [World War I]." Despite the presence of a Fascist regime, some Jewish refugees considered Italy a safe haven in the first half of the 1930s. During that period, the country hosted up to 11,000 persecuted Jews, including 2,806 Jews who were of
German descent. However, as early as 1934, Jewish personnel were removed from institutions and state organizations. Between 1936 and 1938, the
Fascist regime endorsed antisemitic propaganda, which was mounting in the press and even in graffiti. Equally, scholars of
eugenetics,
statistics,
anthropology, and
demographics began to outline racist theories. Mussolini had held antisemitic beliefs prior to becoming a fascist, such as in a 1908 essay on the topic of Nietzsche's Übermensch, in which Mussolini condemned "pallid Judeans" for "wrecking" the
Roman Empire; and in 1913 he again wrote about the Jews having caused havoc in
ancient Rome. Although Mussolini held these negative attitudes, he was aware that
Italian Jews were a deeply integrated and small community in Italy and by and large, they were favourably perceived in Italy because they valiantly fought for Italy during World War I. Of the 117 original members of the
Fasci Italiani di Combattimento founded on 23 March 1919, five were Jewish. Since the movement's early years, there were a small number of prominent openly antisemitic fascists such as
Roberto Farinacci. There were also prominent fascists who completely rejected antisemitism, such as
Italo Balbo, who lived in
Ferrara, which had a substantial Jewish community that was accepted, and as a result, antisemitic incidents were rare in the city. In response to his observation that
a large number of the Bolsheviks were Jews as well as claims that the Bolsheviks and Germany (the nation that Italy fought against during
World War I) were politically connected, Mussolini made antisemitic statements involving the Bolshevik-German connection as being an "unholy alliance between
Hindenburg and the
synagogue". Mussolini came to believe rumours that Bolshevik leader
Vladimir Lenin was of Jewish descent.
Mussolini's statement about a
Jewish–Bolshevik–plutocratic connection and the existence of an
international Jewish conspiracy was met with opposition in the Fascist movement, resulting in Mussolini responding to this opposition amongst his supporters by abandoning this stance shortly afterwards in 1919. One of the Jewish financial supporters of the fascist movement was Toeplitz, whom Mussolini had earlier accused of being a traitor during
World War I. Another prominent Jewish Italian fascist was
Ettore Ovazza, who was a staunch Italian nationalist and an opponent of Zionism in Italy. 230 Italian Jews took part in the fascists' March on Rome in 1922. The relations between the Fascist regime and Italian Jews was affected by
Fascist Italy's accommodation of the Catholic Church from 1929 onwards, in which Mussolini sought to settle the long-standing "
Roman Question" with the
Holy See by removing previous provisions of equality of faiths and impose
state support of the supremacy of
Roman Catholicism in Fascist Italy in order to appease
the Vatican. In 1928, frustration with Zionism arose in the regime and Mussolini addressed the Italian Zionist Congress by publicly posing a question to Italian Jews about their self-identity: "Are you a religion or are you a nation?". Zionist and
anti-Zionist Jews responded, the anti-Zionist Jews professed that they were religious Jews as part of the Italian nation, while the Zionist Jews declared that there was no dispute between the Zionist movement and the Italian nation and they also said that all Italian Jews held patriotic respect for Italy. Upon these responses arriving, Mussolini declared that these revealed that a Jewish problem existed in terms of Jewish identity in Italy as a result of conflicting national loyalties amongst Zionist Jews by saying: At that time, Italian fascists were not wholly opposed to Zionism; instead, they took an instrumental approach to it. They were hostile to it when it caused conflicts with Italy's Catholic community and they were also hostile to some Zionists when they believed that the latter were supporting British interests, but they were favourable to Zionists who opposed the British and sought Italy's support and protection. In 1929, Mussolini acknowledged the contributions which Italian Jews had made to Italian society, despite their minority status, and he believed that
Jewish culture was Mediterranean, aligning his early opinion of Italian Jews with his early
Mediterraneanist perspective. He also argued that
Italian Jews were natives to Italy, as
they had been living in the Italian Peninsula since
Roman times. In the early 1930s, Mussolini held discussions with Zionist leadership figures over proposals to encourage the emigration of Italian Jews to the mandate of Palestine, as Mussolini hoped that the presence of pro-Italian Jews in the region would weaken pro-British sentiment and potentially overturn the British mandate. At the 1934
Fascist International Congress, the issue of
antisemitism was debated amongst
various European Fascist parties, with some being more favourable to it, and others being less favourable. Two final compromises were adopted, resulting in the official stance of the Fascist International: [T]he
Jewish question cannot be converted into a universal campaign of hatred against the
Jews [...] Considering that in many places certain groups of Jews are installed in conquered countries, exercising in an open and
occult manner an influence injurious to the material and moral interests of the country which harbors them, constituting a sort of
state within a state, profiting by all benefits and refusing all duties, considering that they have furnished and are inclined to furnish, elements conducive to international revolution which would be destructive to the idea of
patriotism and
Christian civilization, the Conference denounces the nefarious action of these elements and is ready to combat them. At the
1934 Montreux Fascist conference which was chaired by the Italian-led ''Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalita di Roma'' (CAUR) that sought to found a Fascist International, the issue of antisemitism was debated about by various fascist parties, with some of them being more favourable to it and others being less favourable to it. Two final compromises were adopted, creating the official stance of the Fascist International: In a discussion with the President of the
World Zionist Organization Chaim Weizmann over requests for Italy to provide refuge for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, Mussolini agreed that he would accept Jewish refugees but warned Weizmann about the consequences if such Jews harmed Italy by saying: Italian fascism's attitudes towards Zionism and Jews, in general, underwent a shift in response to the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War. At the outset of the war, Mussolini sought to gain favourable support for Italy's intervention in Ethiopia and appealed to Zionists by offering them a solution to the Jewish question, in which Italy would set aside a certain amount of territory from
conquered Ethiopia to be a
homeland for the Jewish people. Mussolini claimed that territory from conquered Ethiopia would make an ideal homeland for the Jews, noting that there were large numbers of
Falasha already living there who identified as Jews. However, Zionist leaders rejected this proposal. Mussolini said: In 1936, the Fascist regime began to promote
racial antisemitism and Mussolini claimed that
international Jewry had sided with the
United Kingdom against Fascist Italy during the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Historian
Renzo De Felice believed that the fascist regime's pursuit of an alliance with Nazi Germany that began in 1936 explains the adoption of antisemitism as a pragmatic component of the pursuit of that alliance. The Fascist regime used antisemitic propaganda for the
Spanish Civil War from 1937 to 1938 that emphasized that Italy was supporting the
Nationalist faction against a "
Jewish International". The first and most important of the Racial Laws was the Regio Decreto 17 Novembre 1938, Nr. 1728. It restricted the civil rights of
Italian Jews, banned books written by Jewish authors, and excluded Jews from public offices and higher education. The "Manifesto of Race", published in July 1938, declared the
Italians to be descendants of the
Aryan race. '' children pledge allegiance to the
National Fascist Party (1922). The final decision about the Racial Laws was made during the meeting of the
Grand Council of Fascism (
Gran Consiglio del Fascismo), which took place on the night between 6 and 7 of October 1938 in
Rome,
Palazzo Venezia. Not all Italian Fascists supported discrimination: while the pro-German, anti-Jewish
Roberto Farinacci and
Giovanni Preziosi strongly pushed for them,
Italo Balbo and
Dino Grandi strongly opposed the Racial Laws. Balbo, in particular, regarded antisemitism as having nothing to do with fascism and staunchly opposed the antisemitic laws. While some scholars argue that this was an attempt by Mussolini to placate
Adolf Hitler, who increasingly exerted influence over Mussolini in the late 1930s, and is speculated to have pressured him to increase the racial discrimination and persecution of Jews in the Kingdom of Italy, others believe that it reflected sentiments long entrenched not just in Fascist political philosophy but also in the teachings of the
post-Tridentine Catholic Church, which remained a powerful cultural force in Mussolini's Fascist regime, representing a uniquely Italian flavour of
antisemitism in which Jews were seen as an obstacle to the
Fascist transformation of Italian society due to being bound to what Mussolini saw as decadent
liberal democracies. According to the diaries which were written by his mistress,
Clara Petacci, Mussolini purportedly boasted about being racist from the beginning, and that his racism was not because of Hitler's influence: I was already a racist in 1921. I don't know how they can think that I imitate Hitler. They make me laugh. Mussolini continued regarding the new anti-semitic policies: These disgusting Jews, we must destroy them all. I will make a massacre as the Turks have done. They are carrion, enemies and cowards.
Il Tevere, an Italian Fascist newspaper founded by Mussolini and directed by
Telesio Interlandi, frequently promoted anti-Semitism and railed against the
alleged threat of "international Jewry". It was a frequent source of praise for Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic policies until its disbandment after the
fall of Mussolini and the Fascist regime on 25 July 1943.
Slavs '' ("National Home") in Trieste, 13 July 1920. In the 1920s, Italian Fascists targeted
Yugoslavs, especially
Serbs and
Slovenes. They accused Serbs of having "
atavistic impulses" and they claimed that the Yugoslavs were conspiring together on behalf of "Grand Orient masonry and its funds". One
anti-Semitic claim was that Serbs were part of a "
social-democratic,
masonic Jewish internationalist plot".
Benito Mussolini considered the
Slavic race inferior and barbaric. He identified the Yugoslavs (
Croats) as a threat to Italy and viewed them as
competitors over the region of Dalmatia, which was claimed by Italy, and claimed that the threat rallied Italians together at the end of
World War I: "The danger of seeing the Jugo-Slavians settle along the whole Adriatic shore had caused a bringing together in Rome of the cream of our unhappy regions. Students, professors, workmen, citizens—representative men—were entreating the ministers and the professional politicians". In September 1920, Benito Mussolini stated: As noted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mussolini's government,
Galeazzo Ciano, when describing a meeting with the secretary general of the Fascist party who wanted an Italian army to kill all Slovenes: The Province of Ljubljana saw the deportation of 25,000 people, which equaled 7.5% of its total population. The operation, one of the most drastic in Europe, filled up
Italian concentration camps on the island of Rab, in
Gonars, Monigo (
Treviso),
Renicci d'Anghiari,
Chiesanuova, as well as other concentration camps that were located elsewhere.
Mario Roatta's "Circular 3C" (
Circolare 3C), tantamount to a declaration of war on the
Slovene civilian population, involved him in
war crimes while he was the commander of the
2nd Army in the
Province of Ljubljana. In 1942, the Italians put the
barbed wire fence (which is now the
Trail of Remembrance and Comradeship) around Ljubljana in order to prevent communication between the
Liberation Front in the city and the
partisans in the surrounding countryside. On 25 February 1942, only two days after the
Italian Fascist regime established the
Gonars concentration camp the first transport of 5,343 internees (1,643 of whom were children) arrived at the
Rab concentration camp which was already overpopulated at the time, from the Province of Ljubljana itself as well as another
Italian concentration camp in Monigo (near
Treviso). The Italian violence against the Slovene civilian population easily matched the German violence against Serbs, with frequent summary executions of Slovenes committed on the orders of Mussolini and other Fascist officials. For every major military operation, Roatta issued additional special instructions, including one that the orders must be "carried out most energetically and without any false compassion". One of Roatta's soldiers wrote home on 1 July 1942: "We have destroyed everything from top to bottom without sparing the innocent. We kill entire families every night, beating them to death or shooting them." After the war Roatta was on a list of the most wanted
Italian war criminals who were indicted by Yugoslavia and other countries, but Italy never saw anything like the
Nuremberg trials because at the beginning of the
Cold War, the British government believed that
Pietro Badoglio, who was also on the list, would guarantee the existence of an
anti-communist post-war Italy.
Other groups During a 1921 speech in
Bologna, Mussolini stated that "Fascism was born... out of a profound, perennial need of this our
Aryan race". Mussolini was concerned about the alleged low birth rate of the
White race in contrast to the allegedly higher birth rates of the
Negroid (African) and
Mongoloid (Asian) races. In 1928 he talked about the
alleged high birth-rate of asians and blacks in the United States, and stated that they had surpassed the population of
White Americans in certain areas, such as
Harlem in
New York City. He described their greater racial consciousness in contrast to that of White Americans as contributing to their growing strength. During the
Great Depression, Mussolini again expressed his alarm about the low birth rate among Whites, saying: "The singular, enormous problem is the destiny of the white race. Europe is truly towards the end of its destiny as the leader of
civilization." During and after the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War, thousands of
Italian settlers flooded into
Italian East Africa, prompting Mussolini to implement a variety of racist laws designed to showcase his vision of an
ideal Fascist society. These were unique in their extent and comprehensiveness at attempting to enforce
White supremacy even relative to other
European colonies, which generally maintained much more informal systems of
racial segregation. Mussolini took a vested interest in micromanaging these regulations, at one point reading a report of a non-commissioned officer playing cards with a native Eritrean and angrily telegraphing the governor of Eritrea to complain about the incident and demanding stricter enforcement of racial segregation. Enforcement of these laws was very difficult for local authorities, however, in part due to the impermanent presence of many Italians in the colony, who had no plans to stay in East Africa in the long term and only briefly resided there for financial opportunities. As such, many Italian settlers ignored these laws due to a variety of factors; some Italians saw short-term economic gain in violating laws restricting personal and commercial relations between settlers and Africans, while others simply did not share Mussolini's political stance. ==References==