Newsgroup: it.cultura.ebraica
Titolo: L'Olocausto in Italia

Ogni tanto si discute dell'antisemitismo fascista: era insito
nell'ideologia del regime o frutto della maligna influenza nazista?
Per dare una risposta autorevole riporto la sezione "Holocaust Period"
della voce "Italy" dell'Encyclopaedia Judaica. Essa mostra che
l'antisemitismo non era estraneo al regime, anche se fu tenuto al
guinzaglio fino al 1938; per quanto riguarda la complicità del regime
con la "Soluzione Finale", essa si concretizzò dopo la fondazione della
Repubblica di Salò.
Non che questo, a mio avviso, permetta di scaricare le responsabilità
sulla Germania nazista, visto che senza gli elenchi degli Ebrei censiti
dal Regime, e senza l'aiuto delle forze fasciste, molti rastrellamenti
avrebbero fatto meno vittime.
Ciao.
Holocaust Period
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 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. The
Abyssinian War of 1935, the worsening of relations between Italy and
Britain, the attempts at a rapprochement with the Arab nationalists,
and, above all, the strengthening of links with Nazi Germany in late
1936, reversed the political considerations which had been paramount
until then.
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 Zionist danger." Early in 1937, Pietro Orano
published his book, Gli Ebrei in Italia, stressing the "alien" character
of the Jews. 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 September,
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. 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, 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. 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.
Italy's entry into World War II as Germany's ally (June 10, 1940) 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 country was cut in two, with the south
in the hands of the allies, while central and northern Italy were in
German hands.
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, 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. 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. 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.
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 concomittant 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.
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. 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.
[Daniel Carpi]
--
ICQ# 193805427 - bSanhedrin 34b - Gregorius Magnus (1:7:8)
Chaim Potok: "We offer ourselves grim consolation: all the wars have
cost us less than three days at Auschwitz".
---
Per il manifesto, le FAQ ed un'interfaccia Web visita 
http://www.menorah.it/

 Repubblica di Salò.
Per un approfondimento vi consiglio la lettura di "Gli ebrei nell'italia 
fascista" di Michele Sarfatti, che analizza la questione al microscopio 
e mostra come il razzismo (al quale si somma, a partire dal 1929, il 
cattolicesimo integralista) fosse profondamente connaturato alla natura 
del regime da ben prima del 1938. Quella dei fascisti buoni costretti a 
perseguitare gli ebrei dai nazisti cattivi è una fesseria purtroppo 
tornata in auge recentemente grazie a quel revisionismo da Bar Sport che 
ha partorito perle come "Mussolini non ha mai ucciso nessuno" (scusa, 
Ale :))
Saluti,
-- 
Cris Carampa (
spamto:cri...@operamail.com
)
"Welcome to the new world order
  Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest
  No home no job no peace no rest" (Bruce Springsteen)


 Ale :))
fai bene a scusarti.
ogni volta che leggo 'sta roba vomito per tre giorni.
A.
