Language:
English
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Yad Vashem Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
36,1 (2008) 111-143
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Jews History 1945-
Abstract:
In post-fascist Italy great efforts were made to absolve Italy as a state and the Italian people of responsibility for the anti-Jewish legislation and politics of 1938-45. A myth was created according to which it was the Germans who imposed the racial legislation on Italy, while the Italians, excluding a few fascist fanatics, abhorred racism, sabotaged official anti-Jewish measures, and rescued Jews. According to the myth, antisemitism was alien to the deeply Christian and humanist Italian culture. No attempts were made to analyze the Italian anti-Jewish policies of the fascist period. Shows that, beside cultural figures and institutions, it was the government of post-fascist Italy, and above all the Foreign Ministry, which propagated this myth. In doing so, the Foreign Ministry pursued its own political goals, which included avoiding a punitive peace for Italy at the forthcoming peace conference. While playing a "Jewish card", the Foreign Ministry exaggerated the political influence exerted by Jewish bodies, inspired by the fascist-era myth of omnipotent Jewry. Postwar Italian Jewry, concerned with the reinstating of their rights and other problems, contributed no less to this myth.
Note:
English and Hebrew.
URL:
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