Language:
English
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Modern Judaism
Angaben zur Quelle:
28,3 (2008) 306-326
Keywords:
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Jews History 1800-2000
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Reflects on why Mussolini's regime, after 15 years in power, abruptly decided to turn to antisemitism, and how this decision was ideologically legitimated. Focuses on the internal Italian motives for this change, rather than the much discussed aspiration of an alliance with Nazi Germany. In the early 1930s the fascist regime became more consensual and attracted many thousands of new supporters. The radical nationalism in its ideology superseded the populism of early fascism; anti-Zionism and the image of "world Jewry" as the enemy of Italian imperialism appeared in fascist rhetoric. In 1937 Mussolini, confronted with the failure of social reform, resorted to anti-bourgeois rhetoric, in which Jews were identified with the bourgeoisie. The Italians reacted to the racial laws of 1938-39 with indifference and a measure of opportunism, and did not hesitate to take former Jewish properties and posts. Intellectuals who had never been antisemitic contributed to the forging of fascist antisemitism. After the war, many former fascist intellectuals were "redeemed" and "reborn" as liberals, communists, etc., and fascist policy toward the Jews was a topic few wanted to raise. Thus, the plight of Italian Jews in 1938-45 was neglected; the Jews were stripped of their particularity and melded into a more inclusive category of victims of fascism.
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