General Inspectorate for the Race

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The General Inspectorate for Race ( Italian Ispettorato generale per la razza ) was a racial political institution of the Italian Social Republic created in 1944 .

history

The Inspectorate General represented the last act of anti-Semitic policy in Italy, which began with the passage of the Italian Racial Laws in 1938. It was established on April 18, 1944 by Benito Mussolini by decree No. 171 with its seat in Desenzano del Garda .

prehistory

On March 12, 1944, Giovanni Preziosi had already been entrusted with the office of Inspector General at a meeting of the Council of Ministers at Mussolini's proposal. The anti-Semite Preziosi had been concerned with race issues since the 1920s, but played only a subordinate role in Italian fascism until Mussolini was overthrown in July 1943 . It was not until the autumn of 1943 that Preziosi gained influence in the new Italian Social Republic, thanks in part to the connections he had built with National Socialist circles after the Duce was overthrown in his voluntarily chosen exile in Germany . Even though he had personal contacts with Alfred Rosenberg and Heinrich Himmler , he was unable to establish himself as a confidante of the Nazis who had more weighty and more moderate people in their sights.

According to Preziosi, the RSI should not accept any further compromises in its anti-Semitic policy, which had characterized the anti-Jewish policy of fascist Italy until the fall of Mussolini. He saw himself as the antithesis of moderate fascism, as embodied in his eyes by Giuseppe Bottai , Luigi Federzoni and, after July 25, 1943, by Giovanni Gentile , Guido Buffarini-Guidi and Alessandro Pavolini .

Preziosis Anti-Semitism pursued two tasks, a theoretical-ideological one, with which the role of Judaism and its destructive effect on society should be clarified, and a practical-organizational task, which consisted in the individualization, arrest and "annihilation" of the Jews.

When the new republican government was formed in the autumn of 1943, Preziosi was not taken into account. The attempt to draw attention to the anti-Semitic and anti- Masonic stance of Ministers Buffarini-Guidi and Pavolini , which he considered to be lax , and thus to exert pressure on Mussolini and thus force a government reshuffle, failed at the beginning of January 1944 , based on contributions broadcast by the Reichsender München .

In a personal letter to Mussolini on January 31, 1944, Preziosi emphasized that the real causes that led to the fall of the Duce lay in the unrealized solution to the Jewish question and Freemasonry both at the state level and within the National Fascist Party . He also sent the letter to Hitler for information . According to research, it was this letter that prompted Mussolini to establish a new office for racial issues.

Officially, the new institution appeared for the first time in the minutes of the Council of Ministers meeting of February 12, 1944, in which the establishment of such an office on the proposal of the Duce received the appropriate approval. The new office was supposed to take over the Jewish departments of the DemoRazza , which was subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior, and the research institutions belonging to the Ministry of Culture.

On March 8, a few days before his appointment as Inspector General, Preziosi sent a telegram to State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry Gustav Adolf Steengracht von Moyland, on the one hand pointing out the establishment of the new office and on the other hand working closely with the relevant Germans Authorities announced.

Four days after Preziosi was entrusted with the office, the news was officially announced on March 16 by the Stefani news agency.

Establishment of the inspectorate

In March 1944, the competencies of the new office were defined in a series of meetings with Interior Minister Buffarini-Guidi. The DemoRazza was practically dissolved, the Ministry of the Interior retained the registration office, while all race questions were transferred to the new office. Buffarini-Guidi, however, resisted handing over the staff and the archive to his adversary Preziosi and reserved his ministry to continue to be responsible for child and maternity matters. There were also disputes over jurisdiction with the Ministry of Finance because of the Jewish assets that were confiscated and managed by the EGELI .

After the official handover of the inspectorate to Preziosi on April 28th, the latter began to assemble the staff of the office.

Among the staff selected by Preziosi was the former Fascist Party Secretary of Naples Francesco Saverio Siniscalchi, who was appointed Director General and, at the time of the appointment, was Deputy Commander of the Tagliamento Battalion. The lawyer Carlo Alliney, who made a career as a judge after 1946, was entrusted with drafting the new racial laws and was appointed head of the inspectorate's cabinet. Giovanni Pestalozza, former PNF secretary of Savona and after September 8, 1943 worked as an informant for the SS in the persecution of the Jews, was entrusted with the office of special secretary. Ettore Martinoli , who previously worked at the Center for Jewish Issues in Trieste , was appointed head of the research and propaganda department . In the spring of 1944, the inspectorate comprised around 20 people.

tasks

Preziosi planned to set up the inspectorate based on the model of the NSDAP's Office of Racial Policy . In addition to the headquarters in Desenzano, for which he planned 88 employees, field offices were also to be set up in the regions and provinces, which were to control the race offices in the communities.

The inspectorate was divided into seven sections:

  • Personnel, general duties, liaison office with ministries and other institutions
  • legislation
  • Determination of race, control of race regulations, statistics
  • Intelligence services, in particular relating to freemasonry
  • Finances, control of EGELI with regard to the confiscated Jewish property
  • Research, particularly on racial and Jewish issues
  • Propaganda and press, disclosure of international Jewry in the political, financial, cultural and artistic fields. Promote racial education in schools.

meaning

The General Inspectorate for the Race was of minor importance because of its late inauguration and because of the plight in which the republican-fascist puppet state RSI acted from the beginning. In addition, within the fascist power apparatus, the contrasts with other party sizes caused by the fanaticism and preciosis had a negative effect. The German Consul General in Rome, Eitel Friedrich Moellhausen, described him as dangerous, mentally unbalanced, as a psychopath who should be admitted to the mental hospital, and praised Buffarini-Guidi, who offered him contractions in his efforts as inspector general for the breed.

Preziosi headed an organ that ostensibly determined the Jewish policy in the RSI and which was directly dependent on Mussolini. In truth, however, the Germans acted largely independently in their repressive policies towards the Jews. When inauguration in the spring of 1944, practically most of the Jews in Northern Italy had already been deported to concentration camps . The inspectorate was thus overshadowed by the German policy of persecution in Italy, for which Theodor Dannecker and later Friedrich Boßhammer were initially responsible as advisors to Jews .

During its period of existence, the General Inspectorate worked out a total of six bills relating in particular to the racial laws, but also to Freemasonry and the organization of the office. Only the last one regarding the structure of the inspectorate was passed after major changes at the beginning of 1945. The draft law drafted by Carlo Alliney and presented in May 1944 for a new racial law based on biological-racist criteria, comprising twelve articles, was judged by Interior Minister Buffarini-Guidi to be unrealistic. A criticism that Mussolini shared as to why the law was never passed.

reception

For a long time historians had only marginally researched the General Inspectorate for the Race. It was Renzo De Felice who elaborated on this in 1961 in his work on the history of Italian Jews during fascism. But it was not until the 2000s that research began to deal specifically with Giovanni Preziosi and later with the General Inspectorate. The increased interest in this facility was also shown in the installation of a memorial plaque on the former official building on the corner between Via Dal Mol and Via Pasubio in Desenzano del Garda in 2005. In Desenzano in January 2007, a meeting of historians took place before the inspectorate and whose contributions have been published.

literature

  • Gaetano Paolo Agnini: La repubblica nera: la RSI a Desenzano, a Brescia e nel basso Garda: responsabilità dell'Italia fascista e della Repubblica sociale italiana nel processo persecutorio degli ebrei e nei venti mesi di gestione della “Piccola Italia”. Gam Editrice, Rudiano 2007, ISBN 978-88-89044-26-8 .
  • Renzo De Felice: Storia degli ebrei italiani sotto il fascismo. Einaudi, Turin 1961.
  • Francesco Germinario: Antisemitismo senza ebrei. I temi dell'attività pubblicistica dell'ultimo Giovanni Preziosi (1943–1945). In: Michele Sarfatti (ed.): La Repubblica sociale italiana a Desenzano: Preziosi e l'Ispettorato generale per la razza. La Giuntina, Florence 2008, ISBN 978-88-8057-301-2 .
  • Luca Menconi: Giovanni Preziosi e “La vita italiana”: biografia politica e intellettuale. Aracne, Canterano 2018, ISBN 978-88-255-0575-7 .
  • Liliana Picciotto : La macchina antiebraica della RSI e l'Ispettore generale per la razza Giovanni Preziosi. In: Michele Sarfatti (ed.): La Repubblica sociale italiana a Desenzano: Preziosi e l'Ispettorato generale per la razza. La Giuntina, Florence 2008, ISBN 978-88-8057-301-2 .
  • Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. In: Michele Sarfatti (ed.): La Repubblica sociale italiana a Desenzano: Preziosi e l'Ispettorato generale per la razza. La Giuntina, Florence 2008, ISBN 978-88-8057-301-2 .
  • Michele Sarfatti: Le leggi antiebraiche proposte nel 1944 da Giovanni Preziosi. In: Michele Sarfatti (ed.): La Repubblica sociale italiana a Desenzano: Preziosi e l'Ispettorato generale per la razza. La Giuntina, Florence 2008, ISBN 978-88-8057-301-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liliana Picciotto: La macchina antiebraica della RSI e l'Ispettore generale per la razza Giovanni Preziosi. 2008, pp. 30-31.
  2. ↑ Francesco Germinario: Antisemitismo senza ebrei. I temi dell'attività pubblicistica dell'ultimo Giovanni Preziosi (1943–1945). 2008, p. 95.
  3. ^ A b Luca Menconi: Giovanni Preziosi e "La vita italiana": biografia politica e intellettuale. 2018, p. 601.
  4. ↑ Francesco Germinario: Antisemitismo senza ebrei. I temi dell'attività pubblicistica dell'ultimo Giovanni Preziosi (1943–1945). 2008, pp. 99-100.
  5. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, p. 109.
  6. ↑ Santi Fedele: Un'irriducibile antitesi: Libera muratoria e fascismo dalla marcia su Roma alla Resistenza. In: Marco Cuzzi, Santi Fedele, Marco Novarino (eds.): Massoneria e totalitarismi nell'Europa tra le due guerre. Franco Angeli, Milan 2018, ISBN 978-88-917716-0-5 , p. 68.
  7. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, pp. 110-111.
  8. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, p. 111.
  9. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, pp. 111-112.
  10. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, p. 113.
  11. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, pp. 113-115.
  12. ^ Mauro Raspanti: L'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, pp. 116-117.
  13. ↑ Luca Menconi: Giovanni Preziosi e “La vita italiana”: biografia politica e intellettuale. 2018, pp. 626–627.
  14. ↑ Michele Sarfatti: Le leggi antiebraiche proposte nel 1944 by Giovanni Preziosi. 2008, pp. 167-169.
  15. ↑ Luca Menconi: Giovanni Preziosi e “La vita italiana”: biografia politica e intellettuale. 2018, pp. 630–631.
  16. ↑ Gaetano Paolo Agnini: La repubblica nera: la RSI a Desenzano, a Brescia e nel basso Garda: responsabilità dell'Italia fascista e della Repubblica sociale italiana nel processo persecutorio degli ebrei e nei venti mesi di gestione della “piccola Italia”. 2007, p. 196.
  17. ↑ Michele Sarfatti in the foreword of: La Repubblica sociale italiana a Desenzano: Preziosi e l'Ispettorato generale per la razza. 2008, p. 11.