Italian racial laws

Headline in Corriere: Breed Protection Act, November 11, 1938

The Italian Racial Laws (Italian: Leggi razziali ) were a series of laws with which fascist Italy wanted to enforce the ideas of the defense of the pure Italian race from 1938 to 1945. Although racial extermination was not the goal of Italian anti-Semitism , according to Police Order No. 5 of the Italian Social Republic (RSI) of November 30, 1943, the "Jews" were arrested and interned in Italian concentration camps, which ended in the Holocaust.

History of origin

With the completion of the nation-state formation in 1870, the Italian Jews were politically and legally equal to the other citizens; many were assimilated and entered into "mixed marriages". Initially, fascism was not directed against Jews. When and how the anti-Semitic approach came about is controversial. Some believe that fascism's inherent anti-Semitism only took time. Others see the conclusion of the Lateran Treaties with the resulting special position of the Catholic Church as an important reason. Still others see the Abyssinian War with the subsequent colonial racial segregation , the participation of Italy in the Spanish Civil War and the rapprochement with the German Empire as a turning point. Political-tactical calculations are also given. The enemy within (Italian "Judaism") should either create consensus or serve as a warning to social groups distant from the regime.

From 1936 onwards, anti-Jewish sentiment in Italy was fueled by the press. In 1938 the fascist government radically broke with the previous practice. In July 1938, the publication of the Manifesto of Racist Scientists , promoted by Mussolini, provided a pseudo-scientific justification for the superiority of the European Aryan races , the purity of the Italian race and for anti-Semitic measures.

Racial Laws

Kingdom of Italy

Presentation on the race law, published in La difesa della razza , November 1938

The subsequent central race law of November 17, 1938 on measures for the defense of the Italian race , which was significantly influenced by Mussolini and Guido Buffarini Guidi from the Ministry of the Interior, pursued competing goals in the definition of "Jews", left cases of doubt in the determination of race, offered the Aryanization of people a race court ( Tribunale della Razza ) and provided transitional regulations for deserving Jews (discriminazione). This created a need for regulation and tightening possibilities at the administrative level. The catalog of laws and ordinances was expanded almost every week until 1943. Jews without Italian citizenship had to leave Italy or were interned.

Caption (with translation)

DOPO LE DELIBERAZIONI DEL CONSIGLIO DEI MINISTRI
Gli ebrei non possono ...			Non vi possono essere ebrei ...
… Prestare servizio militare	… Esercitare l'ufficio di tutore	… Essere proprietari di aziende inter- estati la difesa nazionale	… Nelle amministra– zioni militari e civili	... nel Partito	… Negli Enti provinciali e comunali
… Essere proprietari di terreni e di fabbricati		… Avere domestici ariani	… Negli Enti parastatali	… Nelle banche	… Nella assicurazioni
Estero: Espulsione degli ebrei stranieri			Universita: Gli ebrei esclusi dalla scuola Italiana

AFTER THE CONSULTATIONS OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTRIES
Jews are not allowed ...			No Jews are allowed there ...
... do military service	... exercise the profession of teacher	... own companies involved in national defense	... in military and civil administrations	... in parties	... in regional and municipal institutions
... be the owner of land and buildings		... employ Aryan domestic workers	... in semi-public institutions	... in banks	... in insurance
Abroad: deportation of foreign Jews			University: Jews are excluded from Italian schools

In Italian Libya , the regulations were applied less strictly because the Italian governor Italo Balbo did not want to jeopardize the economic contribution of the Jews in the colony. This policy continued even after his death in 1940.

Order of laws

September 5, 1938, RDL n.1390 - Provvedimenti per la difesa della razza nella scuola ; Measures to defend the breed in school.
September 7, 1938, RDL n. 1381 - Provvedimenti nei confronti degli ebrei stranieri ; Expulsion of “foreign Jews” and withdrawal of citizenship acquired after January 1, 1919.
September 10, 1938 Decree establishing a race court ( Tribunale della Razza ) under the direction of Gaetano Azzariti
September 22, 1938 - Honorable discharge of Jewish officers from military service.
November 15, 1938, RDL n. 1779 - Integrazione e coordinamento in testo unico delle norme già emanate per la difesa della razza nella scuola italiana - Dismissal of all Jewish professors, teachers, pupils and students from schools and universities.
November 17, 1938, RDL n. 1728 - Provvedimenti per la razza italiana ; Measures to defend the Italian race - definition of "Jew", compulsory registration, ban on marrying Jews, dismissal from administration and the military, limitation of property ownership, etc.
November 21, 1938 Jews are no longer allowed to be members of the fascist party.
February 9, 1939 RDL 126 regulated the confiscation of Jewish real estate, companies and shops and the compensation payments of the Italian state, regulated by the Ente Gestione e Liquidazione Immobiliare , EGELI for short
June 20, 1939, Jews are no longer allowed to work as lawyers, notaries, auditors, doctors, dentists, midwives, chemists, pharmacists, architects, journalists, management consultants, etc.
June 29, 1939, RDL n. 1055 - Regulation on the use of Jewish and Aryan names.
July 13, 1939, RDL n. 1024 - Jews can be Aryanized before a special committee.
May 11, 1942 DemoRazza - Circular 31999 - Introduction of compulsory labor service

Repeal of the Racial Laws

On January 20, 1944, the Badoglio government, by royal decree n. 25, restored the political and civil rights of the Jews that had been deprived of them. The RDL n.26 of January 26, 1944 regulated the return of former Jewish property, but was only put into effect after the liberation of Rome on October 20, 1944, as the Jews in the areas occupied by Germany would have been exposed to retaliatory actions.

Italian social republic

After the armistice of Cassibile in September 1943, Italy was occupied by German troops and the satellite state of the Italian Social Republic ( Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI) was established under Mussolini. On November 14, 1943, at the first congress of the newly constituted Republican-Fascist Party in Verona, under point 7 of the so-called Manifesto of Verona, all members of the Jewish race were declared foreigners who were to be regarded as enemies of the state during the current war. The Minister of the Interior of the Republic, Guido Buffarini Guidi , ordered the arrest of all Jews by the Italian authorities and their assignment to concentration camps in Police Order No. 5 of November 30, 1943 .

Laws in the RSI

January 10, 1944, DLD n. 2: New ordinance regarding properties owned by citizens of Jewish race - forfeiture of all property to the state. Was tantamount to the complete expropriation of all Italian and foreign Jews and the realization of their property.

March 31, 1944, DLD n.109: Reorganization of the EGELI.

April 16, 1944, DM n.136: Conversion of the DemoRazza and spin-off of the race department.

April 18, 1944, DLD n.171 : Istituzione dell'Ispettorato Generale per la razza - establishment of the General Inspectorate for the Race under the direction of Giovanni Preziosi .

literature

Giovanni Cecini: I soldati ebrei di Mussolini. I militari israeliti nel periodo fascista , Mursia 2008, ISBN 978-88-425-3603-1 .
Renzo De Felice : The Jews in Fascist Italy. Enigma Books, 2001, ISBN 1-929631-01-4 .
Liliana Picciotto Fargion : Italy - The approach to the National Socialist Jewish policy from 1938. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Dimension des Genölkermord. Oldenbourg, 1991, ISBN 3-486-54631-7 , p. 200 ff.
Raul Hilberg : The annihilation of the European Jews. Fischer, 1993, ISBN 3-596-24417-X .
Michael A. Livingston: The Facists and the Jews of Italy - Mussolini's Race Laws, 1938-1943. Cambridge University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02756-5 .
Aram Mattioli : Fascist Italy - an unknown apartheid regime. In: Micha Brumlik , Susanne Meinl, Werner Renz (eds.): Legal injustice - Racist law in the 20th century. Campus, 2005, ISBN 3-593-37873-6 , p. 155 ff.
Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). Chronos, 2004, ISBN 3-0340-0641-1 .
Furio Moroni: Italy: Aspects of the Unbeautiful Life. In: Avi Beker (Ed.): The Plunder of Jewish Property during the Holocaust. Palgrave, 2001, ISBN 0-333-76064-6 , p. 297 ff.
Liliana Picciotto: The Shoah in Italy: Its History and Characteristics. In: Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.): Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-84101-1 , pp. 209-223.
Michele Sarfatti : Characteristics and Objectives of the Anti-Jewish Racial Laws in Fascist Italy, 1938-1943. Translation. In: Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.): Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-84101-1 , pp. 71-80.
Thomas Schlemmer, Hans Woller : Italian fascism and the Jews 1922 to 1945. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 53, 2005, pp. 165–197.
Gabriele Schneider: Mussolini in Africa - The Fascist Racial Policy in the Italian Colonies 1936–1941. SH-Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-89498-093-1 .
Susan Zuccotti : The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue and Survival . London: Halban, 1987 ISBN 1-87001-503-7 pp. 28-51.

Individual evidence

^ Liliana Picciotto: The Shoah in Italy: Its History and Characteristics. In: Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.): Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-84101-1 , pp. 214 ff.
↑ Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 17-18.
^ Michael A. Livingston: The Facists and the Jews of Italy - Mussolini´s Race Laws, 1938-1943. 2014, p. 15.
↑ Thomas Schlemmer , Hans Woller: Italian fascism and the "Jews" 1922 to 1945. 2005, p. 177 f.
^ Content reproduction by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of July 15, Document VEJ 14/2 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 114–116.
^ Michael A. Livingston: The Facists and the Jews of Italy - Mussolini´s Race Laws, 1938-1943. 2014, p. 23.
↑ Thomas Schlemmer, Hans Woller: The Italian Fascism and the "Jews" 1922 to 1945. 2005, p. 182.
^ Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 65.
↑ Maurice M. Roumani: The Jews of Libya . Sussex Academic Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-84519-137-5 , pp. 26 f.
^ Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 48.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Furio Moroni: Italy: Aspects of the Unbeautiful Life. 2001, p. 301 f.
^ Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 49.
↑ Document VEJ 14/13 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 152–158.
↑ Document VEJ 14/27 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 194-195.
^ Carlo Moos: Exclusion, internment, deportation - anti-Semitism and violence in late Italian fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 69.
^ Fabio Levi: Italian Society and Jews after the Second World War. In: Jonathan Dunnage (Ed.): After the War - Violance, Justice, Continuity and Renewal in Italan Society. University of Sussex, 1996, ISBN 1-899293-56-6 , p. 24.
^ Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 90 f.
↑ Thomas Schlemmer, Hans Woller: Italian Fascism and the Jews 1922 to 1945 . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Issue 2, 2005, p. 193 f.
↑ Document VEJ 14/64 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 277f.
^ Renzo De Felice : The Jews in Fascist Italy. 2001, p. 434.
↑ Decreto Legislativo del Duce 31 March 1944-XXII, n. 109. In: cdec.it. Retrieved January 4, 2020 (Italian).
↑ Decreto Ministeriale 16 April 1944-XXII, n. 136. In: cdec.it. Retrieved January 4, 2020 (Italian).
↑ Decreto Legislativo del Duce 18 April 1944-XXII, n. 171. In: cdec.it. Retrieved February 18, 2020 (Italian).

[1] Liliana Picciotto: The Shoah in Italy: Its History and Characteristics. In: Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.): Jews in Italy under Fascist and Nazi Rule, 1922–1945. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-84101-1 , pp. 214 ff.

[2] Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 17-18.

[3] Michael A. Livingston: The Facists and the Jews of Italy - Mussolini´s Race Laws, 1938-1943. 2014, p. 15.

[4] Thomas Schlemmer , Hans Woller: Italian fascism and the "Jews" 1922 to 1945. 2005, p. 177 f.

[5] Content reproduction by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of July 15, Document VEJ 14/2 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 114–116.

[6] Michael A. Livingston: The Facists and the Jews of Italy - Mussolini´s Race Laws, 1938-1943. 2014, p. 23.

[7] Thomas Schlemmer, Hans Woller: The Italian Fascism and the "Jews" 1922 to 1945. 2005, p. 182.

[8] Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 65.

[9] Maurice M. Roumani: The Jews of Libya . Sussex Academic Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-84519-137-5 , pp. 26 f.

[10] Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 48.

[Moroni-11] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Furio Moroni: Italy: Aspects of the Unbeautiful Life. 2001, p. 301 f.

[12] Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 49.

[13] Document VEJ 14/13 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 152–158.

[14] Document VEJ 14/27 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 194-195.

[15] Carlo Moos: Exclusion, internment, deportation - anti-Semitism and violence in late Italian fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 69.

[16] Fabio Levi: Italian Society and Jews after the Second World War. In: Jonathan Dunnage (Ed.): After the War - Violance, Justice, Continuity and Renewal in Italan Society. University of Sussex, 1996, ISBN 1-899293-56-6 , p. 24.

[17] Carlo Moos: Exclusion, Internment, Deportation - Anti-Semitism and Violence in Late Italian Fascism (1938–1945). 2004, p. 90 f.

[18] Thomas Schlemmer, Hans Woller: Italian Fascism and the Jews 1922 to 1945 . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Issue 2, 2005, p. 193 f.

[19] Document VEJ 14/64 in: Sara Berger u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (collection of sources) Volume 14: Occupied Southeast Europe and Italy . Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-055559-2 , pp. 277f.

[20] Renzo De Felice : The Jews in Fascist Italy. 2001, p. 434.

[21] Decreto Legislativo del Duce 31 March 1944-XXII, n. 109. In: cdec.it. Retrieved January 4, 2020 (Italian).

[22] Decreto Ministeriale 16 April 1944-XXII, n. 136. In: cdec.it. Retrieved January 4, 2020 (Italian).

[23] Decreto Legislativo del Duce 18 April 1944-XXII, n. 171. In: cdec.it. Retrieved February 18, 2020 (Italian).