With the onset of World War I (1915-1918), Roman Jews, now full Italian citizens, were called upon to serve their country. All Jewish males of conscription age participated in the Great War. Italy had 50 Jewish generals and several military chaplains who were rabbis.

Starting in 1922, with the rise of Mussolini, Fascism, a dictatorship characterized by a repressive and anti-democratic system in which the government dominated the economic and social life of the nation, began to emerge. In the early 1920s, one notable characteristic of a Fascist government, the search for popular consensus, began to emerge. It was realized through diverse means such as state propaganda, mass rallies, and public works. Surprisingly, some Jews supported Fascist ideology and joined the National Fascist Party or the Fasci di Combattimento. The Jewish community of Rome remained loyal and faithful and supported all the laws of the Italian state and the king. There were also Jews who opposed Fascism, such as the Chief Rabbi of Rome at the time, David Prato, who emigrated to Israel.

Antisemitism/Racial laws

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, racist justification for Jewish persecution began to replace religious justification. The concept of ‘race,’ based on supposed biological criteria and lineage, was rooted in pseudoscience. Old prejudices began to be manifested all over again with new legitimation, and the Jews were scapegoated for all the social, economic, and historical misfortunes. In Germany and elsewhere, Jews were viewed as foreigners, and fear of foreigners was based on the racist idea reinforced by xenophobia. Jews were considered the antithesis of the “Aryan race.”

Aryans were considered the bearers of culture and health. Jews were seen as culture destroyers and disease carriers.” It was no longer sufficient to convert to Christianity to be ‘saved’ because the ‘stain’ was inherent in the blood and could never be removed. In the racist view, Jews were parasites spreading at the same speed as the Black Death within the bodies of host populations. The Jew was indeed the Aryan’s Manichean antithesis:1

The mightiest counterpart to the Aryan is represented by the Jew... He is and remains the typical parasite, a sponger who, like the noxious bacillus, keeps spreading as soon as a favorable medium invites him. ...wherever he appears, the host people die out after a short or longer period... He poisons the blood of others but preserves his own. ...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew... With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people. With every means, he tries to destroy the racial foundation of the people he has set out to subjugate.

The mightiest counterpart to the Aryan is represented by the Jew... He is and remains the typical parasite, a sponger who, like the noxious bacillus, keeps spreading as soon as a favorable medium invites him. ...wherever he appears, the host people die out after a short or longer period... He poisons the blood of others but preserves his own. ...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew... With satanic joy in his face, the black-haired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people. With every means, he tries to destroy the racial foundation of the people he has set out to subjugate.[ii]

Hitler rose to power in 1933. Anti-Semitism became a German state doctrine, and equal rights for Jews came under attack. All of this led to the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws, enacted by the German parliament, the Reichstag, on September 15, 1935. The first of these two laws, The Law for the Protection of the German Blood and German Honor, prohibited all mixed marriages and sexual relations between Aryans and Jews were severely punished. The second, the Reich Citizenship Law, made a clear distinction between Aryan and non-Aryan citizens, depriving the non-Aryans of their civil rights.

Between September and November of 1938, in Italy, Mussolini issued anti-Jewish measures. They were countersigned by the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy (1900–1946). The racial laws in Italy were based on biological racism that viewed Jews as the chief enemies of the so-called Aryan master race. Jews were portrayed as inherently dangerous, corrupt, and degenerate. They were systematically dehumanized and demonized. This led to the exclusion of Jews from society, including those Jews who had converted to Catholicism. Italian Jews were kicked out of the military, public offices, and schools. Mixed marriages between Aryans and Italian Jews were also prohibited. The Italian Jews were classified as “second-class citizens."

The racial laws in Italy were harsh, meticulous, and humiliating. For instance, Italian Jews were not allowed to own a radio, to spend time in tourist locations, or to have “Aryan” household help. Visa permits for foreign Jews were revoked, and they had six months to leave Italy. Once World War II broke out, foreign Jews were arrested and put into internment camps set up in various locations. On October 6, 1938, the so-called “Race Card” was distributed among the Roman Jews. The definition of a “Jew” was made very explicit, such as the following:

  • “He who has two parents of the Jewish race, even if he himself professes another religion, is a Jew.

  • He who has one parent of the Jewish race and one foreign parent is a Jew.

  • He who has a mother of the Jewish race and an unknown father is a Jew.

  • He who has Italian parents, only one of whom is of the Jewish race, but professes himself of the Jewish religion and is registered in the Jewish community or has made an expression of Judaism, is a Jew.”

Then, on October 17, 1938, according to Royal Decree n.1728, the following racial laws were issued: Jews were forbidden to “have businesses that produced war materials or exceeded 100 employees; serve in the Armed Forces; own land within a certain size; have ‘Aryan’ domestic servants; register in the National Fascist Party, which automatically excluded them from jobs that required it.” Furthermore, Jews could no longer be employed in banks, insurance companies, or local or national public administration. Marriage between Jews and “Aryans” was forbidden, as well as between Italians and African populations. The racial laws were signed by the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy.”

As time went on, other oppressive measures were added, such as the following: “Italian Jews including the Jews of Rome could no longer practice as notaries; be bellhops or work in hotels; work with precious objects; they could not be porters; put advertisements in newspapers; perform ritual slaughter; make publications; hold conferences; have their names in telephone directories; all activities in the entertainment sector were forbidden; they could not frequent tourists resorts; they were excluded from cultural associations and they could not have access to the study rooms of state archives and public libraries; Jewish painters and sculptors were excluded from exhibitions; the names of streets and places named after Jews were replaced; they were expelled from sports associations, etc.

Journalists, doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, midwives, lawyers, accountants, engineers, chemists, agricultural and industrial experts, agronomists, surveyors, etc., were registered on special lists and could continue practicing their profession only among Jews.”

On June 10, 1940, with Italy’s entrance into World War II, an internment policy of foreign Jews was implemented. This was an anti-Semitic measure motivated by the pretext that enemy citizens (including German Jews, although Germany was also an Axis country) could damage Italy’s fate in the war. All Italian Jews who were considered “dangerous” were also interned. Now, all Jews were legally discriminated against and made a physically separate “race,” no longer belonging to or considered loyal Italian citizens.

It illustrates how a vibrant and productive minority can be demonized, scapegoated, and turned into "enemies of the state."

References

1 Perry, Marvin, and Frederick Schweitzer, des. Anti Semitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present (2003).
2 Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical and political manifesto by Adolf Hitler.