Italiani brava gente? Fascist Italy’s Policy Toward the Jews in the Balkans,April 1941-July 1943

Abstract

Why did an anti-Semitic regime that harshly persecuted Italian and foreign Jews since 1938, refuse to hand over to its German ally thousands of foreign Jews living in the Italian occupied territories? The article refuses to refer to fascist policies as a ‘rescue of the Jews’ and to use the myth ‘Italiani brava gente’ as an explaining factor for this policy. Rather, it refers to the relations between the two Axis partners, to the broader context of fascist policies of occupation, and to the nature and aims of fascist anti-Semitism. It shows that the Jews not handed over to the Germans were an exception, and that other Jews were turned back or expelled.