Cultural Myths of the Jews

The idea of race in Italy during the early twentieth century was not the same as the idea of race now. In Europe, "race" was a loose term that could be applied to many things, among them the Jewish religion. However, other factors influenced the idea of race. The idea of a "people" and a "nation" was growing in dominance in Europe.¹ The difference between the terms Jewish Italian and Italian Jew was enormous. As long as a person's Jewish identity came after someone's Italian identity, the person was still an Italian. Furthermore, the Jewish religion became privatized.²

Unlike other European countries, there was no basis of biological racism in Italy by the end of the eighteenth century.³ The Jews were also more assimilated into Italian society then they were in countries like Germany and Russia.⁴ Because of this, Italy was the only country to accurately assess the participation of the Jews in war. Jews far exceeded their percentage in participation in World War I.⁵ Furthermore, Italian Jews were often seen as patriotic citizens.

In Italy, the history of the Jews as a minority is a oscillatory one. In times of high strain, the Jews were vilified; in times of high commerce, the Jews were valued members of society. Despite this correlation, many Italians believed that Jews caused anti-Semitism through their actions as a group.⁶ Mussolini illuminatingly wrote, "Italy knows no anti-Semitism and we believe that it will never know it. Let us hope that Italian Jews will continue to be sensible enough so as not to give rise to anti-Semitism in the only country where it has never existed."⁷ He may have known that this was a lie, but he was also aiming to ally himself to the Jews, as he valued the idea of a nation over the idea of race.

This is the pinnacle of the idea of race in Italy; while Jews were not denounced because of biological racism, or the fact that they were inferior by birth, they were seen as having control over the prejudice that dogged them. Many Jews also believed that the reason the government later persecuted them had to do with reasons other than them being Jewish.⁸

In addition, Italy is home to the Vatican, the capital of the Catholic Church. While much has been said about the lack of action taken by the Catholic Church during World War II, the physical presence of it in Italy helped prevent the violence towards the Jews from reaching that of the progroms in Russia and other countries (Stille 23). The Catholic Church opposed the Jews on a theological basis, not a racial one because if the Pope condemned the Jews for biological reasons, it would go against the teachings of the Church.⁹ The fact that the majority of Italians were Catholic implies that many of them would have had this teaching introduced to them in their education.

By the end of the nineteenth century, there was popular bitterness and resentment towards the Jews in Germany and other European countries.¹⁰ However, Italy still lacked an anti-Semitic tradition.¹¹ This was just one more impediment to racial anti-Semitism that the government later tried to implement.

Footnotes

1. Fabre 58
2. Toscano 44
3. Stille 30
4. Stille 30
5. Bookbinder 99
6. Stille 29
7. Fabre 62
8. Caracciolo xvi
9. Coppa 266
10. Bookbinder 97
11. Toscano 43

For more information on these footnotes, please see the sources.

© Kylie McCormick, Mount Holyoke College 2008.