Anders Carlberg: Judarnas öde i fascismens Italien

Talk by Anders Carlberg on the fate of the Jews in Fascist Italy What was it like to be Jewish in Mussolini’s Italy? How did international power politics and the pact with Nazi Germany affect Italy’s Jews?

Drawing on his book Mussolini mot Hitler, Anders Carlberg discusses the fate of the Jews in Fascist Italy. We trace the situation of Jews in Italy from Mussolini’s rise to power, through Italy’s entry into the war on Nazi Germany’s side, to the deportations after Italy became a puppet state.

When Benito Mussolini took power in Italy in 1922, the country was one of the less antisemitic in Europe, and the first 15 years of fascist dictatorship brought no significant change. Thousands of Jews were members of the Fascist Party, and there were several Jewish ministers in Mussolini’s early governments. However, to enable cooperation with Nazi Germany, Italy introduced far-reaching racial laws in 1938. As a result, Jews faced discrimination and, eventually, internment. After Italy’s surrender in 1943, a puppet state, the Republic of Salò, was established in Italy. Antisemitic policies became more radical, and Jews began to be deported to concentration and extermination camps.

Anders Carlberg is the author of Mussolini mot Hitler: Judarnas öde i fascismens Italien. The book asks what initially led Italian generals and diplomats to refrain from participating in the Holocaust. The book offers new perspectives on the differences between National Socialism and Italian Fascism, and the role antisemitism played in the two ideologies. Carlberg has lived in Italy for many years and previously wrote Hitlers lojala musiker (2016) and Toner och Terror (2021), both of which explore music as a means of propaganda in Hitler’s Europe. All the books are published by Santérus Förlag.