Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were united in a brutal friendship. Both had savage racial laws: both Hitler and Mussolini viciously denounced the Jewish menace. Yet each nation treated the Jews quite differently. Whilst Jews who fell into the arms of the German army were consigned, almost without exception, to concentration camps, not one Jew taken by the Italians suffered the same fate. Italian officers protected not just Italian Jews, but Jewish refugees of every nationality. Jonathan Steinberg uses this remarkable and poignant story to unravel the motives and forces underpinning both...
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were united in a brutal friendship. Both had savage racial laws: both Hitler and Mussolini viciously denounced the Jewi...
German and Italian fascist armies in the Second World War treated the Jews quite differently. Jews who fell into the hands of the German army ended up in concentration camps; none of those taken by the Italians suffered the same fate. Yet the protectors of the Jews were no philo-Semites, nor were they (often) great respecters of human life. Some of those same officers had sanctioned savage atrocities against Ethiopians and Arabs in the years before the war. Jonathan Steinberg uses this remarkable and poignant story to unravel the motives and forces underpinning both Fascism and Nazism. As a...
German and Italian fascist armies in the Second World War treated the Jews quite differently. Jews who fell into the hands of the German army ended up...