Cause and Effect of Racial Laws on Italian Jews during Fascism

           In 1915, the Fascist Revolutionary Party was created. Under Benito Mussolini, the ideology of fascism developed into something greater throughout the years. Italy was a fascist country from 1922 until 1943. In 1938, Mussolini decided to create racial laws that specifically targeted Jewish individuals. Prior to 1938, Jews were allowed to join the Fascist party. The Jewish individuals were never described as a "race" prior to 1938. They were only known for their religion in Italy. Jews were such an integral part of Italy's culture: economically, socially, and politically. Prior to 1938, Jews were even allowed to join the fascist party. As a result, the racial laws were a complete shock for the Italian Jews.

          Many people questioned why Mussolini created racial laws against the Jewish people, especially since the Jews in Italy were an integral part of their culture. In October of 1935, Italy declared war on Ethiopia. Mussolini "launched a military attack that, in May 1936, led to the defeat of the Ethiopian forces" (Instituto Nazionale Documentazione Innovazione Ricera Educativa). During this war, the Italian army used gases in to order to bombard villages and displace Ethiopian civilians. This was a deadly war and it caused Mussolini to be concerned with the increase of interracial fraternization with Ethiopian people and any other person of color. Now, racism was now an issue in Italy. As a result, Mussolini began to promote racial propaganda. This racial propaganda caused division and hatred between the Italian individuals and Jewish individuals.

          Mussolini used racial propaganda to convince the Italians that the Jewish individuals were less than and that they were of superior race. He wanted it to be known that there was a hierarchy of the reputed superior races (INDIRE). It also depicted Jewish people and people of color as "less than the Italians". The Italian newspapers even published that the Jewish individuals aren't a part of Italian race and that they were less than. Apart from Italy's involvement in the Ethiopian War, Italy was also involved in the Spanish Civil War. As a result, Italy was isolated by the Western powers. Many assume that Mussolini wanted to side with Hitler because of this so he tried to exclude the Jews as well.

          Mussolini placed multiple racial laws against the Jews. In Italy, during the Fascist period, the Jews "constituted little more than 0.1 percent of the Italian population" (Bernardini 1977). The laws themselves effected the Jewish individuals. The Jews lost their homes, their businesses, their money, etc. Before the rules went into place, the Italian newspaper La Stampa published on their front page on September 1938 that Jewish students were not allowed to attend Italian schools. Jewish teachers had to leave the schools as well (La Stampa Archivo). La Stampa expressed that the Jews did not belong to the Italian race. One of the first laws established were that any Jews that settled in Italy after 1919 had to leave within six months. Foreign Jews were forbidden from settling in Italy, Libya, or any of the Italian colonial possessions. Other than that, Jews were no longer allowed to marry non-Jews. The Ethiopian War led the Italians to "defend racial purity...the law of 19 April 1937 on mestizo to define racial segregation" (INDIRE). As the months went on, the racial laws brought worse effects for the Jews. In October, Jews were expelled from all schools. Jewish students were no longer able to study with Italians and Jewish teaches were fired. They were taken out of the Italian school system and forced to study altogether. In November of that same year, Jewish individuals couldn't be employed, own businesses, sell their estates or hire non-Jews. Overall, this effected about 15,000 Jews (Bernardini 1977). Fortunately, about 80% of the Italian Jews survived the Holocaust.

          Mussolini created racial laws in his pursuit to better the Italian race and to exclude those who he thought was a threat, economically and socially. Unfortunately, this included the Jews. Mussolini threatened the Jews and stripped them of their money, home, and life in Italy. Many Jews had to escape Italy and cross borders in order to avoid persecution. Many feared that Mussolini's laws would lead to worse situations such as being placed in concentration camps. Jewish individuals suffered deeply because of the racial laws, but they prevailed and the majority of them survived those horrible years.

Works Cited

Bernardini, G. (1977, September). The Origins and Development of Racial Anti-Semitism in Fascist Italy. Retrieved from

INDIRE (1999) Sezione 5 – La propaganda razziale – Mostre Virtuali. Retrieved from

Stow, V. (1938). The Racial Problem in Fascist Italy. Retrieved from