IT HAPPENED IN ITALY TOO

After revelations that German Jews fought for Hitler, Nicholas Farrell

on the Jews for Mussolini

THE Daily Telegraph has published details of new research on Jews who fought for Hitler's Germany — the theme of the film Europa Europa. That Jews could take up arms on the side of a regime dedicated to the extinction of Jews is, on the face of it, beyond comprehension. But the experi- ence of Italian Jews in fascist Italy may help shed light on the mental state of Ger- man Jews who became Nazi soldiers. Like their German counterparts, Italian Jews did not, of course, want to exterminate Jews. But an incredible number-of them were fascists.

The explanations for the Jewish Nazi soldiers so far offered — mainly that Jews were safer in the army than out and the full extent of the Holocaust was not known until the war was over — overlook one vital factor: the appeal that fascism and to a lesser extent National Socialism had for Jews. Many of them, particularly middle- class Jews, were fiercely patriotic and fiercely anti-communist. They were natu- rally attracted to Italian fascism and Ger- man National Socialism. They wanted to be Good Italians or Good Germans. This was especially true of Italian Jews. And because anti-Semitism in Italy was never to plumb the depths reached in Germany — there was no Holocaust and Mussolini never intended to exterminate Jews — the Italian experience is a useful comparison. It helps us understand the minds of Jews pre-Holocaust. We have the benefit of hindsight; they did not.

Looking back, it is remarkable how many Italian Jews went on supporting Mussolini and for how long; just as it is remarkable that so many people in Britain, including Churchill, regarded him as a good thing for so long. As late as 1938 — the year Mussolini introduced Italy's anti- Jewish laws — of the 47,000 Jews in Italy more than 10,000 were members of the Fascist Party; one in three of the Jewish population over the age of 21.

Italian Jews were also extremely well represented in the armed forces. In the first world war 50 generals had been Jews and Italy was the only country in Europe which had Jewish admirals and generals. Around 1,000 Jews had been decorated for valour, and they continued to fight after the first world war. In the Spanish civil war, for example, Alberto Liuzzi, a Jew killed in battle in 1937, was awarded Italy's highest award for bravery, the Medaglia d'Oro.

When the 1938 racial laws came into force, as many as 11,000 Jews were eligible for `discrimMazione' — exemption, initial- ly at least, from the racial laws — on the grounds that they or their fathers had served in the first world war or had been Fascist Party members since the founding of the movement.

One of the best known and most com- mitted Jewish fascists was Ettore Ovazza, born into a Turin banking family. An artillery lieutenant in the first world war, he joined the Fascist Party in its earliest days, regarding it as the only way to avert a communist revolution in Italy. He was also a `squadrista' (blackshirt) and among 227 Jews given the certificate for partici- pating in the march on Rome in 1922 which swept Mussolini to power. In 1929, he met Mussolini and one of his most cherished possessions was a signed photo- graph of the Duce.

Mussolini was probably only ever anti- Semitic — if at all — for pragmatic rather than ideological reasons. After all, his main mistress, Margarita Sarfatti, the woman often called the uncrowned queen of Italy throughout the 1920s and much of the 1930s, was a Jew. He was much more concerned with nation than with race. Hitler used to joke about his 'kosher fas- cism'. He in turn publicly ridiculed Hitler's biological racism.

But despite this, anti-Semitism in Italy began to gather momentum in 1934. It was at this time, however, that Ovazza, like many other Italian Jews, was to become ever more zealous in his fascism. Indeed, in 1934, he founded a weekly newspaper, La Nostra Bandiera, which aimed to make clear that the Jews were among the most ardent supporters of fascism. His front- page editorial entitled 'An End to Ambi- guity' said: 'We are soldiers, we are fascists . . . we want to kiss the tricolor flag for which we are always ready to fight and die . . . The Italian Jews have always guarded jealously the perfect spiritual unity between the love of religion and love of Fatherland.' Ovazza, for one, felt quite able to believe in and hit out at the so-called international Zionist conspiracy — something which he and, he insisted, nicst Italian Jews had nothing to do with. At.ti-fascist Jews were, he said, a tiny minority.

When Italy invaded Ethiupia in 1935 most synagogues celebrated the national 'Day of Faith' by singing Giovinezza, the fascist anthem. At the same ceremony, Jewish Italian women, like gentile Italian women, donated their wedding rings to the war effort. As for Ovazza, he even volun- teered to fight, but aged 43, was considered too old.

In The History of the Italian Jews Under Fascism, the late Professor Renzo de Felice, the acknowledged Italian authority on the period, writes that before the 1938 racial laws it is 'impossible to talk of a Jew- ish anti-fascist movement'. But even after the laws Ovazza — again like many Italian Jews — refused to abandon fascism. The laws, he said, which banned most Jews from most decent jobs as well as the armed forces — was a necessary sacrifice. This was also the official position of the govern- ing council of the Turin Jewish community ,whose president was an army general.

When war came, the Chief Rabbi of Rome lamented that Italian Jews were barred from fighting for the Fatherland but guaranteed that the community would con- tribute in any way it could to the war effort. And as in Germany, many hid their religion and did fight. In 1940, when the British sank three Italian battleships at Taranto, General Umberto Pugliese, a Jew, was even asked to return to the army to carry out the salvage operation. He was only too pleased to do so.

'War — and here we come to another fundamental aspect of the Jewish drama in those years — not only did the Jews suffer it like all Italians but they lived it with the same passionate participation and the same problems of conscience,' writes Professor de Felice.

Unlike Ova772, thousands of Jews — including Mussolini's former mistress, Sar- fatti — had realised in 1938 that the writing was on the wall and emigrated. But he stuck it out until July 1943, when Mussolini was deposed by the Badaglio coup and German troops arrived on Italian soil. Even he realised the dangers by then. In September 1943, Ovazza went with his wife and two children to a hotel near the Swiss frontier so that, if necessary, they could escape. But on 9 October, he, his wife and daughter were arrested by the SS and the next day they were shot. Their bodies were burned in a furnace. His son had been killed previously attempting to cross the frontier. Today the Ovazza family still has the signed photo- graph of Ettore's hero, the Duce.

The author is writing a biography of Mussolini for Weidenfeld and Nicolson.