Statistical Tables on the Holocaust in Italy, with An Insight on the Mechanism of the Deportations
This article analyzes data resulting from research on the deportation of the Jews from Italy. Fascist antisemitism, initiated in late fall 1936, became racist only in 1938. After a virulent campaign conducted in the contemporary media, the anti-Jewish “Laws for the Defense of the Italian Race” were promulgated on September 5, 1938, making Italy officially an antisemitic country until the end of the war. When the deportations began in 1943, there were 40,000 Jews in the country. The Italian police implemented many of the measures taken against the Jews from November 30, 1943. Documents from the period clearly indicate that the German and Italian governments had reached an agreement regarding the Jews. Most of the 6,806 Jews deported were sent to Auschwitz; only 837 survived. The abused sentence “Italiani brava gente” (Italians are good people) is therefore meaningless regarding the Italian management of the capture of Jews that were subsequently deported. On the contrary, such Italian management unfortunately added a vicious efficiency to the mechanism of deportation of Jews from Italy.
