The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy

A gripping revisionist history that shows how ordinary Italians played a central role in the genocide of Italian Jews during the Second World War
In this gripping revisionist history of Italy’s role in the Holocaust, Simon Levis Sullam presents an unforgettable account of how ordinary Italians actively participated in the deportation of Italy’s Jews between 1943 and 1945, when Mussolini’s collaborationist republic was under German occupation. While most historians have long described Italians as relatively protective of Jews during this time, The Italian Executioners tells a very different story, recounting in vivid detail the shocking events of a period in which Italians set in motion almost half the arrests that sent their Jewish compatriots to Auschwitz.
This brief, beautifully written narrative shines a harsh spotlight on those who turned on their Jewish fellow citizens. These collaborators ranged from petty informers to Fascist intellectuals―and their motives ran from greed to ideology. Drawing insights from Holocaust and genocide studies and combining a historian’s rigor with a novelist’s gift for scene-setting, Levis Sullam takes us into Italian cities large and small, from Florence and Venice to Brescia, showing how events played out in each. Re-creating betrayals and arrests, he draws indelible portraits of victims and perpetrators alike.
Along the way, Levis Sullam dismantles the seductive popular myth of italiani brava gente―the “good Italians” who sheltered their Jewish compatriots from harm. The result is an essential correction to a widespread misconception of the Holocaust in Italy. In collaboration with the Nazis, and with different degrees and forms of involvement, the Italians were guilty of genocide.

History

Levis Sullam, Simon

Europe

Princeton University Press

A gripping revisionist history that shows how ordinary Italians played a central role in the genocide of Italian Jews during the Second World War In this brief history of Italy's role in the Holocaust, Simon Levis Sullam presents an unforgettable account of how ordinary Italians actively participated in the deportation of Italy's Jews between 1943 and 1945. While most historians have long described Italians as relatively protective of Jews during this time, The Italian Executioners tells a very different story, recounting in vivid detail the shocking events of a period during which Italians set in motion almost half the arrests that sent their Jewish compatriots to Auschwitz. With a historian's rigor and a novelist's gift for scene-setting, Levis Sullam dismantles the seductive myth of the "good Italians" who sheltered Jews from harm. In collaboration with the Nazis, and with different degrees of involvement, the Italians were guilty of genocide.

This controversial and groundbreaking study proposes a compelling reinterpretation of the political thought of one Italy's founding fathers, Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), and in the process suggests a new approach to understanding the origins of fascist ideology.

Giuseppe Mazzini and the Origins of Fascism (Italian and Italian American Studies)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Questo volume affronta, secondo tre direttrici fondamentali, gli avvenimenti del 1943, vero e proprio anno cerniera nel secondo conflitto mondiale, l'anno della svolta fatale: mutarono gli equilibri internazionali, si sfaldo l'unita dell'Asse e la fortezza Europa fu scalfita per la prima volta, in Sicilia, dagli Alleati. Mentre la gigantesca offensiva sovietica avviava l'accerchiamento di Hitler, l'iniziativa statunitense nel Pacifico costringeva il Giappone ad arroccarsi, in una strenua difesa dei territori conquistati. Grazie al rovesciamento degli equilibri militari e al controllo dei cieli e dei mari, gli Alleati poterono invadere la Sicilia, indurre la caduta di Mussolini, costringere l'Italia ad arrendersi e a schierarsi infine al loro fianco. Ma la crisi del 1943, scuotendo profondamente le societa in guerra, diede infine l'avvio in Italia, come gia in Europa, alla Resistenza, che recupero il patrimonio dell'antifascismo e si contrappose al nazismo e ai regimi di collaborazione sorti nei territori occupati: dalla Francia di Vichy alla Repubblica sociale italiana. Una storia, come dimostra il presente volume, ancora da studiare e capire.

1943. Strategie Militari, Collaborazionismi, Resistenze (I Libri Di Viella)

Varsori, Antonio

Labanca, Nicola

Baldissara, Luca

Colarizi, Simona

Fioravanzo, Monica

Collotti, Enzo

Fonzi, Paolo

Fumian, Carlo

Galimi, Valeria

Loth, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History Wilfried

Overy PH D, Professor of History Richard

Schlemmer, Thomas

Smuraglia, Carlo

Viella

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