Purezza e pericolo nella guerra civile italiana (1943-45): la persecuzione degli ebrei a Venezia

Over sixty years after the order of arrest of the Italian Jewish population given by the prefects of the Salò Republic, or Repubblica Sociale Italiana, on November 30, 1943, which followed the definition of Jews as "foreigners" and "enemies" in the Republic's founding documents, the article reads on new grounds the events and implications of the Italian anti-Jewish persecution and deportation from Italy. Using the categories of the anthropologist Mary Douglas, the article dwells on the dynamics through which the conditions of "danger" produced by the world war and the Italian civil war, together with the previous fascist anti-Semitic tradition, led to a radicalization of the imaginary and representations of Italian national "purity", which culminated in a violent genocidal action.