The Italian executioners: revisiting the role of Italians in the Holocaust

L'aritcolo esamina il ruolo degli italiani nella Shoah (1943-45). Forze di polizia, burocrazia locale e statale, volontari del partito fascista parteciparono a diverso titolo all'arresto, deportazione e depredazione degli ebrei italiani. Le responsabilità italiane si configurano come la partecipazione a un genocidio.

The article revisits the role of Italians in the Holocaust in the light of recent historiography and by applying the category of genocide to the hunting, arrest and deportations of the Jews in Italy in 1943-45, under the German occupation and during the Republic of Salo established by Mussolini. Special attention is given to the ideological context of radical antisemitism, initiated by the introduction of the fascist racial law of 1938 and exacerbated by the Italian civil war, as well as to the role of a variety of ordinary actors, from policemen to volunteers of the fascist party, from bureaucrats to informants.