Beyond the things themselves. Economic aspects of the Italian race laws (1938-2018)

Within the framework of Holocaust studies, the Italian case did not always receive the attention it deserves. One of the unique aspects of the Fascist antisemitic campaign that influenced the scope and harshness of the actions against the Jews, is its length; it went on for seven years, making Italy’s period of persecution second in duration (in Western Europe) only to that of Nazi Germany. From the late summer of 1938, while the country was still at peace, to the fall of 1943, persecution was ordered and overseen solely by the Fascist authorities, with regulations excluding Jews from the economic life of the country: expelling them from the workplace, restricting their property and generally limiting their political and civil rights. In this study we analyze the economic aspects of Jewish persecution and the community’s struggle before, during and after the Second World War. We expose the persecutory intentions and mechanisms of the Italian regime and discusses the long series of provisions, decrees, and laws that severely affected the Jewish community. The diligent and rigorous application of the rules by officials and bureaucrats, including expropriations of houses, businesses, and land, as well as the exclusion from workplaces and professions, and then, during the period of 1943-1945, confiscations, and looting of personal possessions, left the Jews shattered. Moreover, even the conclusion of the war did not provide the anticipated relief. For Italian Jews the road to reintegration and the return of seized properties was long and difficult, characterized by contradictory and insufficient laws, lack of empathy by clerks and general indifference to the violations suffered in seven long years of persecution.