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Italian Fascism in Britain (1932-1939): Cladia Baldoli

The  activity  of the  Italian Fasci  Abroad  provides  a  new  perspective  on  the nature  of both  Italian  and  European  fascism,  as  well  as  on  Italy’s  foreign  policy during  the  1930s.  This  thesis  focuses  on  the  means  employed  by  the Fasci  in  the transformation  of Italian    communities  in  Great Britain  into  Little Fascist  Italies’.  It argues that fascistisation of Italian emigrants became effective from  1932 and seemed to succeed in creating a corporativist and totalitarian community from  1935-36,  until the  international  crisis  of  1938-39  brought  that  Fascist  dream  to  an  end.  The Ethiopian war and Italy’s alliance with Germany were the most crucial  events  in the development of the Fasci in their relationship with both the Italian communities and the British government. ...Until  the  end  of  1934  both the Fasci  and  the  embassy  established  regular contacts  with  the  British  Union  of Fascists;  in  the  same  period,  BUF  propaganda reflected the belief that British fascism was part of universal fascism, and that Rome was  its  origin.  BUF’s  shift  from  Italophilia* to  admiration  for National  Socialism  in 1935,  and the  contemporary  unleashing of an aggressive  anti-British  propaganda in Italy coincided with a worsening in Anglo-Italian fascist relations.  Consequently, the Italian  Ambassador  to  London  Dino  Grandi  strengthened  his  collaboration  with British Conservative Italophiles,  who worked with the Italian embassy in an attempt to support the cause of Italy and to improve Anglo-Italian relations.The divergence between Grandi’s and the Italophiles’ beliefs on the one hand and  Italy’s  anti-British  propaganda  and  foreign  policy  on  the  other  were  evident especially  from  1938.  The  attitude  of the Fasci  Abroad  reflected  this  divergence. Despite  the  increased  centralisation  of the Fasci  under  the  control  of the  foreign ministry from  1938 onward, the Fasci in Britain continued to share Grandi’s views on Italian  foreign  policy.  The  Fascist  press  in  Britain,  strongly  anti-British  during  the Ethiopian war,  became  pro-British at the beginning of  1938.  Grandi  saw himself as the man who could prevent war, until Mussolini declared his mission in London at an end in July 1939.

British Italian Society: Friends of Free Italy

In 1940, when Mussolini led Italy into the War on the side of the Nazis, a group of prominent individuals in London, who knew Italy well, felt a duty to promote the overthrow of the fascist regime and to remind the British people of the true Italy and its deep-rooted friendship with the United Kingdom. This group, which comprised academics, politicians, broadcasters, journalists, members of the London Council of the British Institute of Florence and former British residents of Italy began to meet regularly for discussions. In Spring 1941, in the darkest days of the War, they formed the Friends of Free Italy (echoing the Friends of Italy founded by Mazzini in London in 1851). They appointed scholars of international renown, Sir Frederick Kenyon, Sir David Ross and Professor GM Trevelyan, as President and Vice-Presidents to serve as figure-heads. But the moving forces, and the first Chairmen, were Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, who was elected to Parliament shortly afterwards, and Hugh Wyndham (who later became Lord Leconfield), President of the London Council of the British Institute of Florence. Although the membership included Italian exiles and Anglo-Italians, the group deliberately portrayed themselves as British, in order to demonstrate that Italy still had British friends.

La Fondazione Museo della Shoah

The Shoah Museum Foundation, established July 2008 by the promoting committee of the Shoah Museum project, which was formed at the end of 2006. The mission is to promote the construction of the National Shoah Museum in Rome: a facility of great public utility, especially for the numerous public activities dedicated to the Shoah, aimed at young people, teachers, and Italian and foreign citizens, who will have a reference place with highly specialised staff.  The establishment of the Museum in Rome will allow the Capital of Italy to stand alongside the great cities of the world (Jerusalem, Washington, Berlin, London, Paris) that have Museums dedicated to the Holocaust.

Leggi Antiebraiche in Italia: anti-Jewish Laws in Italy from 1938 TO 1945

The Manifesto, signed by numerous scientists and university professors, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, established the fundamental points of the position of fascism towards race, enucleating the concepts that were the basis of a complex of royal decrees, laws and circulars that in a very short period of time attempted to erase the Jewish community in Italy, as "Jews do not belong to the Italian race".

LANDIS – Laboratorio Nazionale per la Didattica della Storia Le leggi antiebraiche in Italia 1938-1945     

LANDIS – National Laboratory for the Teaching of History The Anti-Jewish Laws in Italy 1938-1945

“We Are Evidently Aryans” Why Italian fascists embraced Hitler’s anti-Semitism. By Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Anti-Semitism had little or no place in Italian fascist doctrine before 1938, reflecting the Italian Jewish community’s relatively pacific existence on the peninsula. The tiny size of the country’s Jewish population (about 44,000 out of 44 million), the frequency of intermarriage, the physiognomic and cultural similarities that linked Italians of Catholic and Jewish faiths, and the absence of popular anti-Semitic violence had allowed the Jews to enjoy a relatively harmonious existence in Italy throughout the liberal period.1

* Italophilia is the admiration, general appreciation or love of Italy, its people, culture, and its contributions to Western civilization. Italophilia includes Romanophilia, the appreciation of the Italian capital of Rome and its ancient and Catholic history and culture. Its opposite is Italophobia. During the 18th century, Italy was in the spotlight of the European grand tour, a period in which wealthy people, usually British or German aristocrats, visited Italy to explore its art, culture and archaeology.