Fascism and Race Flashcards
What is the tradition of Christian anti-Semitism?
Long-standing myth that Jews responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus
What were some longstanding myths associated with Judaism in Europe pre-19th c?
Child sacrifice and stereotypes that included usury (loaning money at unreasonably high rates of interest)
Why does Wiley Feinstein argue anti-Semitism was naturally stronger in Italy?
Thanks to it’s strong ties to Catholicism and Rome as it’s capital, which held strong religious roots
What happened in post-Napoleonic Europe?
What did liberal thinkers believe would happen?
Process of assimilation and emancipation in post-Napoleonic Europe led to fears of a parasitic Jewish culture embedded in the host culture of a European country
That assimilation would lead to the demise of the Jewish culture- to the extent that it would disappear
What idea circulated in German Romantic Nationalism in the 18th century?
The rhetoric of nation, race, blood and earth
What was Mussolini’s belief pre-1919?
He was shown to be anti-Semitic in various essays from his Socialist Revolutionary days:
- in one he writes that Jews are “taking their revenge on the Aryan race”
What did Mussolini believe in the 20s?
His attitude had somewhat changed - his mistress was Jewish for example
Robert S.C.Gordon suggests that he appeared to support Jews and Zionists
Hitler’s anti-Semitism was far more obvious
How did Fascist views alter when coming to power?
Did it change again in the 20s?
October 1922 - altered from a military, anti-establishment to a more conservative, authoritarian one
Changed again in 1925-6 as a fully fledged dictatorship was established - engagements with issues of race remained sporadic and indirect until the 30s
What were the Lateran Pacts?
The Lateran Pacts 1929: relegated all other religious than Catholicism as secondary in both schools and society
Did Mussolini support Zionism?
Robert S.C.Gordon: “Mussolini was pro-Zionist in his foreign policy”
-Saw similarities with radical nationalism and seeing as a challenge to British imperial influence BUT suspicious of alliances with Italy
Who is Emil Ludius and why is he significant?
In an interview with Emil in 1932, Mussolini suggested that anti-Semitism could be “provoked” if Jews were to cause trouble
Where did Italy unleash “Racial Politics”?
Unification, purification, and strengthening of the nation: minorities forcibly Italianised and discriminated against in the anti-Slav and anti-Germanic campaigns in the North-Eastern territories
What did Mussolini say in his Ascension Day Speech?
That he was prepared to better the “health of the race” -
How did Italian eugenics differ from Nazism?
Not so much positive and negative eugenics as practiced by the Nazis but regimented social control seeking to advance military and economic efficacy of the nation- led to the “defence of the race”
What does Robert S. C. Gordon say about the differences between Italy and Germany?
“Germany centrally structured around a racial or racist ideology - “Aryan anti-Semitism” - Mussolini and Italy only marginally and latterly interested in questions of race, and then only for contingent or tactical reasons to do with Italy’s political alignment with Nazi Germany
What does Alexander De Grond?
“Both regimes used race partly as an instrument in the realization of a totalitarian state.”
“Italian Fascist racial policies during the late 1930s… were a logical extension of the essential nature of the regime”
