Disproving Brava Gente: the Myth and Reality of the Shoah in Italy
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DISPROVING BRAVA GENTE: THE MYTH AND REALITY OF THE SHOAH IN ITALY A thesis submitted to the Kent State University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for University Honors by Morgan Duckett May, 2018 Thesis written by Morgan Duckett Approved by ________________________________________________________________, Advisor ______________________________________________, Chair, Department of History Accepted by ___________________________________________________, Dean, Honors College ii TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE………………………………………………………………………………...iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………….….vi CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………...1 II. TRAIL-BLAZING SCHOLARS: A BRIEF HISTORIOGRAPHY……...4 III. ITALIAN ANTISEMITISM: A POLITICAL EVOLUTION…………….7 IV. ALL ABOUT THE MONEY: THE ITALIAN ECONOMIC REALITY..................................................................................................20 V. ROMAN VS. NORDIC: AN EXAMINAITON OF ITALO-GERMAN RELATIONS……………………………………………...……………..25 VI. THE ORIGINATION OF THE MYTH………...………………………..28 VII. CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………….……..33 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..36 iii PREFACE “Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.” -Pope John XXIII Many people helped me clear obstacles and achieve my goals in the writing of this thesis. In its original form, my thesis was concerned with disproving the notion of brava gente and was to be presented as a short historical documentary showcasing my interdisciplinary studies and abilities. Traveling abroad to Florence, Italy, in June of 2017 under Kent State University’s Office of Global Education, my goal was to obtain interviews with Jewish Italians who survived the Holocaust as the primary source for my thesis research and documentary content. Upon returning from Florence, my goal was to supplement these interviews with those of Italian Jews who survived the Holocaust and moved to America. However, a variety of factors I could not anticipate— leads did not materialize, and the difficulty in finding still-living Jewish-Italian Holocaust survivors, among the leading two— meant that my goals had to be revised. As I came to appreciate, this is an inevitable part of the creative process. On top of that, adhering to the demands of my classes that accompanied studying abroad in Florence, while simultaneously trying to conduct my research for my thesis made it hard to dedicate the necessary time my thesis research required. However, Lady iv Fortune was good to me and granted me with the opportunity to interview surviving Jewish Italian, Sara Voltara. While the interview was not as lengthy as I had hoped, it afforded me a tantalizing window into what I know can one day, given then time and resources, still become a documentary project. In the meantime, I was still able to use some information gleaned from this interview in helping me construct this thesis. By changing the nature of my thesis, I only made it stronger, because doing so granted me the ability to really flesh out my argument and all the research I conducted to prove it. It also gave me the space to showcase all the knowledge I had accumulated concerning this topic from my very first encounter with it in Dr. Steigmann-Gall’s The Holocaust course taken in Spring 2017—when he termed the experience of the Holocaust in Italy as “unique”—up to the past year of research required to produce the final product. Reflecting back on my thesis’ evolution, I can confidently say I am proud of what it has become. Referring back to the quote by Pope John XXIII, I took my inability to achieve my original goal of creating a historical documentary, and redefined that goal to fit within my realm of possibility; and, in the insightful words of Leonardo da Vinci, “art is never finished, only abandoned.” The documentary element for this project has not been abandoned; only, it lies outside the realm of possibility for this thesis’ time construct. My ultimate career goal is to become a historical documentarian, and the fruits of this thesis might just be the art I create to launch me into this passion of mine. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Dr. Kristin Stasiwoski, thank you so much for inspiring me to embark on this thesis journey altogether, and serving on my Oral Defense Committee; if it were not for your words of motivation and encouragement, I would not have striven to achieve the highest honors my academic career at Kent State University offers me. Thank you for making studying abroad possible, and forever being a role model to me, both in my academic career and personal life. To Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall, thank you so much for being a mentor to me not only during my thesis but also throughout my academic career. Your expertise has pushed me to become a better historian and observer of the world around me. I am so thankful for all you did for me in your role as my thesis advisor, and for all the opportunities I have had to learn from you throughout my academic career. To my brother Ryan Duckett, thank you for always, without hesitation, being my second eyes not only for this thesis project, but many other written works I have completed. Thank you for your prowess of the written language and extremely helpful advice throughout the years. To Dr. Marcello Fantoni, thank you so much for agreeing to be on my Oral Defense Committee so last minute. Thank you for meeting with me and encouraging me to keep pursuing my research and ambitions long past my graduation this May from Kent State University. vi To Dr. Don-John Dugas, thank you so much for agreeing to serve on my Oral Defense Committee as my HOCOPOCO member. Thank you for upholding the Honors Thesis’ reputation of prestige and merit and validating my thesis work as such. To my parents, Shari Duckett and Tim Duckett, and friends Kara Gottesman, Jordan Smitek and others; thank you for your endless support and always pushing me to be the best possible version of myself. When I wanted to give up, it was you guys who helped me push through. Thank you for always having open ears and being a shoulder I can lean on. vii 1 I INTRODUCTION Compassion and brutality can coexist in the same individual and in the same moment, despite all logic; and for all that, compassion eludes logic. -Primo Levi The aftermath of World War II resulted in much more than the tangible chaos of millions of people homeless, Europe in ruins, and the international economy completely crashed. It resulted in the strategic renegotiation and dissemination of national stereotypes and identities. Movies produced after WWII in both Italy and the United States, such as Mediterraneo (1991) or Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (1994), present the Italians in their conduct during that war as humanists and lovers of life, nominal allies of the Germans but diametrically opposed to genocidal atrocities. These movies’ plots consist of an Italian rescue mission to save Jews from certain death; when in reality, the Italian Fascist regime never mandated or engaged in a Jewish rescue operation. These aspects of postwar popular culture reflect on the popular narrative of the Italians as the brava gente: “the good people.” In fact, even before WWII was over, high-ranking Italian officials had already been working hard to propagate this narrative as a way to obfuscate the true role the Fascist regime played in the Shoah. This construct engendered belief in a 2 mythical Fascist regime incapable of denying “Jews their inalienable human rights.”1 In this way they not only denied a role in the Nazi’s Final Solution, but as with cinematic depictions, committed themselves to the act of saving Jews from the “sadistic horrors”2 of their Nazi ally. The brava gente construct has been commonly accepted worldwide; only recently has it entered the realm of debate amongst scholars. The evidence provided by Holocaust scholarship would seem, at first glance, to affirm the brava gente narrative: a surprising Italian Jews aligned themselves with Fascism due to its relative lack of antisemitism;3 foreign Jews from the Axis occupied areas of Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Yugoslavia, France, and Lithuania all flocked to Italian occupied zones in the belief that they would be protected from death camp deportations; and deportations of Italian Jews and Jewish refuges did not occur until after the Nazi invasion in September 1943.4 In 1937 the Italian rabbis wrote a letter to their Jewish community asking God to “defend and protect… Benito Mussolini, Duce and Founder of the empire.”5 In spite of this evidence, there is reason to interrogate and ultimately dismantle this myth of the brava gente. We can do this by examining its origins, and by analyzing what Italians actually did during the Holocaust. I believe doing so reveals that in fact, 1 R. Anthony Pedatella, “Italian Attitudes Toward Jewry in the Twentieth Century,” Jewish Social Studies 47, no. 1 (Winter 1985): 52. 2 Editorial, “How Italy protected Jews from the Holocaust,” Chicago Tribune, October 10, 2014, Midwest Edition. 3 Ema and Andrew Viterbi, interview by Alessandro Cassin, “One Family, Two Diverging Experiences in Fascist Italy” (transcription), Primo Levi Center, November 24, 2014, accessed September 2017, http://primolevicenter.org/printed-matter/one-family-two-diverging-experiences-in-fascist-italy-a- conversation-with-andrew-and-erna-finci-viterbi/. 4 Richard Steigmann-Gall, “Italy and the Jews” (unpublished lecture, Kent State University, Kent, April 20, 2017). 5 Michele Sarfatti, The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy: From Equality to Persecution, trans. John and Anne Tedeschi (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 258. 3 Italians who saved Jews very frequently did so as a result of political and economic opportunism, as well as a direct response to Italo-German relations, rather than some essential character or quality of the Italian people as such. Using private and public government records, photo collections, and published testimonials of survivors, this paper will examine some of the myths surrounding this stereotype.