How were Jews treated in Italy under Mussolini?

Question

Were they sent to Germany, persecuted, etc.???

Answer 1

At first, they were treated as all other citizens were. Over time, Germany began to affect Italy, however. Italian Jews were stripped of their citizenship, although, that isn't as bad as being worked to death.

Answer 2

svdwallingrod is correct.  The Italians have a history of tolerance towards the jews.  

Mussolini received repeated requests from their German allies to round up the Jews in Italy and send them to the workcamps in Germany and Poland.  Mussolini did bend a little in rounding some of them up as labors to be used inside Italy, but he resisted sending them to Germany.  There was some tension between Berlin and Rome over Mussolini's refusal to cooperate.

I do not know if he knew about the exterminations.  I'm pretty sure he had no clue at least until his first government fell.  The Italian people definitely did not know about it.  

After Italy's surrender to the Allies, Mussolini was rescued from his mountaintop prison by the n**i's and basically held under house arrest in Salo, where he 'ran' his second government.  This is when the Italian Jews began to be sent off to the camps, by the Germans who were occupying Italy

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Actually, during Mussolini's reign, the Jews were not deported to the Reich for relocation, and also not in the areas that were under Italian control (Dalmatia, parts of Greece, etc). The Germans even complained that the Italian territory seemed like a safe haven that was drawing Jews from all over Europe.

After Italy switched sides and Mussolini was rescued by the Germans from his mountain prison, however, the Germans set up a puppet state in northern Italy under Mussolini, and this time the Jews were rounded up and deported. Of course, by this time most of the original Italian army was already in their own concentration camps as well, set up as the Germans disarmed the Italians in the field when the government fled to the American lines and left them to their fate.

Answer 4

The same as the 5 million "others" who were tortured along with the 6 million Jews.  There were Christians and the Handicapped and mentally retarded who were also in Concentration camps. Don't forget them. The Holocaust was about killing anyone who didn't follow Socialism (n**i was a socialist regime, don't forget).

Answer 5

Ideologically Italian fascism did not discriminate against the Italian Jewish community: Mussolini recognised that a small contingent had lived there "since the days of the Kings of Rome" and should "remain undisturbed".[29] There was even some Jews in the National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza who in 1935 founded the Jewish Fascist paper La Nostra Bandiera[30] ("Our Flag"). However by 1938, the enormous influence Hitler now had over Mussolini became clear with the introduction of the Manifesto of Race. The Manifesto, which was closely modeled on the n**i Nuremberg laws[15], stripped Jews of their Italian citizenship and with it any position in the government or professions. The German influence on Italian policy upset the established balance in Fascist Italy and proved highly unpopular to most Italians, to the extent that Pope Pius XII sent a letter to Mussolini protesting against the new laws.