By no means am I claiming that Benito was a swell guy, but Italy was one of the countries with the highest rate of survival for Jews during the Holocaust.
The Italian people were duped and realized too late they had a tyrant in Mussolini.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Italy_during_World_War_II
Mussolini was well aware of the military and material deficiencies but thought the war would be over soon and did not expect to do much fighting. This led to confusion amongst ordinary Italians and soldiers who had little idea of what they were fighting for and, hence, had little conviction and saw little justification for it.