I refer to almost entirely Catholic, fascist Italy, an Axis power, allied with Hitler.
Are you seriously claiming that every Catholic who supported the fascist regime of Mussolini, a Catholic, was somehow not really Catholic?
How many Jews were there in Italy at that time, and how were they treated? Protestants weren’t even treated especially well, what few there were. I know Waldensians didn’t get full religious rights in Italy until 1984.
Italy was fascist. Germany was National Socialist. Fascism is a political system. National Socialism is a political religion.
Are you seriously claiming that every Catholic who supported the fascist regime of Mussolini, a Catholic, was somehow not really Catholic?
No but the 1948 Italian election is illuminating in that the atheist Communists got over 30 percent of the popular vote at a time when the Red Terror was very real. A third of the population voted Communist.
How many Jews were there in Italy at that time, and how were they treated? Protestants weren’t even treated especially well, what few there were. I know Waldensians didn’t get full religious rights in Italy until 1984.
None of the groups were treated as badly by Italians than they were by Germans. By 1943 the Italians had enough, arrested Mussolini and signed an armistice with the allies.
Mussolini was an atheist.
The Italian fascists had a fascist policy, not a racist one.
At the end of the day, he was reluctant if not refusing to implement laws against Jews until serious Nazi prodding
Italians during WWII were portrayed as cowards (side note: i have no Italian blood, :) but this is not true -- their govt was fighting on the side of people they didn't like and agianst people they DID like
Italian society in 1939 was like this: the upper class was pro-British (reflecting the pro-Italian sentiment of England in the 19th century), while the lower classes was pro-american (thanks to migration in the 19th and early 20th century).
They hated the French (for Nice and Corsica) and disliked the Germanics (thanks to Austria) for being boors.
The Jews in Italy were strongly integrated -- why Italy's first and third PM were both Jews.
The Church was at odds with the liberal governments who ruled Italy after unification, which had seized control of Rome, which had been a papal city for a thousand years before the nationalists decided to make it their capital, mainly because its ancient prestige. Mussolini was a socialist and an atheist who split with the international communist party because he favored the war with Austria and they opposed it. Fascism is basically a kind of national socialism. Mussolini had no animosity toward the Jews, however, In 1929, he made a settlement with the Vatican over the taking of Church party, and because of it, we today have the City State of Vatican City. But Mussolini also promised to give Catholic Action freedom to organize. In this and in many others, he failed to live up to his agreements. Catholics did support Mussolini in his African policies, and his intervention in Spain against the communist government there. But his alliance with Germany was his doing. He thought he was on the winning side. and until 1942, he was right.