Course Description
The rise of the Fascist State in Italy, the German occupation during World War II, and the destruction of the Italian Jews. Special attention is given to the role of the Church during the German occupation and the Holocaust.
Athena Title
The Holocaust in Italy
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring and summer
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1.Students will learn the history and relevance of anti- semitism in Italy. 2. Students will learn the rise of the Italian state and the takeover of Mussolini and the Fascist Party beginning with the march on Rome in 1922. 3. Students will become familiar with the bureaucracy of the Italian police state. 4. Students will be able to describe the Concordat between the fascist state and the papacy in 1929 that created the Vatican. 5. Students will become familiar with Italian foreign policy imperialism of the 1930s and the formation of an alliance with Germany. 6. Students will understand the decision-making of Mussolini in relationship to Italy entering World War II. 7. Students will become familiar with the defeat of the Italians in Sicily, the abdication of the monarchy, and the German occupation of Italy. 8. Students will learn the organization of the destruction of the Italian Jews to include the camps at Bolzano, Fossoli, and Trieste and deportations to Germany and Auschwitz. 9. Students will learn of Catholics to include clerics who worked to save Jews as well as the role of Pope Pius XII and his administrators. 9. Students will understand the Italian Partisan movement. 10. Students will become familiar with post-war memory of the Holocaust in Italy. 11. Students will become familiar with the literature and films of Italy that describe the war and the Holocaust.
Topical Outline
I. The Jews and Anti-Semitism in Italy: An Historical Perspective. II. The Creation of the Italian State. III. World War I, its Aftermath, and the Rise of the Fascist State. IV. Mussolini and the Church: The Vatican Concordat. V. Italian Foreign Policy Imperialism. VII. The 1938 and 1939 Italian Racial Laws. VIII. The Alliance with Hitler and World War II; Italian Entry into the War. IX. The German Occupation of Italy. X. Round-ups and the Raid on the Roman Jewish Quarter. XI. Creation of the Fossoli and Triese Concentration Camps. XII. Deportations to the Reich and to Auschwitz. XIII. The Holocaust, Italy, and the Church. XIV. The Holocaust and Memory in Post-War Italy.