Life in Fascist Italy 1922-40
Mussolini’s aims
Mussolini’s primary aim was to adopt policies that would help to secure his position as all-
powerful Duce of Italy, but as the 1920s progressed he also revealed a desire to transform
Italian society and even the Italian character.
By the 1930s he expressed contempt for what he described as the ‘bourgeois mentality’ of
many Italians, a mentality that stressed the importance of family, religion, local loyalties and
a comfortable standard of living. Mussolini intended his new Italians to place fascism and
the nation above these traditional loyalties.
Mussolini’s Italians would be tough, disciplined, physically and psychologically conditioned
for war, and obedient to their Duce.
Fascism and the Catholic Church
Mussolini recognised that an accommodation with the Catholic Church could bring him great
public support and increase the prestige of his regime abroad.
Lateran Agreements
The treaty and concordat (papal agreement) that comprised the Lateran Agreement officially
ended the conflict between the Church and Italy that had existed since the foundation of the
Italian Kingdom.
In the 1929 treaty, the Pope agreed to recognise the Italian state and its possession of Rome
and the old Papal States. In return, the state recognised the Pope’s control over the Vatican
City, a part of Rome but independent from the Italian state. The Pope also received financial
compensation of £30 million for surrendering his claim to Rome.
The concordat established Catholicism as the state religion of Italy and outlined what this
would mean in practice, including religious education, of a Catholic nature, being
compulsory in state schools and there would be no divorce without the consent of the
Church.
The Lateran Agreements signalled that Mussolini had given up any hope of removing the
influence of Catholicism from Italian society. Nevertheless, he was very happy with the deal.
Tensions between fascism and the Catholic Church
The ‘love affair’ between Catholicism and fascism was not a smooth one and it cooled as
Mussolini tired to shape society into a more Fascist mould.
The first open dispute between Catholic Church and Mussolini’s regime came in 1931 when
the government attempted to suppress the Church-sponsored Catholic Action. This body
provided a rival to fascism’s own youth and leisure organisations and had 250,000 members.
A compromise was reached banning Catholic Action youth groups from any political
activities, but the Church remained determined to preserve its influence over the young.
The Church even had the confidence to declare the creed of the Fascist Balilla blasphemous.
The resistance to fascism’s totalitarian claims to control every aspect of life was also shown
by Radio Vatican’s broadcasting of alternative news and information.
In the mid- and late 1930s, senior clergy did support Italian involvement in the wars in
Ethiopia and Spain as they saw them as ‘Christian Crusades’, spreading and defending the
, faith, but from 1938 tensions between the regime and the Church surfaced again over the
issue of anti-Semitism.
By 1939, the alliance between Catholicism and fascism was over, and the Pope openly
regretted the Church’s earlier eagerness to embrace the Duce.
Fascism and anti-Semitism
Mussolini never shared Hitler’s obsessive hatred of the Jews and had even had a Jewish
mistress, Margherita Sarfatti.
In 1932, Mussolini stated that Italian Jews ‘have always behaved well as citizens and fought
courageously as soldiers.’
The regime even allowed 3000 German Jews to enter the country as refugees from Nazi
persecution.
As the regime’s new African subjects were condemned to a segregated, second-class status,
a number of Fascists began to argue that there was also an inferior race within Italy, namely
the Jews. Such views were encouraged by fascism’s increasingly close relations with Nazi
Germany.
French opposition to Italian involvement in the Spanish Civil War could apparently be
explained by the fact that their prime minister, Leon Blum, was Jewish.
Anti-Semitic policies
In August 1938, foreign-born Jews were banned from state schools, and in the following
month the ban was extended to Italian-born Jews.
Jews were banned from teaching in state schools and separate schools were to be set up for
Jewish students.
In October, Jews were excluded from membership of the National Fascist Party and
professional and cultural organisations, and prevented from owning large companies or
large landed estates.
Italian Jews also suffered severely under these anti-Semitic laws, losing much of their liberty
and their standard of living. They lived under the constant fear that fascism might adopt the
murderous policies of their Nazi allies.
However, at least until 1943, the regime did not collaborate with the Nazi plans to
exterminate all Jews in Europe. In fact, implementation of Italy’s anti-Jewish laws was
inconsistent.
The anti-Semitic laws contained exemptions for those Italian Jews who had served in the
First World War or who had served the Fascist regime in some capacity.
Many government and Fascist officials made little effort to enforce the laws. Mussolini’s own
sons protected their Jewish friends from harassment.
When the original Fascist regime collapsed in July 1943 and was replaced by the Italian
Social Republic, Mussolini allowed these racist Fascists to escalate the persecution of Jews.
A decree of November 1943 ordered the confiscation of Jewish property and the rounding
up of all Jews. Over 7500 Italian Jews were sent to Nazi death camps in eastern Europe. Only
600 survived.
Fascism and women
