Presented by the Department of Art History.

Contrary to commonly held belief, nearly half the 8,000 Jews arrested in Italy and deported in 1943-45, were arrested by Italians. Mussolini had paved the way for this with anti-Jewish persecution and propaganda that began with the so-called “racial laws” of 1938. Levis Sullam’s new book (The Italian Executioners, Princeton, 2018) demonstrates that Italian bureaucrats, ideologues and members of the fascist party, were responsible for genocide – together with the German occupiers of Italy during WW2 – to a much higher degree than has been acknowledged to date.