The document summarizes the key events and provisions of the 1938 Italian Racial Laws, which systematically excluded Jews from public life and imposed severe restrictions. It notes that in 1935, Germany defined Jews as excluded from citizenship. In 1938, Italy published the Manifesto of Racist Scientists and then issued a series of laws banning Jews from schools, marriages, military service, owning businesses, and public employment. The laws forced many Jewish intellectuals and scientists into exile. Some letters were written requesting Mussolini ignore racial identity, but requests were denied as identity as an Italian Jew became increasingly difficult. The document advocates understanding identity as complex rather than defined by single attributes like ethnicity or religion.

1. 1938
The Italian Racial Laws

2. Chronology
• 1935 the "Nuremberg Laws" defined the exclusion of German
Jews from the Reich citizenship, and prohibited them to marry
people of "German or German-related blood.”

3. • 1937 Royal Decree 880 prohibited the
“acquisition of concubines and the marriage
of Italian citizens with subjects of the Italian
colonies”.

4. • July 1938 - Giornale
d’Italia anonymously
publishes the
Manifesto of Racist
Scientists.

5. September-December 1938 -
Promulgation of the Racial Laws.

6. • The Fascist government issues a series of provisions
regulating, with separate bills, the exclusion of foreign and
Italian Jews from the school, the
academia, politics, finances, professional world, and all
sectors of public and private life.

7. • Italian citizens of the Jewish religion were no
longer allowed to:
• attend school
• marry non-Jew
• to be drafted in the Army
• to own or administrate firms
• to own or administrate land and real estate over
a certain value
• to hire non-Jewish employees
• to be hired in the public administration, by
political parties, banks, insurance
companies, newspapers, publishing
houses, artistic, research, and educational
institutions.

9. • July 1940 - New taxes are imposed on Jewish
professionals.
• February 1941 - The State agency that regulates
the seizing of Jewish properties receive
authorization to liquidate them.
• April 1942 - The use of theatrical and musical
materials authored by Jews is prohibited.
• October 1942 - New limitations are imposed and
enforced on Jewish citizens residing in Libya.
• November 30, 1943 - The police issues the order
to arrest Jews residing in Italy and territories
under Italian control.
• January 1944 - New rulings are issued to seize
and liquidate Jewish assets.

10. Articles of the Manifesto:
• •Human races exist.
• •There are great races and small races.
• •The notion of race is purely biological.
• •The majority of the current Italian population is of the Arian origin
and of Arian civilization.
• •It is a mere legend that large masses of migrants came into the
country.
• •There is today a pure “Italian race”.
• •It is time that Italians proclaim themselves genuinely racist.
• •It is necessary to make a distinction between the Mediterranean
people of Europe (Westerners) and Eastern and African people.
• •The Jews do not belong to the Italian race.
• •The purely European physical and psychological characters of the
Italian people must not be altered.

11. Jewish Intellectuals joined the
partisans

12. Civil Society and Exile
Among the public figures who were forced to leave Italy
after the promulgation of the racial laws are many man
and women in the worlds of science, art, and the
humanities, including:
• the psychiatrist Silvano Arieti,
• composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
• Islamist Giorgio Levi Della Vida,
• economist Franco Modigliani,
• mathematician Salvador Luria and Emilio Segrè,
• architect Bruno Zevi, the family of Tullia and Eugenio
Calabi,
• physicist Enrico Fermi,
• and many others.

13. “Discrimination letters”
Discrimination letters can be a useful tool to
better understand how well integrated in the
Italian civil society the Jewish Community was.

14. We mustn’t forget that many Jewish
politicians, officials, etc. had supported the
Fascist party in coming to power.
Guido Jung, of Jewish origins, was Minister of
Finances from 1932 to 1935
And Margherita Sarfatti was not only one of
Mussolini’s closest friends but also his lover and
biographer.

15. Many high ranking officers in the Royal Army
were Jewish but with the promulgation of the
Racial Laws in 1938 they were dismissed.
We must understand that identity is not a fixed
concept and that the many aspects that
contribute to the formation of one’s peculiar
identity can (but don’t have to) include
ethnicity, sex gender, language, political
orientation, nationality and religion.

16. At the beginning of the ‘900s, after an historical
period known as “Risorgimento”, the National
Identity constituted for many the most
important factor in determining one’s identity.
Being Italian came first.
Religion played a secondary role.

17. Many letters requesting Mussolini to ignore the
“racial” belonging began to flow in the
“Demorazza” offices.
This handwritten letter (see next slide), was written
by Moshe Cohen a Lieutenant Cornel of the Italian
Royal Army.
He declares ready to give his life for the Fatherland
dying as a faithful Italian and asks to be
“discriminated” from other Jews (i.e. not to be
considered as a Jew).
He’s request will remain unheard and he will be
dismissed.

20. This example gives us an idea of the complexity
in defining identities and should make us aware
of the fact that creating “macro-categories” is
not only imprecise, but also dangerous being
the first step towards
xenophobia, homophobia, anti-Semitism and all
other forms of discrimination.