The Italian Occupation of the Balkans and the Jewish Question during WWII

Abstract

With the entry into the war in 1940, first against France, then against Greece and Yugoslavia, Italy tried to realise its old expansionist plans in the Balkans to control the Adriatic Sea and the South part of Mediterranean, replacing the British power. In the annexed and military occupied territories Italy established a harsh regime, which has only come to public conscience in recent years, after decades of silence. At the same time, Italian generals had to face a brand new problem, concerning thousands of Jews, local and foreign, who escaped to Italian zones in France, Yugoslavia and Greece from the zones under German, Croatian and Bulgarian control. In 1942 Mussolini was aware of the destiny which awaited the Jews after the deportation; in spite of this, he agreed to surrender them to the partners of the Axis. In Mussolini’s opinion, any country that dreamed of being a great power in the future was suppose to have have its own racial policy. From this perspective, he was convinced that Italy should be “clean” of Jews in order to be ready for the new era after the war. The Army “on the ground” refused to follow the orders and found a way to avoid mass deportation to the death camps (Venrichtungslager), and only with its defeat in September 1943, Germany and Mussolini could act freely, completing the destruction of the Jews in North Italy and in the former zones of military occupation. In this context, the deportation of the Jews happened not only because of German occupation, as many scholars still maintain, but because of the previous policy established by Mussolini during WWII.