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[Mussolini the fascist was NOT an anti-semite.]

Now NBC News (for whatever that is worth) says just the opposite:

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna33973018

Lover’s diary: Mussolini wanted to destroy Jews
Benito Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite, who proudly said that his hatred for Jews preceded Adolf Hitler’s and vowed to “destroy them all,” according to previously unpublished diaries.

Historians said the diaries appeared to be convincing and reinforced the image that Mussolini was strongly anti-Semitic. The Italian leader and his mistress were shot by partisans on April 28, 1945, and their bodies were displayed to a jeering crowd hanging upside-down from a gas station in a Milan square. AP

(excerpt)

Benito Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite, who proudly said that his hatred for Jews preceded Adolf Hitler’s and vowed to “destroy them all,” according to previously unpublished diaries by the Fascist dictator’s longtime mistress.

According to the diaries, Mussolini also talked about the warm reception he received from Hitler at the 1938 Munich conference — he called the German leader a “softy” — and attacked Pope Pius XI for his criticism of Nazism and Fascism.

On a more intimate note, Mussolini was explicit about his sexual appetites for his mistress and said he regretted having affairs with several other women.

The dairies kept by Claretta Petacci, Mussolini’s mistress, between 1932 and 1938 are the subject of a book coming out this week entitled “Secret Mussolini.” Excerpts were published Monday by Italy’s leading daily Corriere della Sera and confirmed by publisher Rizzoli.

Historians said the diaries appeared to be convincing and reinforced the image that Mussolini was strongly anti-Semitic, even though early on there was some Jewish support for his Fascist movement. But they cautioned that these are the diaries of the dictator’s lover — not Mussolini himself — and therefore must be taken with an extra grain of salt.

Corriere said the diaries shed new light on Mussolini, who had been seen as more obsequious toward the pope and “dubious” over Italy’s racial laws, which led to widespread persecution of Italian Jews.

In 1943, German troops occupied northern and central Italy, and thousands of Jews were deported. According to some researchers, there were 32,000 Jews in 1943 in Italy, of whom over 8,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps.

“These disgusting Jews, I must destroy them all,” Mussolini was quoted as saying by his lover in October 1938. At another point he calls them “enemies” and “reptiles,” according to the excerpts.

Thanks for that link.

it is quite the opposite of every historical note about Mussolini to date.

It also seems logically quite false and here’s why

1. “Benito Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite” —> like Mussolini’s financier Ettore Ovazza. and Guido Jung, who was a member of the Grand Council of Fascism and served as Italian minister of Finance from 1932-1935 under Mussolini; then Aldo Finzi one of the NINE Jewish deputies elected to the Italian parliament for the FAsci italiani. He was appointed Vice commissioner for the Air Force directly under Mussolini

I can give you more - but those practicing Jews were also proud and patriotic Italians and were part of the fascist party treated as everyone else. So I find it hard to believe that “Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite” based on this contrary evidence

2. “his hatred for Jews preceded Hitler and vowed to destroy them all” — this seems impossible considering the number of close associates he appointed who were Jews. And considering that at no point has this ever been noted of Mussolini being an anti-Semite

3. “Mussolini attacked Pope Pius XI for his criticism of Nazism and Fascism.” —> that did happen, but is not indicative of Mussolini’s anti-semitism. Pope Pius XI wrote out against the Nazi treatment of Jews and against the Nazi concept of race (as an aside, Hitler hit back at the Pope saying “You aren’t up to date with the latest science from Darwin that proves our race ideology”

4. “secret diaries” - well, let’s wait for them to come out

Mussolini was not a good guy by any means, but he was not, imho an anti-semite. I’ll wait for this book to come out and then join the professional historians in checking if this is just another Da Vinci code