In this gripping revisionist history of Italy鈥檚 role in the Holocaust, Simon Levis Sullam presents an unforgettable account of how ordinary Italians actively participated in the deportation of Italy鈥檚 Jews between 1943 and 1945, when Mussolini鈥檚 collaborationist republic was under German occupation. While most historians have long described Italians as relatively protective of Jews during this time, The Italian Executioners tells a very different story, recounting in vivid detail the shocking events of a period in which Italians set in motion almost half the arrests that sent their Jewish compatriots to Auschwitz.
This brief, beautifully written narrative shines a harsh spotlight on those who turned on their Jewish fellow citizens. These collaborators ranged from petty informers to Fascist intellectuals鈥攁nd their motives ran from greed to ideology. Drawing insights from Holocaust and genocide studies and combining a historian鈥檚 rigor with a novelist鈥檚 gift for scene-setting, Levis Sullam takes us into Italian cities large and small, from Florence and Venice to Brescia, showing how events played out in each. Re-creating betrayals and arrests, he draws indelible portraits of victims and perpetrators alike.
Along the way, Levis Sullam dismantles the seductive popular myth of italiani brava gente鈥攖he 鈥済ood Italians鈥� who sheltered their Jewish compatriots from harm. The result is an essential correction to a widespread misconception of the Holocaust in Italy. In collaboration with the Nazis, and with different degrees and forms of involvement, the Italians were guilty of genocide.
Awards and Recognition
- One of the Best Jewish 快色直播 of 2018 (Howard Freedman, Jewish News of Northern California)
"[A] devastating historiographical counterblast. . . . The picture Levis Sullam paints is layered and locally inflected, rich with regional variation and human stories. . . . The result is an important, proportionate, by turns angry and moving corrective: a call to complete the picture of Italy鈥檚 Holocaust, to set alongside the stories of witnesses and righteous rescuers, the portraits of the perpetrators."鈥擱obert Gordon, Times Literary Supplement
"[A] vigorously revisionist history."鈥�The Economist
"Simon Levis Sullam shatters myths of WWII Italy. . . . Whereas Nazism is completely taboo in Germany, fascism's symbols and ideas remain in full view in contemporary Italy. Right and far right political leaders in recent times, including Silvio Berlusconi, have tried to promote the myth of italiani brava gente in order to obscure the horrific aspects of the Fascism past. In effect, Levis Sullam's Italian Executioners warns against any attempt to make fascism appear normal."鈥擭ick Doumanis, Sydney Morning Herald
"Sullam describes in painstaking detail how ordinary Italians, in collaboration with the fascist police and military, enthusiastically participated in the arrest and persecution of Italian Jews, and how this has been erased from public memory and discourse, replaced by the myth of italiani brava gente鈥攖he 'good Italians.'"鈥擥iulia Miller, Times Higher Education
"[A] trailblazing book."鈥擩anet Levy, Jerusalem Post
"After decades of silence about Italian citizens鈥� role in the Holocaust, author Simon Levis Sullam restores the record."鈥擬att Lebovic, Times of Israel
"A tight, focused history. . . . Stories of individuals rescuing Jews fill popular histories of that period, but Sullam's fresh, pointed research makes it depressingly clear that most Italians kept quiet and officials followed orders."鈥�Kirkus
"An illuminating addition to Holocaust history."鈥�Publishers Weekly
"At a time when some would prefer to keep ugly facts in the shadows, it is good that Levis Sullam and scholars like him keep working to shine the light of truth."鈥擬ichael M. Rosen, Weekly Standard
"These stories are thoroughly sourced and written engagingly, with the myriad anecdotes combining to paint an important picture of Italian complicity in the Nazi-led genocide. The Italian Executioners is a valuable addition to the literature on the Holocaust and a crucial reminder that fascist Italy was no safe haven."鈥擩eff Fleischer, Foreword Reviews
"Brilliant and authoritative. . . . [Simon Levis Sullam鈥檚] book is short, but it is important for its impressive presentation of factual, largely unknown material and its damning conclusion that Italy failed to come to terms with its complex political and moral responsibilities."鈥擬ichael Curtis, American Thinker
"Although this is a relatively short book of 142 pages of text, author Simon Levis Sullam has provided enough research, data and accounts to put the lie to the idea of the 鈥榞ood Italians,鈥� though surely there were some, and has produced a serious indictment and revisionist history of Italy鈥檚 collaboration with Germany in committing genocide."鈥�New York Journal of 快色直播
"A well-researched book that shatters the widely-held belief that Italians were brava gente, 鈥榞ood people,鈥� who protected their Jewish fellow citizens from the horrors of the Holocaust. . . . The Italian Executioners was painful reading for me because my 32 years of international interreligious work took me many times to Italy and the Vatican, where I grew to know and admire many leaders of the historic Italian Jewish community who had suffered such great losses. . . . Sullam鈥檚 meticulous scholarship, enhanced by his use of Italian language source material, has cast light on a sordid record of bigotry, prejudice, and hatred that until now has remained largely in the shadows. With the current rise of overt anti-Semitism in many parts of Europe, Sullam鈥檚 book is a powerful call for Italians to confront their troubled past."鈥擱abbi A. James Rudin, ReformJudaism.org
"The Holocaust-related book that had the greatest impact on me was The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy by Simon Levis Sullam. This short study challenges the common understanding that Italians did not share in the genocidal intentions of their Nazi allies. Sullam details the many ways in which Italians at all levels of society participated in the persecution of Jews, and he explains how the memory of these efforts was suppressed in the aftermath of World War II."鈥擧oward Freedman, Jewish News of Northern California
"The Italian Executioners is a short book. But it鈥檚 long enough to make a convincing argument for how frequently ordinary Italians, in Sullam鈥檚 words, served as 鈥榓gents and accomplices of the Holocaust.鈥� There鈥檚 an understandable tone of anger, but it鈥檚 certainly warranted."鈥擥ordon Haber, Forward
"It is a short book, but hopefully it will be widely read as it is an important contribution to the Holocaust studies and hopefully it will encourage students to look at what happened in other European countries."鈥擪evin Winter, Manhattan Book Review
"A detailed, harrowing account of the active participation of ordinary Italians in the deportation of Italian Jews between 1943 and 1945, as well as of the subsequent erasure of their responsibilities and absolution of all guilt during the postwar years."鈥擲ergio Parussa, EuropeNow
"Short but hard-hitting book."鈥擥iuseppe Finaldi, European History Quarterly
鈥淚n this thoroughly researched and authoritative book, Simon Levis Sullam describes the murderous anti-Jewish policy of the Italian state from 1943 to 1945 and the widespread amnesia that followed the war.鈥濃�擲aul Friedl盲nder, University of California, Los Angeles
鈥淭his nuanced, fine-grained history provides detailed evidence of how Italians collaborated with the Nazis in the deportation of Jews from Italy. The Italian Executioners makes an important contribution to dismantling the idea of italiani brava gente鈥攖he 鈥榞ood Italians鈥� who presumably were less eager to collaborate than their French counterparts. Levis Sullam vividly describes how a whole network of Italians鈥攆rom Fascist officials and police to bus drivers and next-door neighbors鈥攑articipated in the genocide of Jews.鈥濃�擝arbara Spackman, University of California, Berkeley
鈥淐ombining trenchant writing and scholarly rigor, The Italian Executioners is a brilliant exposure of how Italians were not always the 鈥榥ice people鈥� of the brava gente myth. One of the many virtues of Levis Sullam鈥檚 fine book is its accounts of such places as Venice and Florence, where it is time to accept that there is past darkness to go with all the light.鈥濃�擱ichard J. B. Bosworth, author of Mussolini鈥檚 Italy
鈥淚f the myth of Italy as an innocent state and of Italians as 鈥済ood people鈥� (brava gente) lives on, it is in part because Simon Levis Sullam鈥檚 book on the Italian executioners has yet to be absorbed, or accepted, by a country still haunted by the specter of Fascism and intent on burying its awkward past. English-language readers will gratefully welcome, as history and warning, this fine new translation of Levis Sullam鈥檚 work.鈥濃�擪evin Madigan, Harvard University
