“Thou shalt not be a victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator, but above all, thou shalt not be a bystander” (A), these wise words were spoken by Yehuda Bauer, 65 years after the start of the Holocaust. Italy, under the rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, was one of the many countries who turned her back on the Jewish people. Because of political, social and economic reasons, Italy was a bystander to the heinous crimes inflicted on the Jewish population. Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government in 1922, and ruled until 1943. Under Mussolini’s rule, democratic institutions were shut down. The shutdown of democratic institutions resulted in a Fascist dictatorship. One of Mussolini’s main goals for Italy was to build a …show more content…
Nazi propaganda in Italy included pictures of smiling Nazis reaching out to shake your hand, and small children waving flags with swastikas. The lack of honest media showing what was happening to the Jewish community, and why it was happening, resulted in uneducated Italian citizens who did not know the true horror of what went on in concentration camps. Word of what was going on in Germany did not even reach America until 1942 in an article written by Varian Fry. Fry describes the massacre of the Jewish community as acts “so horrible, decent men and women find them impossible to believe [and] so monstrous that the civilized world recoils incredulous before them” (Fry). This article resulted in America’s very late, but positive involvement in the Holocaust. But why did Italy, a country so much nearer in proximity to Germany than America, never get involved? Because Nazi propaganda was nonexistent in America. Nevertheless, some could still argue that social forces had no effect on Italy’s un-involvement, this argument would be extremely weak because it is clear “Nazi propaganda was essential to motivating those who executed the mass murder of European Jews” (Nazi). If disinformation, such as propaganda had not swept across the country of Italy, it is clear to see why the number of Jews who were sent to concentration camps would have been fewer. As a final point, economic factors
Benito Mussolini: Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting in 1943. In 1926 Mussolini seized total power as dictator and ruled Italy as Il Duce from 1930 to 1943.
During the Second World War, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was the leader of the Italian Nationalist Fascist government. He was head of the Italian government from 1922 till 1943. The significance of Mussolini is that he played a key role acting as the Italian Prime Minister and established a totalitarian regime, during this time, as the unchallenged supreme leader, known as ‘Il Duce’. Fascism consisted of many contributors of which Mussolini with all his quirks was the key to most of its failures and successes, making him the most significant player that is worthy of being investigated. This topic is worthy of being investigated as Mussolini made a lot of decisions that lead to the death of many, but the question as to
• In 1922 Mussolini became prime minister of Italy. He outlawed all political parties and established a secret police that could arrest anyone for political or nonpolitical
Mussolini consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 could have been mainly due to the use of force and intimidation. However this was not a straightforward process, since fascism was a new thing. In the years 1922 to January 1925 marked the transition from the liberal parliamentary system to the fascist state. Like many political transitions, it was an untidy and complicated process. Although from the start Mussolini’s intentions were quite difficult to establish, however it could be that Mussolini wanted to set up from the beginning a totalitarian one party state.
Being one of the most feared powers in Europe during the twentieth century, Benito Mussolini was the leader and the founder of the Italian Fascist party. He had the most courageous and outgoing ideas and ways to reform Italy into its old roots. Benito had inspiring ideas as, to rebuild the “Roman Empire”, make Italy into a European superpower, and be a severe threat to the entire world. Benito was the editor-in-chief of “Avanti!” a socialist newspaper, and was able to spread the word of himself as well as the idea of Fascism. His ideas and tactics eventually led to him being dictator of Italy for 21 years.
“The risk of the Holocaust is not that it will be forgotten, but that it will be blamed and surrounded by monuments and used to absolve all future sin,” Zygmunt Bauman. Even if the whole world was told about the violence the Jewish people faced, the world that hasn’t experienced this would not believe anyone. There are many who know about this derogatory action and just don't do anything about it. These kind of people are called “bystanders,” this is a term that has often been given to people who had a mutual feeling to the escalating persecution in the Holocaust. After the war, many ordinary Germans and Europeans claimed that they were “not involved,” that they were “bystanders” to the events of the Holocaust. Use of the term “bystander” to avoid the responsibility for what happened, however, concealed the many different levels of individual involvement at all levels of society.
War is inevitable, as it is simply the manifestation of the strength and vigour of the Italian people that wishes to expand itself, never looking back. Peace was considered as merely a “mask to surrender and cowardice.” Mussolini stressed that Italians required “forces, duty, and sacrifice” in order to rise again to their former greatness, that of the Roman Empire. This is also Mussolini’s rationale for harsh and severe actions against any who would resist or try and undermine fascism.
The world has two types of people: Upstanders, individuals who see wrong and act, and bystanders, people who are present but not taking part in a situation or event. During one of the worst periods of time in the 20th century, known as the Holocaust, these two types of people were present. From 1933 to 1945, many people and countries who were bystanders, watched as six million Jews and five million non-Jews were murdered by the notorious Nazis. As Will Rogers, Jr. said, “The Jews were being kicked around in Europe and the United States should do something about it and the other people should do something about–whether they were Jews or Cherokees or whatever it was.” Still, the majority of the world remained silent during the Holocaust.
Along with the Fascist Party, came the idea of a "perfect" race of man, and persecution. Hitler’s idea of a non-Jewish race appealed to Mussolini. Before the war began, Benito Mussolini and his army started their persecution of the Jews in Italy. This did not last long, however, because Mussolini’s popularity began to fall. As his popularity among his people began to decline, so did his relations with many European nations. Much of Italy’s foreign relations depended solely on treaties and pacts. (5) As Germany and Italy moved together towards a uniform society, the strength and honor of the treaties were in jeopardy.
The economic instability of Europe developed totalitarian goverments that began rising during the depression in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Germany, Italy, and Japan all became countries subjected to the rule of dictated military rule leaving no room for opposition. Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922 (Calvocoressi, Wint, p 777, 1999). Mussolini had his own philosophy that his destiny was to rule over Italy as Caesar in a more modern version while re-creating the Roman Empire. In his attempts in
The war created many social and political problems throughout the country and by the election of 1919 things changed dramatically. The socialists and popular Catholic parties took over the Parliament, which lead to the ideas of a revolution among the people (Defusco). One leader of this revolution was Benito Mussolini, who founded a movement called Fascism. After four years of revolution, Mussolini took over as the dictator of Italy and eliminated civil liberties, political parties, and encouraged a totalitarian regime (Defusco). Mussolini soon joined forces with Hitler and World War II came into affect. The Fascists later turned on Mussolini and Italy joined the Allies to fight Germany. This reaction lead to a strong anti-Fascist movement called the Committee of National Liberation (Defusco). By the year 1946 the idea for a republic was anonymous. Various parties were
It became the foundation of the fascist movement in Italy following World War I. Mussolini used the newspaper to spread his ideas of fascism. On June 6, 1919, an issue of Il Popolo d’Italia listed and described the goals of fascism. However, fascism did not begin to take off until October of 1922.
Fundamentally, both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler had the same burning desire to each make their nation a respected and economically impregnable Great Power. Mussolini wanted to return Italy to its glory days of the ancient Roman Empire, a domestic policy amongst others which was used as propaganda and to ultimately consolidate his power. A strong economy and a united state were vital for both countries in case of the outbreak of yet another catastrophic war. "Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state", stated Mussolini in need of desperate backup at home. Post WWI left both Germany and Italy with grave problems economically, which further repelled into social problems such as high unemployment and
Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister in 1922 due to the depriving affects that world war one had on Italian society. The war destroyed Italy economically leading to a rise in socialism. This in turn lead to highlighting the weaknesses of the liberals as the country was torn apart in the red years. This strengthened the appeal of fascism as it was the cure that Italy needed to get rid of the socialists. The fascists needed only to organise their party and take advantage of the open opportunity to seize power in Rome.
Mussolini and the fascists managed to rise to power and take control of Italy in 1922. Mussolini’s rise to power took place mainly due to a combination of conditions that characterized the liberal Italian state, which existed before his take over. The main factors that led to Mussolini’s rise to power were the impact of the First World War, the weaknesses of the Risorgimento, the Biennio Rosso , the elite’s support for the Fascist Party, and the March on Rome. All of these factors contributed to Mussolini and the fascist’s rise to power.