Politics
Italy: New book reveals extent of Mussolini hatred
Rome, 16 Nov. (AKI) - Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was a virulent anti-Semite before he came to power, and despised his wife Rachele and the Italian monarchy, according to a sensational new book to be released this week. The book entitled 'Secret Mussolini' also claims that Mussolini was in awe of Germany's wartime Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The 521-page book is an account of Mussolini's alleged musings to his mistress Clara Petacci.
Written by Italian journalist Maro Suttora 'Secret Mussolini' is due to be published on Wednesday.
The book is based on Petacci's diary entries between 1932 and 1938 held in Rome's state archives.
The Petacci family has long claimed custody of the documents.
In a diary entry dated 4 August, 1938, Mussolini reportedly told Petacci: "I was racist from 1921. I don't know how they can think that I am just imitating Hitler."
"We need to give Italians a sense of race, so they don't create half-breeds and don't spoil what is beautiful in us," he said.
"These disgusting Jews, we need to destroy them all," Petacci quotes Mussolini as saying in a diary entry on 16 November, 1938. Between 1938-1939 he passed a series of discriminatory laws against Jews.
In an 8 October 1938 diary entry by Petacci, Mussolini described Pope Pius XI as "ill-omened," claiming Italians did not really like him.
Pius XI had stated that "spiritually, we are all Jews," and had urged marriages between Jews and Catholics to be recognised. These were banned under Mussolini's racial laws.
Italy's 'racial laws' followed increasingly discriminatory anti-Jewish legislation enacted in Germany by Hitler's Nazi regime.
These culminated in the mass killings of European Jews in concentration camps during World War II.
"Our welcome in Munich was fantastic and the Fuhrer was very nice. Hitler is a big sentimentalist deep down. When he saw me he had tears in his eyes. He really loves me," Mussolini told Petacci, according to an entry in her diary on 1 October 1938.
He was referring to his attendance at the Munich Conference in late September, that year, when Germany, France, Britain, and Italy signed a pact agreeing to the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
The 521-page book is an account of Mussolini's alleged musings to his mistress Clara Petacci.
Written by Italian journalist Maro Suttora 'Secret Mussolini' is due to be published on Wednesday.
The book is based on Petacci's diary entries between 1932 and 1938 held in Rome's state archives.
The Petacci family has long claimed custody of the documents.
In a diary entry dated 4 August, 1938, Mussolini reportedly told Petacci: "I was racist from 1921. I don't know how they can think that I am just imitating Hitler."
"We need to give Italians a sense of race, so they don't create half-breeds and don't spoil what is beautiful in us," he said.
"These disgusting Jews, we need to destroy them all," Petacci quotes Mussolini as saying in a diary entry on 16 November, 1938. Between 1938-1939 he passed a series of discriminatory laws against Jews.
In an 8 October 1938 diary entry by Petacci, Mussolini described Pope Pius XI as "ill-omened," claiming Italians did not really like him.
Pius XI had stated that "spiritually, we are all Jews," and had urged marriages between Jews and Catholics to be recognised. These were banned under Mussolini's racial laws.
Italy's 'racial laws' followed increasingly discriminatory anti-Jewish legislation enacted in Germany by Hitler's Nazi regime.
These culminated in the mass killings of European Jews in concentration camps during World War II.
"Our welcome in Munich was fantastic and the Fuhrer was very nice. Hitler is a big sentimentalist deep down. When he saw me he had tears in his eyes. He really loves me," Mussolini told Petacci, according to an entry in her diary on 1 October 1938.
He was referring to his attendance at the Munich Conference in late September, that year, when Germany, France, Britain, and Italy signed a pact agreeing to the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
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