An issue of the anti-Semitic biweekly La Difesa della Razza – ‘Defense of the Race’. October 20, 1938 – extensive articles against the Jews as a race, and the threat they pose to the stability and peace of the Italian nation – from the most extreme anti-Semitic publications that appeared on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. In the upper part of the magazine’s title page appears the anti-Semitic inscription: “Be human and not stupid sheep, so that the Jew among you will not laugh” – a quote that appeared regularly on the title pages of all the weekly’s issues.
On the title page of the issue is an anti-Semitic image that alludes to the Jewish plot – next to the Hanukkah menorah with its candles there are two books on the table on which is written “Talmud Torah”, and above them, an unknown person places the book “The Great Council of Fascism”. The entire issue is full of venomous anti-Semitic articles. Along with articles praising fascism, the way it supposedly takes care of the weak in society and presenting it as the best solution for Italian society, with which the issue opens, anti-Semitic articles dealing with the “Jewish character” and the “Jewish danger” appear throughout. Throughout the issue, it is claimed that the Jews only care about themselves, and that they routinely take advantage of world political situations solely for their benefit at the expense of the peoples they live among. The magazine accuses some Jewish politicians in Italy who managed to pass laws in favor of their people against the Italian interest. There are articles dealing with the Jew’s global control of money and the economy, articles accusing the Jews of betraying their homeland during the First World War – for example, it is written that more than 300 large Jewish companies were convicted of usury, forgery, treason, and revealing German military secrets. In this article excerpts from Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” are quoted, and it is claimed that the Jews are directly to blame for Germany’s defeat in the First World War. Another anti-Semitic article tries to explain that even if the Jews are assimilated, the “racial defects” will remain in their blood, that “a spoiled Jew remains a Jew”, and that assimilation will not solve the “Jewish problem” for the nations.
The Issue presents the Jews as the great enemy of fascism in Italy, and that every time fascism advanced towards a significant influence among the population it was the Jews who managed to stop it. It is also claimed that even the places where the Jews chose to live in Italy were chosen according to the Jewish interests of imperialism and taking over from within. This article is accompanied by two large charts describing the distribution of the Jewish population in Italy, and the number of Jews in relation to the general population, and raises the fear of Italy’s eventual annihilation and fall into Jewish hands. The magazine expresses unprecedented support for the Nazis and the Nazi race theory, and writes in an anti-Semitic article that the marriage of Italians with Jews and with all members of the Semitic race should be prohibited, and that only marriages with members of the Aryan race will benefit the Italian nation. This article is accompanied by various photographs of members of the Semitic race, including Jews from Yemen, in an attempt to characterize what they have in common and present them as inferior compared to the other races. The middle pages show photographs of “this versus that” – hereditary defects in mixed offspring with the “inferior” races versus the splendor of heredity in the union of the “superior races”. An article appears dealing with the need to teach race theory in Italian schools and to remove the “Jewish influence” from schools, as well as to teach Italian history in “the right way”. Another article deals with the Jews’ takeover of the centers of power in Soviet Russia – in this article there are photographs of prominent Jews in the Russian public within a Star of David in the center of which appears the figure of Trotsky. Also written extensively about the “noble” Italian art compared to Jewish art, and an article dealing with the support of the Jews for socialism, the great enemy of fascism, while quoting words written by various Zionist thinkers, and more.
La Difesa della Razza [The Defense of the Race] an Italian biweekly published between August 1938 and June 20, 1943 by Telesio Interlandi, published by Tumminelli in Rome (5 years in which a total of 117 issues were published), at the initiative of Benito Mussolini who believed in the written word to assimilate anti-Semitic and racist ideas among the Italian population. Those issues were the main anti-Semitic tool of the fascist regime, designed to promote the fascist racial laws in Italy. His goal was to spread a “scientific” doctrine of race theory, and to convince the Italians that colonialism, the prohibition of mixed marriages, and race laws are political goals that are anchored in the laws of nature. The magazine presented baseless ideas supporting the superiority of the Aryan race to which it claimed the Italians should have belonged, and warned of the “biological pollution” that might occur if the Italians mixed with the “inferior races”. In the “scientific” sections of the magazine, racism and anti-Semitism were legitimized from a medical and biological point of view, focusing on presenting false “genetic” teachings. The magazine even deals a lot with demography in an attempt to present statistical projections showing the “non-Aryan” races in constant decline compared to the Aryan races. As Italy became more deeply involved in the war alongside the Axis powers, the propaganda against Jews intensified, accusing them of being responsible for the war and warning of the “dangers” of mixing with Jews, which could lead to “social contamination”.”
Complete Issue. 63 p., 30 cm. General Good Condition.
