Comrade Khruschev claimed Stalin had a nervous breakdown for a few days.
On Stalin and June 21, 1941, these were just published, "Stalin's folly : the tragic first ten days of World War II on the Eastern front, " by Konstantin Pleshakov. "What Stalin Knew : The Enigma of Barbarossa, " by David E. Murphy.
From Publishers Weekly One of the enduring puzzles of World War II is Stalin's dismissal of unmistakable evidence of a looming German invasion, a blunder that contributed to the disastrous Russian defeats of 1941. This engaging study of the Soviet intelligence apparatus helps clarify the mystery. Murphy, an ex-CIA Soviet specialist and co-author of Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War, argues that Stalin knew virtually everything for many months before the attack. Soviet spies in the German government offered detailed reports of invasion plans. Britain and the United States passed along warnings. Soviet agents in Eastern Europe noted the millions of German soldiers heading east to the Soviet border and their stock-piling of weapons and Russian phrase books. Stalin rejected these reports as Western provocations and barred the Red Army from taking elementary precautions, like chasing off the German reconnaissance planes surveying their defenses. Murphy presents a bizarre additional wrinkle in two letters Hitler sent to allay Stalin's suspicions, which claimed that the German armies massing in Poland were preparing to attack England and warned Stalin that rogue Wehrmacht units might invade Russia against Hitler's wishes-a smokescreen that inhibited Stalin's response to the German buildup and initial attacks. Murphy chalks up the debacle to Stalin's clinging to a Marxist fantasy of the capitalist powers fighting each other to exhaustion, and to the paralysis instilled in the Red Army by his purges. Fearful subordinates bowed to Stalin's absurd complacency about German intentions; the one intelligence chief who dared challenge his delusions was arrested and shot. Murphy's well-researched account offers both a meticulous reconstruction of an intelligence epic and a window into the tragedy of Stalin's despotism.
> BTW, Mussolini mentions the word "Jew" three times in
> the entirety of his book, surprisingly considering
> that he was writing in German-controlled Italy. The
> Trotsky comment has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.
> The Nazis, not the Fascists, were the Jew-obsessed
> people. There were lots of Jewish Fascists, in fact.
>
> When did Italy finally bend to German pressure and
> start handing over Jews? It was pretty late, IIRC.
> Also IIRC, it did not apply to Jews who were members
> of the Fascist Party or their relatives. Anybody know
> anything about this?
"Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism, " by Alexander Stille, chapter one available via Google Print, on Italian Jewish Fascist(s) http://print.google.com/print?id=737Fn9ZzzSYC&dq=Benevolence+and+Betrayal:+Five+Italian+Jewish+Families+under+Fascism&oi=print&pg=PA19&sig=4EZYzU5BeSDJNgyRPYaOHZZ1G7Y&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Flr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3DBenevolence%2520and%2520Betrayal%253A%2520Five%2520Italian%2520Jewish%2520Families%2520under%2520Fascism
The 2nd pg. of the first chapter says 230 Jews participated in the March on Rome.
"Jews of Italy Under Fascist and Nazi Rule: 1922-1945, " edited by edited by Joshua D Zimmerman , Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005. http://print.google.com/print?id=8WGZ0MWIgUwC&dq=Benevolence+and+Betrayal:+Five+Italian+Jewish+Families+under+Fascism&oi=print&pg=PA8&sig=FAVZF8VBIBAwfNAwSEXbmqtlKhY&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Flr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3DBenevolence%2520and%2520Betrayal%253A%2520Five%2520Italian%2520Jewish%2520Families%2520under%2520Fascism
goes into the debate over the fate of Jewry under Italian Fascism, "
Synopsis:This book brings to light the Italian-Jewish experience from the start of Mussolini's Prime Ministership through the end of the Second World War. Challenging the myth of Italian benevolence during the fascist period, authors investigate the treatment of Jews by Italians during the Holocaust, and the native versus foreign roots of Italian fascist anti-Semitism. Essays collected in this volume each illustrate a different aspect of Italian Jewry under fascist and Nazi rule. Areas of inquiry include the role of the Catholic Church with special reference to Pope Pius XII, Mussolini's attitude and anti-Jewish policies leading to the onset of the 1938 Italian racial laws, and the Italian popular reactions to anti-Jewish persecution. Included also is an examination of cover images and articles from the Italian racist newspaper La Difesa della Razza intended to lay bare the influence of the Italian media on the general Italian public."
-- Michael Pugliese