No, it did not. See my previous post. There were Jews in Mussolini's government. (I read his memoirs a couple of months ago.)
See here:
TOLERANCE AND ASSIMILATION The Italian record on the Holocaust, though not spotless, is a lot more positive than that of most of the rest of Europe. It is clear that Italians, though allied with Nazi Germany, in general did not share the Nazis' genocidal zeal.
Before 1938, the fascist Italian government had not joined its Axis ally Germany in its persecution of Jews. Jews made up about 0.1% of the population and were very well assimilated. It was not unheard of for Italian Jews to marry Catholic Italians. The average Italian might have perceived Jews as having different and perhaps strange-seeming worship customs, but in general they were considered normal friends and neighbors. Jews even felt comfortable joining the Fascist Party, out of patriotism for their country.
1938: MUSSOLINI FALLS IN LINE WITH HITLER Things began to change in 1938 for Italian Jews. Mussolini, in his craven desire to please the Fuhrer, initiated a comprehensive anti-Semitic campaign at the urging of the Nazis, including miscegenation laws and a media campaign against Jews. Jews were forbidden to teach in schools. Foreign Jews living as refugees in Italy were rounded up and confined in internment camps. However, these camps were a lot more like the Japanese-American internment camps than the Nazi death camps.
Thousands of Jews seeking refuge went to Italy and Italian-occupied territories because they knew that they were likely to be protected rather than persecuted. In general the Italian people did not buy into the government's anti-Jewish policies, though Italian intellectuals were curiously silent.
1943: GERMANY TAKES MATTERS IN ITS OWN HANDS The situation took a dramatic turn for the worse in 1943 when Mussolini was overthrown and imprisoned. Gen. Badoglio assumed the Prime Minister's post and immediately began negotiating a ceasefire with the Allies. Enraged, Hitler used force in an attempt to bring Italy back into the Axis fold as well as teach the Italians a lesson. Despite the increasingly desperate situation on the Eastern Front, Germany sent troops to occupy northern and central Italy. This was very unfortunate for Italian Jews (as well as all Italians), since most lived in the northern regions. SS troops, along with the most zealous of Mussolini's supporters, began rounding up Jews in Rome, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Trieste, and other northern cities. Two internment camps were built and occasionally the Germans transferred Jews from these camps to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In total about 8,000 Jews were deported to the Nazi death camps during the occupation. About 95% of them perished there. The remaining 40,000 Jews in Italy survived because of the refusal of common Italians, as well as lower-level Italian government and military authorities, to cooperate with the Nazis both before and during Germany's brutal occupation. In many instances, Italians actively assisted Jews by obstructing or not cooperating with deportations, or helped them escape to unoccupied southern Italy. Eighty percent of Italian Jews survived the Holocaust, while elsewhere in Europe as many as 80% of Jews were murdered.
http://vrm.vrway.com/issue11/ITALY_AND_THE_HOLOCAUST.html
--- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't know much about Italian history. Did Italian
> fascism involve
> anti-Jewish bigotry in a significant way before
> Mussolini became
> subordinated to Hitler?
> --
> Jim Devine / Bust Big Brother Bush!
>
> "There are no whole truths; all truths are
> half-truths. It is trying
> to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil."
> -- Alfred North
> Whitehead
>
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