The tragedy of the Holocaust in Italy had smaller proportions than in other countries in Europe, as we discussed in our article dedicated to the Italian Jewish community during the Fascist era. However, it touched the lives of  thousands of people and changed the history of the Jewish community in the country: well integrated, especially after it became one united country in 1861, the Jewish people of Italy had supported fights for independence and, after the unification, its members became full citizens, a fact very much uncommon at the time in Europe. 

Even if the community had to endure severe limitations, violence and harassment after Mussolini signed Italy's Racial Laws in 1938, true tragedy began years later with the fall of the Fascist regime, in 1943, when the Nazis occupied the northern part of the country. It is then than the Shoah and mass deportations, mostly towardsAuschwitz, truly started in Italy.