Almost 8,000 Jews were deported from Italy during the Holocaust and killed in Auschwitz. About half of them were arrested by Italians: members of the fascist party, police and military forces. Informing was widespread, often motivated by greed and turning in next-door neigbours. In the postwar period the role of Italians in the genocide fell mostly into oblivion.

Simon Levis Sullam is associate professor of Modern History at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. His publications include Giuseppe Mazzini and the Origins of Fascism (Palgrave 2015) and The Italian Executioners. The Genocide of the Jews of Italy (Princeton University Press 2018).