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{en} Wiley Feinstein (1952-). The Civilization of the Holocaust in Italy: poets, artists, saints, anti-semites. Madison [N.J.] : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ; Associated University Presses, 2003.

Abstract

"The study examines the persecution of Italian Jews during the Fascist period in relation to the Italian cultural tradition. It argues that Holocaust historians have failed to confront the cultural content of the Italian campaign against the Jews and have incorrectly labeled Fascist-era anti-Semitism a betrayal of Italian civilization. In opposition to this thesis, the work argues that the persecution stems directly from beliefs deeply embedded in Italian culture, precisely the kind of beliefs shared by significant Fascist-era cultural figures such as Giovanni Papini, Ardengo Soffici, and Agostino Gemelli."--Book Jacket.

Contents

St. Francis, Giotto, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio: Creating the Judaeophobic Cultural and Political Community -- The Inquisitional Cast of Mind from St. Bernardino to Michelangelo -- An Italy with No God But Dante's: Manzoni, Gioberti, Mazzini, Pius IX, Chivilt. Cattolica, Edgardo Mortara -- 1870-1910: Anti-Semitism and Jewish Self-Effacement in an Age of Spiritual Crisis: Carducci, Lombroso, Croce, and the Meaning of Agostino Gemelli's Conversion -- Papini, Soffici, Gemelli: The Poet, the Artist, and the Saint of Twentieth-Century Italian Anti-Semitism -- Hitler in the Shadow of Mussolini -- Dante at Auschwitz: Primo Levi, God's Revenge on Ulysses, and the Supreme Pleasure of the Jews, God, and Hitler -- Conclusion: D, j. Vu All over Again with a Vengeance.