Simon Levis Sullam’s new history is The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy. From his Q&A at the Princeton University Press blog:How does your book supersede previous historiography on the fate of the Jews of Italy during the Holocaust?--Marshal Zeringue
Historians have long represented Italy during the Holocaust as a safe place for Jews, due to the many rescues of Jews by Italians, in particular by members of the Catholic clergy. Some of the founders of Holocaust historiography, such as Léon Poliakov or Raul Hilberg, viewed the Italians’ benevolent national character as antithetical to violence and genocide. But following a new stream of research starting with the work of Michele Sarfatti and Liliana Picciotto, The Italian Executioners claims that Italians—including ordinary Italians—were accomplices in the genocide of the Jews. Over 8,000 Jews, about 20% of the Italian Jewish population, were arrested and deported from Italy. Nearly half of these arrests were carried out by Italians.
Why do you prefer the category of genocide to those of Holocaust or Shoah? How do you apply it?
In the book, I use “genocide” as it was coined by...[read on]