P.N.F.
Rome 1941-XIX
Aryanism and the Italian Population
The Supremacy of the Aryan Race
The Defense of the Race
The Nation and the Race
The Thought of the Duce on Race
What Fascism Has Done for the Race
Fascism and the Jews
The Fascist Laws on Race
Foreign Jews
Mixed Marriage
Foundation of Fascist Racial Legislation
Who is a Jew?
Limitations and Exclusions
Discriminations
Race and Empire
What You Need to Know About Race
THE HUMAN SPECIES AND HUMAN RACES
As tree branches depart from the trunk, so within the human species there are distinct races.
When we generally speak of race, we are referring to a biological reality, that is to say, a human group whose individuals have a set of similar characteristics, such as the color of the skin, the shape of the skull, the type of hair, etc.
Race is formed and delimitated by the constant inheritance of those characteristics which distinguish it from all the others.
However, in addition to inheriting physical or biological characteristics, moral characteristics are also inherited in race, that is to say, that set of instincts, inclinations, attitudes and qualities that make up the human personality.
Scientists disagree about the number and denomination of human races.
The simplest and clearest system is the synthetic one, which classifies humanity into white, yellow and black races; or europid, mongoloid and negroid. Each of these great races or categories is divided into a variable and difficult to ascertain number of sub-races, which are not always easily distinguishable from each other.
The tripartite classification—that is to say, the one that reduces the main human races to three—in general corresponds with the text of the Bible, which traces the population of the Earth to the division and dispersion of the descendants of Noah, namely the families of Shem, Ham, Japheth.
The physical and spiritual differences existing between the main races, the secondary races and the sub-races of the same race, are due to a considerable number of factors, not all of which are known.
The evident inferiority of some races, and especially of that which is unanimously called the Negroid race, is attributed to a progressive decline over very long periods of time. Other scientists attribute this inferiority to an arrest of development.
However, it is sufficient to note that there are currently very great differences between the human races, despite their common origin.
ARYANISM AND THE ITALIAN POPULATION
It was agreed to use the term 'Aryan' for those white bloodlines that, descending from a pure and noble ethnic family, speak languages derived from a common mother tongue and appear to be linked in the historical development of civilization.
The European peoples, including those who have moved to other continents, are almost all considered as belonging to the Aryan race.
The primitive Italian population can be considered native to our soil; their traces can be seen dating back to very distant prehistoric times. This native population was then, in later times, joined by groups of people of white race, who came from the sea or through the Alpine passes.
The unity of the Italian race was realized in full by Rome, which arose providentially as the nucleus around which our civilization would be organized.
Rome was able to fulfill this function because its inhabitants were workers and warriors, as Virgil describes them:
"We are a tough race. We take our new-born sons to the river, to harden them in the ice-cold waves. Our boys are keen at hunting and overcoming the forests. Their pastimes are horse-taming and archery. They grow up content with little, strengthened by struggle, tilling the earth, and in war they break down the enemy's walls. Our life is worn away with iron: with the lance of war we sting the side of the young ox. Not even old age can enfeeble the forces of the soul, nor diminish its bravery: we cover our whitened hair with helmets."As the Roman Empire expanded, and after its fall, other peoples—always of white race and predominantly of northern origin—came to Italy, entering into the orbit of Roman civilization and assimilating into the racial unity of the nation.
THE SUPREMACY OF THE ARYAN RACE
History records that in all ages the people of greatest civilization were those of our race.
Modern civilization, in all that is solid and high, is the product of Aryan races.
Other races have also been able to reach remarkable levels of civil progress at various times. The ancient, refined civilization of the Chinese is well known. But in the contemporary era the people of the yellow race, or Mongoloids, who managed to preserve their independence and power, have at the same time adopted the forms and means of European civilization, which is exclusively Aryan.
The race that we belong to is at the head of the world.
Other races in all times have assailed it, trying to submerge it, or stop it, or undermine it, but it always emerged victorious from obstacles, invasions, and pitfalls, and spread its dominion everywhere.
The greatest champions of mankind belong to our race.
The highest artistic and literary creations, the highest inventions and scientific discoveries, the fundamental laws of social existence, are due to this race.
This civil domination of the European peoples, who by agreement are overall referred to as 'Aryans', is continuous and constant.
Only Aryan civilization tirelessly progresses and is renewed with a marvelous variety of types and accomplishments, which continue and complement each other.
The Mediterranean basin has been and still is the horizon of the greatest splendor of this continuity of Aryan primacy, with Greece, Rome, the Renaissance, Fascism. It is natural that Italy, placed at the center of the Mediterranean, is also today—as in the past—a lively, unquenchable fire of the purest Aryan tradition.
THE DEFENSE OF THE RACE
History reveals a destiny of eternal youth and strength of the Aryans.
But destiny can be changed, for better or for worse, by individuals, by peoples, by races.
Here and there the Aryan race faces situations of decline or decadence.
Some nations of Aryan origin become progressively sterile, lose their sense of race, and do not hesitate to import and mix with foreign blood.
Race must be defended in the physical sense and in the spiritual sense, so that it can preserve its purity and its capacity for ascent and domination.
The first essential step in defending the race consists in preventing any marriage and any breeding with people of different origins.
But the defense of blood is not enough. The Aryan race must reject all kinds of moral and intellectual contamination, that is to say, all those theories and ideologies, all those philosophical, political, social and economic systems, all those artistic, literary or scientific expressions, and all those customs that are in contrast with the its tradition and its nature.
The defense of the race must be active. If in the past there have been mixtures in the physical realm, and failures in the moral realm, they must be eliminated.
Mixtures or half-breeds are eliminated by preventing them from renewing and multiplying, so that, in the span of some generations, the extraneous elements disappear from our blood, being increasingly diluted and losing their genetic capacity.
In the ethical realm, the reestablishment of racial purity is obtained through education and through systems that regulate individual and social life, so as to conform it to those which are the genuine characteristics and higher needs of the race.
Race is quantity and quality.
The power, i.e. the life energy of a race, consists both in the number of individuals belonging to it and in their spiritual and physical gifts.
The safeguarding of traditional religion, of the family, of domestic virtues, the cult of motherhood, the protection of children, their preparation for life as producers and soldiers, the development of the warrior spirit, the fight against immorality and against social illnesses, the popularization of basic standards of hygiene, the spread of culture, and all those initiatives and institutions that aim at bringing well-being, health, serenity and joy into the life of the people—all of this constitutes a defense of the race, because these are the foundational securities of its future.
THE NATION AND THE RACE
A nation is understood as a group of individuals of the same race who, having established itself in a given territory, have carried out its historical, political and spiritual life, achieving a unity of purpose and action, superior in energy and in strength, and resistant to any possibility of disintegration.
If there are individuals of a different race than that of the great majority living in the territory of a nation, then those individuals do not belong to the host nation.
Each nation, while remaining attached to the race to which it belongs, has a character of its own that must be religiously guarded. "Every people, every State", the DUCE points out, "has its history and its intimate, very original sources from which the qualities of the race derive."
The people are the nation when they are one in spirit and blood and possess a clear national consciousness, that is to say, a feeling of unity and duty and common interest.
The cult of nationality is identified with the feeling of the Fatherland.
Love of the Fatherland is also an act of fidelity to the race, because those who truly love their Fatherland will desire that its heritage of spirit and blood be kept pure.
THE THOUGHT OF THE DUCE ON RACE
Since the life of the nation is the life of the race to which it belongs, the Fascist Revolution from the very beginning was a movement to defend and elevate the race.
This was clearly stated by the DUCE on April 3, 1921, in the following words:
"How then was this Fascism born; amid what tumultuous passions, sympathy, hatred, bitterness, and incomprehension? It was not only born in my mind and in my heart; it was not only born in that meeting held in March 1919 in the little hall at Milan; it was born of the profound and perennial need of this our Mediterranean and Aryan race, which felt the essential foundations of its existence threatened."The Fascist Revolution was born and took place in order to prevent the decline of the Italian nation and restore it to its fullness and strength, eliminating all causes of decay, and, in a special way, saving it from the harmful influence of political systems and economic and social policies contrary to its racial and spiritual heritage.
By proposing the goal of bringing the unity of the Italian nation to its maximum degree of efficiency, the Fascist Revolution, with an unceasing work, from the first moment it took action, has strengthened and purified the racial foundation from which the Italian nation arises.
The thought of the DUCE on race expresses this constant direction of the Fascist Revolution, which he created and led.
The idea and cult of race appears continuously in the thought of the DUCE as fundamental motives of his action.
During a very grave moment of the war—on November 2, 1917—the DUCE expressed his faith in the great moral heritage of the Italians:
"Pain strikes us but does not overwhelm us. Here the nobility of our race is revealed. All of Italy today is of one heart. It all comes down to our essential qualities and gloriousness as Italians."On February 16, 1921 [Editor's note: September 20, 1920]—during a turbulent period—he shouted to the people of Trieste:
"In fifty years Italy has made marvelous progress. In the first place she has a sure foundation, and that is the vitality of our race. ... The first fundamental pillar of Fascism is Italianity; that is to say, we are proud of being Italian. Even going to Siberia to shout out loud: We are Italian! ... Now we vindicate the honour of being Italian, because in our wonderful and adorable Peninsula—adorable, although there are inhabitants who are not always adorable—the most prodigious and marvelous history of mankind has taken place."On February 16, 1921 the DUCE insisted:
"We must have pride in our race and in our history."On November 7, 1921, the DUCE delivered this order:
"Fascism must deal with the problem of race. Fascists must occupy themselves with the health of the race, which is what makes history."On April 21, 1922, the DUCE wrote:
"To celebrate the Birth of Rome means to celebrate our kind of civilization, it means to exalt our history and our race."On May 25, 1922 the DUCE said to the rural population:
"Not everything which flourishes and nearly explodes in this springtime of our race is destined to last, and we know this, but we also know that some spiritual upheavals leave deep traces."When the DUCE speaks of race, he generally is referring to the Italian people, constituted into a nation, and in fact this people is so pure in blood and united in spirit that it constitutes a typical expression of the Aryan race.
"Italy", states the DUCE on March 8, 1934-XII, "has the privilege of being the most clearly identifiable nation from the geographical point of view. The most compactly homogeneous from the ethnic, linguistic, and moral point of view."
That is to say, an Italian race exists, because the Italian people, in their unity as a nation, have been able to preserve the prerogatives of Aryan origin, and develop them according to their own genius, in such a way as to form over the centuries an unmistakable face among kindred peoples.
Already in the first year of the Fascist Era, which began on October 28, 1922, the DUCE made frequent references to the excellence of our race.
On January 8, 1923, He expresses certainty that the Italian resurgence is due to the rediscovery of racial virtues:
"The eclipse of our race broke forth in 1915 and all the dormant, inextinguished virtues of our race sprang to the forefront and gave us immortal victory."
January 28, 1923-I:
"I declare that before loving the French, the English, the Hottentots—I love the Italians; that is to say, I love those who are of my same race, who speak my same language, who have my customs, who share my same history."
February 6, 1923-I:
"Among peoples, despite preaching, despite respectable idealisms, there always remains the realities known as race, development, greatness and decadence of peoples, which lead to conflicts and which are often resolved through force of arms."
March 11, 1923-I:
"Rome is a testimony and imperishable document of the vitality of our race."
April 2, 1923-I:
"The problem of Italian expansion in the world is a problem of life and death for the Italian race. ... I feel all the excitement of life that stirs this new powerful generation of the Italian race. You certainly have meditated a few times on what you might call a miracle in the history of mankind; it is not rhetoric, it is said that the Italian people are the immortal people who always find a spring for their hopes, for their passion, for their greatness."
April 21, 1923-I:
"I would like to draw your attention to the marvel of this renewal of our race, which leaps at the announcement of trial, fights and wins."
June 4, 1923-I:
"Other peoples would envy and do envy this proletarian, prolific, intelligent, wise and industrious Nation, confined within a small and divine peninsula, which by now is too narrow for our race."
June 11, 1923-I:
"You [Sardinians] are superb offspring of this Italian race which was great when other people were not born, of this Italian race which three times gave our civilization to the barbarian world, of this Italian race which we wish to mold by all the struggles necessary for discipline, for work, for faith."
June 12, 1923-I:
"Fascism, representing an irresistible movement for the regeneration of the race, was bound to carry with it this island [Sardinia] where the Italian race is manifested so superbly."
June 18, 1923-I:
"Fascism represents the prodigy of the Italian race, which has been rediscovered, redeemed, and which wants to be great."
June 19, 1923-I:
"Fascism is a religious phenomenon of vast historical proportions and is the product of our race."
June 24, 1923-I:
"Rome is always, as it will be tomorrow and in the centuries to come, the living heart of our race."In the speech pronounced by the DUCE on October 28, 1923-II, for the first anniversary of the March on Rome, we still hear him praising our race: "This old and wonderful Italic race knows sad hours, but it has never known the darkness of obscurity. If at times it appeared to be obscured, it suddenly reappeared in even greater light." "The Fascist Revolution", the DUCE proclaimed on that occasion, "is the springtime, the resurrection of our race."
October 30, 1923-II:
"The Monarchy has gloriously embodied the tradition of our race and our nation."Even here, as in the speech of March 11, 1923-II, the DUCE, distinguishing between race and nation, affirms that the Italian nation is part of a race which—although it must also be called Italian, since it manifests its pure characteristics in our people—embraces all the great horizon of Aryanism.
November 22, 1923-II:
"The fact is that the races bathed by the Mediterranean have inexhaustible seeds of vitality."
October 25, 1924-II:
"We are too proud of the civilization of our race and we are too proud of the victory we achieved through an immense sacrifice of blood, to think, even remotely, of becoming a colony."
December 5, 1924-III:
"If tomorrow there was another more comfortable, more tranquil and more liberal government, I believe that this old and young Italian race would express Fascism all over again."
June 6, 1925-III:
"The interventionist movement that spread like wildfire...responded to an incoercible need of our race."
April 15, 1926-IV:
"Our Italian race, in all times, has been capable of achieving miracles. This race appears to me every hour, when I make it the object of my meditations, as a singular marvel in the history of mankind."
May 26, 1927-V:
"We must pay serious attention to the destiny of the race, we must care for the race starting from motherhood and from infancy."And as early as September 14, 1929-VII, the DUCE defined integral reclamation in this way:
"It is redeemed land, and with the land, men, and with men, the race."
January 2, 1931-IX:
"The preparation of our youth is aimed at reinvigorating the race and giving it a sense of responsibility and discipline."
October 23, 1933-XI:
"Peace with honour and justice is a Pax Romana—that which dominated the world in the centuries of the Empire; a peace in conformity with the character and temperament of our Latin and Mediterranean race which I wish to exalt before you because it is the race which has given to the world, among thousands of others, Caesar, Dante, Michelangelo, and Napoleon; a race of creators and constructors, ancient and strong, determined and universal, which has given the keynote to the world three times in the course of the centuries, and which shall again give the keynote that the world, disturbed and confused, awaits."
March 18, 1934-XII:
"Within a few decades all rural Italians must have a large and healthy home, where the peasant generations can live and last for centuries, as the secure and unchangeable basis of our race. ... Mother and Child Day, the tax on celibacy and its moral condemnation, the evacuation of the cities, rural reclamation, the National Agency of Maternity and Infant Welfare, the coastal and mountain colonies, physical education, youth organizations, the hygiene laws, all contribute to the defense of the race."
October 28, 1934-XIII:
"Those who saw you [athletes] in the parade had the profound impression of the new race that Fascism is manfully molding and tempering for any competition."
July 31, 1935-XIII:
"We Fascists acknowledge the existence of races, their differences and their hierarchy."
October 2, 1935-XIII:
"Never before, as at this historical hour, have the people of Italy revealed the quality of its spirit and such force of character, and it is against this people to which mankind owes its greatest conquests, this people of heroes, of poets, of saints, of navigators, of colonizers, that the world dares threaten sanctions."
October 26, 1935-XIII:
"It is you [rural folk] who represent the race in its most profound and immutable sense."
May 3, 1936-XIV:
"Race and soil are inseparable; through the soil the history of the race is made, and the race dominates and develops and fertilizes the soil."
August 27, 1936-XIV:
"Fertile peoples have the right to imperialism, those who have the pride and the will to propagate their race on the face of the earth, the virile peoples in the most strictly literal sense of the word."
July 10, 1938-XVI:
"The Party is also a powerful architect of the physical and moral elevation of the race, through the hundreds of thousands of athletic activities and through the establishment of the National Recreational Club, which allows the masses to approach the highest sources of the national spirit."
July 30, 1938-XVI:
"You know and everyone knows that also on the question of race we will follow the right path. To say that Fascism has imitated someone or something is simply absurd."
September 18, 1938-XVI:
"Those who believe that we have obediently imitated anyone, or worse, acted on suggestions, are poor fools toward whom we do not know if we should direct our contempt or our pity. The racial problem did not suddenly burst out of nowhere, as those who are accustomed to brusque awakenings think—since they are used to long armchair naps. It is in relation to imperial conquest; because history teaches us that empires are conquered by arms, but are held by prestige. And for prestige it is necessary to have a clear, severe racial consciousness, that establishes not only the differences, but also very clear superiorities. The Jewish problem is thus only one aspect of this phenomenon."
January 22, 1939-XVII:
"Our rural policy follows this course: reclaim the land, increase income, improve the lot of farmers and farm workers in Italy, maintaining a strong peasantry which has pride of life on earth, to work in Italy and Italian lands in Africa, to preserve and pass on the intrinsic virtues of the Italian race, and to defend with arms this land which is now identified historically, physically, and morally with the Fatherland."
WHAT FASCISM HAS DONE FOR THE RACE
Every time the DUCE spoke about race, all the principles he established became directives of action by the Regime and by the Party, and determined the creation and development of institutions, laws and public works, which demonstrates how Fascism has consistently carried out a racial policy.
Through the work of the P.N.F., Fascism has given back to all Italians that custom characterized by a virile, warrior, energetic and constructive style which is typical of the Italian race in all times.
Fascism created the National Agency of Maternity and Infant Welfare (O.N.M.I.) in order to assist mothers at the time in which they enrich the race with new blood, and to assist children in growing up healthily.
Fascism carried out a demographic policy to keep the race fruitful, materially and morally encouraging marriage and the procreation of children; supporting large families with many incentives, gathering them into special associations.
Fascism has taken effective measures against urbanism—that is to say, against the unjustified and excessive influx of people from the countryside to the cities—in order to prevent the rural population—the backbone of the race—from losing its fertility.
Fascism promoted the return of many families to the countryside, in order to bring country life back and to make the race healthy and prolific.
Fascism has modernized Italian agriculture and has undertaken the complete reclamation of the soil of the Fatherland, so that the race can attach itself to the soil and nourish it for future generations.
The battle of the wheat is a battle of the race, because it ensures the most important and sacred food: bread, "the heart of the home, the scent of the table, the joy of the hearth", "the sweetest gift of God, the holiest award to human fatigue."
Fascism organized the struggle against social diseases: malaria, tuberculosis, syphilis, in order to preserve the health and vigor of the race.
Fascism has extensively developed social assistance and social security to give individuals and families serenity of work and protection against injury, unemployment, illness, disability and old age, spreading a well-being that benefits the development of the essential qualities of the race, its productive and warlike capacity, and its moral and physical resistance.
Fascism founded the National Recreational Club (O.N.D.), to provide workers of all categories a happy rest, which becomes a source of new energy for the race.
Fascism renewed national education, introducing the cultivation and care of those qualities, inclinations and attitudes that are the hereditary patrimony of the race.
Fascism has increased physical education and athletic exercises to the maximum, to physically improve the race and to temper it to the tasks of labour and war.
Fascism has created, with the Italian Youth of the Lictor, a great organization in which all the spiritual and physical capacities of the race are harmonically developed from the youngest age.
Fascism has implemented all these provisions in exaltation of the warrior spirit of the race, which must always be able to effectively take up arms to defend itself and to maintain its primacy.
And finally, Fascism has dictated laws necessary for the protection of the purity and prestige of the race.
FASCISM AND THE JEWS
The Jews are a non-Aryan race of people dispersed throughout the world.
The Jews are called Semites, because, according to the biblical designation, they are one of the peoples descended from Shem, son of Noah.
The Jews are perfectly distinguishable. They have always maintained their racial characteristics and have never assimilated with the population of the countries in which they live.
The Jews enjoyed the greatest hospitality in Italy since the time of the Risorgimento and succeeded in securing many high positions.
According to their unalterable nature, the Jews, despite being an infamous minority in Italy, tenaciously aimed at dominating the national conscience and the political and economic life of the country.
Despite the generous treatment of Fascists towards the Jews, international Jewry set itself against Fascism, allying itself with all its enemies, leading and organizing foreign conspiracies against Italy.
"World Jewry", recalled the DUCE in his speech in Trieste on September 18, 1938-XVI, "has been, for sixteen years, despite our policy, an irreconcilable enemy of Fascism. In Italy our policy has determined, in the Semitic elements, what can today be called a true rush to board the ship."
Enjoying all the rights of Italian citizenship, the Jews believed they could take advantage—and exploited Fascist generosity—to seize positions of command, hoard national wealth and pollute the spirit of our people.
The vast and underhanded work of corruption carried out tenaciously by the Jews in political, social and economic life, in the fields of art, literature and science, through all kinds of methods, represented a danger for the future of Italy.
The Fascist laws concerning the Jews have been issued to eliminate this danger and to bring the Italian people back to their complete physiological and spiritual purity.
FASCIST LAWS ON RACE
Before the Fascist laws on race were formally promulgated, a group of Italian scientists indicated the foundations of our conception of racialsm.
These scientists affirmed, in a particular way, the existence of different human races, and of macro-races and sub-races. Peoples and nations are distinguished in the race to which they belong by a series of differences, due to the different proportion of the elements that composed them.
The scientists affirmed that a population of Aryan civilization has been living on our soil for several millennia and that "the origin of today's Italians, essentially, stems from elements of those very races that make up and made up the perennially alive fabric of Europe."
While in other European nations the racial composition has changed considerably even in modern times, in the case of Italy, in its broad outlines, the racial composition of today is the one which resulted from Roman unification.
"An absolutely pure blood relationship connects the Italians of today with the generations that have been living in Italy for millennia. This ancient purity of blood is the greatest title of nobility of the Italian Nation. ... The purely European character of the Italians would be altered by any crossbreeding with an extra-European race, the carrier of a civilization that is different from the millenary civilization of the Aryans."
FOREIGN JEWS
The first Fascist law concerning the Jews was that of September 7, 1938-XVI, by which foreigners of the Jewish race were forbidden from establishing permanent residence in the Kingdom, in Libya and in the Aegean possessions.
Italian citizenship was stripped from those foreign Jews who had obtained it for any reason after January 1, 1919; and foreign Jews who came into our land after that date were obliged to leave our territory.
MIXED MARRIAGE
During the session of October 1938-XVI, the Grand Council of Fascism declared "the urgent relevance of racial problems and the necessity of a racial consciousness", recalling that "for sixteen years Fascism has carried out, and continues to carry out a positive activity, aimed at the quantitative and qualitative improvement of the Italian race, an improvement which could be seriously compromised, with incalculable political consequences, by crossbreeding and bastardization."
The Grand Council established:
- the ban on marriages between Italians and those belonging to Hamitic, Semitic and other non-Aryan races;
- the ban on State employees and employees of public institutions—civil and military personnel—from contracting marriage with foreign women of any race;
- and that the marriage of Italians to foreigners—even to foreigners of other Aryan races—must have the prior approval of the Ministry of the Interior.
FOUNDATION OF FASCIST RACIAL LEGISLATION
The Grand Council of Fascism, in establishing the principles of racial legislation, started from the observation that "world Jewry—especially after the abolition of Freemasonry—has been the instigator of anti-Fascism in all fields."
WHO IS A JEW?
Following the decisions of the Grand Council, the law of November 17, 1938-XVII specified that the following people are of the Jewish race, or are to be considered as such for the purposes of the law:
- he who is born to parents that are both of the Jewish race, even if he belongs to a religion different than the Jewish one;
- he who is born to parents of whom one is of the Jewish race and the other is a foreign national;
- he who is born to a mother of the Jewish race and the father is unknown;
- he who, despite being born to parents of Italian nationality, of which only one is of the Jewish race, or belongs to the Jewish religion, or both, is a member of a Jewish community, or has in any way made manifestations of Jewishness.
He who was born to parents of Italian nationality, of which only one is of the Jewish race, and who on October 1, 1938 belonged to a religion other than the Jewish one, is not considered Jewish.
LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS
Italian citizens of the Jewish race can not be registered with the National Fascist Party and are excluded:
- from military service;
- from the protection or care of minors or disabled persons of non-Jewish race;
- from the possession, management and direction of companies that pertain to national defense or that employ one hundred or more people;
- from the possession of land valued at more than 5,000 lire;
- from the possession of urban buildings with a total taxable income exceeding 20,000 lire;
- from employment with the State, the Party and its subordinate organizations, provinces, municipalities, and in general public sector and parastatal administrations, institutions and services, syndicates, banks and insurance companies;
- and they may not have Italian citizens of Aryan race as their domestic servants.
The law of November 17, 1938-XVII also provides for the case that the parent of Jewish race may be deprived of parental authority over children who belong to a religion other than Judaism, if it is demonstrated that the parent gives them an education which does not correspond to their religious principles or national purpose.
With another law (November 15, 1938-XVII), Italian citizens of Jewish race were completely excluded from teaching in public and private schools of any order and grade and from employment in the schools themselves; from academies, institutes and associations of science, literature and arts; and from obtaining university teaching degrees.
Students of Jewish race are excluded from every order and grade of public and private schools, however the law establishes the opening of elementary and secondary schools reserved for Jews.
Subsequently, the exclusion of Jews from the exercise of professions (journalism, advocacy, medicine, pharmacy, obstetrics, engineering, accounting) was established, with the exception of professional services in favor of other Jews.
DISCRIMINATIONS
The DUCE, however, had announced in his speech in Trieste on September 18, 1938-XVI that "Jews of Italian citizenship who have unquestionable military or civil merit towards Italy and the Regime, will find understanding and justice." And this promise was kept.
The Grand Council established certain "discriminations", which were then clarified and regulated by law. They concern:
- the families of the Fallen in the following wars: Libyan War, World War, Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War;
- those who were maimed, disabled, wounded, volunteered or decorated for military valor in the aforementioned wars;
- veterans who at least earned the War Merit Cross in those wars;
- those who were maimed, disabled, or wounded for the Fascist cause;
- members of the P.N.F. in the years 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, and in the second half of 1924;
- the Fiuman Legionaries;
- those who have exceptional merits, to be evaluated by a special commission.
Italian citizens of Jewish race who have one or more of the above-mentioned requisites, and their families, can not contract marriage with Aryans and remain excluded from teaching and public employment, as well as from national interest banks, nor can they be registered with the P.N.F.; but they can provide military service, own land and buildings without restrictions, own, manage and direct companies of any kind, exercise professions and maintain Italian domestic servants of Aryan race.
RACE AND EMPIRE
The Italian people are, by their nature and as a result of their history, a colonizing people.
For Italy, the colonies are not simply territories to exploit, but to populate and civilize.
"Other nations", clarified a note of the Diplomatic Dispatch in August 1938-XVI, "send only a few, carefully-chosen officials to the lands of their empires; but in the course of time we will send millions of men to Libya and Italian East Africa, because it is absolutely necessary for us."
Colonization, as understood and practiced by those States that are rich in capital but poor in arms and working spirit, can be compared to that system of exploitation which in mining jargon is called "a robbery" and consists of obtaining as much as possible with the least amount of means, instruments and men. On the other hand, Fascist colonization is based above all on the use of armies of workers.
The contact of a massive Italian Aryan population with masses of different races must be regulated by precise and strict laws, in order to maintain high Italian prestige and to prevent mixtures of blood.
The half-breed, that is to say the son of two individuals of which one is colored, is a morally and physically inferior being, an easy victim of grave illnesses, and is inclined to the most reprehensible vices.
Intermixing between two races is harmful to both races.
By prohibiting any mixture of blood between Italians and people of color, the Regime not only protects the physical integrity and prestige of our race, but at the same time preserves the racial integrity of those races that live in the territories subject to us.
The history of colonization shows that wherever intermixing has not been prevented, the empires of Aryan race have fallen or decayed, while the native peoples descended to low levels of civilization and strength.
We repeat and always remember the words of the DUCE: empires are conquered by arms, but are held by prestige.
If the conquering race does not know how to preserve its prestige before the native peoples, sooner or later it will lose its empire.
At all times and in every aspect of public and private existence, the conquering race must demonstrate its superiority in its dealings with other races.
If blood is mixed, the prestige of the race is not maintained.
The superiority of our race is a historical and present reality, both in the physical realm and in the moral realm; a tangible and indisputable reality, which does not in any way contradict the certainty of the singular and divine origin of humanity, but demonstrates the existence of a hierarchy among the races that has been determined by a complex of causes over the course of many centuries.
Fascism has dictated the laws necessary to keep our prestige high and to prevent the mixing of our blood in the Empire; but above all, obedience to these laws must be imposed upon every Italian by the voice of their own conscience.
The consciousness of belonging to a race that has affirmed its superiority and has assumed the mission of guiding the civilization of the world reminds the Italians of the duties entrusted to this race and keeps it strong and alert, against any failure, under any condition and circumstance.
Since the life of Italians in the Empire can take place with the necessary prestige, without giving rise to mixtures of blood, the Regime has not only dictated specific laws, but has prepared and is preparing women to follow the men to the overseas lands, to build new Italian families.
Within the organizations of the Party, the training of women in the tasks of colonial life is given particular attention, with preparation courses, and with trips and campsites in the colony.
The courses for colonial preparation, framed within the women's organizations of the Italian Youth of the Lictor (G.I.L.), have the specific aim of training young people to have a colonial consciousness, preparing them for the tasks and needs of life in the colony. The theoretical part of the courses include: the history and religion of our colonial possessions; geography; ethnography and colonial economy; problems of colonial expansion and defense of the race; colonial economy in the struggle for national autarky; tropical hygiene and childcare. The practical part studies: the furnishing of the home; the hygiene of the household; cuisine; the processing of dairy products; the packaging of bread; the cultivation of vegetables and gardens; the packaging of clothing; crafts.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RACE
Q. What is meant by 'race'?
A. Race is a mass of men similar in physical and mental characteristics that were inherited and will continue to be inherited.
Q. What race do we belong to?
A. We belong to the Aryan race.
Q. Why do you say we are of the Aryan race?
A. Because the Italian race is Aryan.
Q. Are the races all equal?
A. There are physical and spiritual differences between the races.
Q. What is the mission of the Aryan race?
A. The Aryan race has a mission to civilize the world, and to perpetually advance civilization.
Q. To which race are the highest expressions of world civilization due?
A. The highest expressions of world civilization are due to the Aryan race.
Q. Are the physical and spiritual characteristics that distinguish one race from the other inherited?
A. Yes. Physical and spiritual characteristics are transmitted from father to son, and from generation to generation, among individuals of the same race.
Q. What is the individual born to parents of different races called?
A. The individual born to parents of different races, of which one is colored, is called a half-breed.
Q. What are the characteristics of the half-breed?
A. The half-breed is a physically and morally inferior individual.
Q. Are Italian citizens, male and female, allowed to marry people of non-Aryan race?
A. No. The law prohibits and punishes mixed marriages. Every individual who gives birth to a half-breed offends the dignity of the race and condemns the child to a state of physiological, moral and social inferiority
Q. Is marriage of Italian citizens with people of Aryan race, but of foreign nationality, allowed?
A. Yes, but the approval of the Ministry of the Interior is required. However, employees of the State and of public organizations and administrations can not, under any circumstances, marry persons of foreign nationality.
Q. Do Jews born in Italy belong to our race?
A. No. Jews, no matter where they are born, do not belong to the Aryan race.
Q. Can Jews of foreign nationality reside in Italy?
A. No.
Q. Who is considered a Jew?
A. The following is considered a Jew: he who was born to Jewish parents, even if he professes a different religion; or if, having been born from a mixed marriage, he professes the Jewish religion, belongs to a Jewish community, or makes manifestations of Jewishness. When one of the parents is a Jew and the other is a foreigner, the child is considered a Jew; also the child of a Jewish mother and an unknown father is considered a Jew.
Q. Can Jews be members of the P.N.F.?
A. No.
Q. Can they perform military service in peace and in war?
A. No.
Q. Can they hold public offices?
A. No.
Q. Can they exercise public professions?
A. No. It is only permitted for a Jewish professional to give his professional assistance to other Jews.
Q. Can Jewish children be admitted to public and private schools attended by Aryan pupils?
A. No. There are special elementary and middle schools for Jewish students.
Q. Can Jews teach in public and private schools?
A. Jews can only teach in elementary and middle schools for Jewish students.
Q. Are Jews allowed to own homes and land?
A. Yes, provided the property value does not exceed the limit set by law.
Q. Can Jews be owners, managers, directors of companies?
A. Yes, provided these companies are not public services, do not pertain to national defense, and do not employ one hundred or more people.
Q. Can Jews be employed in public offices or in public interest?
A. No.
Q. Can Jews keep Italian citizens of Aryan race as domestic servants?
A. No.
Q. Can the Jews publicly practice their religion?
A. Yes.
Q. Why has the Fascist Regime taken measures against the Jews?
A. The racial provisions of the Regime were taken to protect the purity of Italian blood and the Italian spirit, and to defend the State against the conspiracies of international Jewry.
Q. When did Fascist action in defense of the race begin?
A. Since its inception Fascism was a movement in defense of the race.
Q. What is the essential aim of the social policy of Fascism?
A. The essential aim of the social policy of Fascism is to make the Italian race ever more pure, strong and powerful.
Q. What does the P.N.F. do for the race?
A. The whole activity of the Party, through youth organizations, women's organizations, athletic organizations, cultural and recreational organizations, is aimed at achieving one supreme objective: the physical and spiritual improvement of the race.
Q. What is the fundamental obligation of every Italian towards their race?
A. The fundamental obligation of every Italian towards their race is marriage and procreation.
Q. Is it permissible for Fascists to remain unmarried without a legitimate impediment?
A. No. Fascist law morally and materially condemns unjustified celibacy.
Q. What are the measures against unjustified celibacy?
A. These measures consist of the tax on celibates and a series of provisions, according to which celibates can not ascend to certain ranks in offices and can not hold certain public offices.
Q. What is the first duty of the Italian living in the territories of the Empire?
A. The first duty of the Italian who lives in the territories of the Empire is to maintain the prestige of the race, constantly demonstrating its superiority to the natives.
Q. What in general, according to the law, is the act that damages the prestige of the race?
A. It is the act committed by the Italian citizen, either in the territories of the Empire or in the Aegean islands or even in metropolitan territory, before the natives of Italian Africa, abusing his capacity as a member of the Italian race or failing to fulfill his duties that derive from being a member of said race, in such a way as to diminish the moral figure of the Italian in the eyes of the natives. On the other hand, the law regards as detrimental to the prestige of the Italian race the act of the native directly offending the Italian citizen by virtue of his belonging to the Italian race, or in any case done out of hatred of the race itself. Therefore all crimes committed both by Italians to the detriment of natives, and by natives to the detriment of Italians—when these affect the prestige of the race—are punished with a more severe penalty than ordinary.
Q. What does the Italian in the territories of the Empire commit, when he contracts conjugal relations with natives?
A. He commits a crime punishable by law and is morally and physically degraded.
Q. When the Italian in the territories of the Empire adopts native customs, places himself at the level of the native population, mingles with it without necessity and without dignity, gets drunk in the presence of the natives, or provides demeaning services, what does he commit?
A. In these cases the Italian commits an attack on the prestige of the race and therefore is punished in accordance with the law.
Q. Why does the law punish with particularly severe penalties the Italian who commits or plans any crime in complicity with natives or who instigates the latter to commit crimes or to contravene the law?
A. Because in such a case, for the Italian who is guilty, the crime is aggravated by his diminishment of the prestige of the race.
Q. Why is the law particularly severe against the Italian who commits a crime to the detriment of the natives, or abuses their credulity for profit?
A. Because also in this case, in addition to committing a crime against the native people, the Italian commits a crime against the race, which must always set an example of moral and civil virtue for the natives.
Q. There is such a thing, therefore, as a crime against the race?
A. Yes. A crime against the race is committed whenever the pure blood of this race—which illuminates the world with its thought and with its works—is mixed, polluted, contaminated; and whenever the prestige of this superior and dominating race is degraded by lack of dignity and pride, of that sense of honour and justice that every Italian must always give as an example, everywhere, but especially among people of different blood and lower civilization.
