P.N.F.
Rome 1940-XVIII
PREFACE
The “First Book of Fascism” is a manual accessible to everyone which contains what is absolutely necessary to know about our Revolution, the Party, the Regime, and the Mussolinian State.
Indeed, in these short chapters — written in question and answer form, for the sake of convenience and clarity — one will find a summary of the moral, political and social organization of Fascism, as well as information on the principles, institutions and ordinances which today's Italy — in its new grandeur — is based upon.
Each Italian must live consciously in the Fascist era, and ignorance of the foundations of our existence as a Nation is unacceptable; therefore, we wanted to offer this simple guide to Fascists and to the Italian Youth of the Lictor (G.I.L.), because it is necessary for the cultivation of the spirit as well as for the daily acts of existence.
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THE DEFENSE OF THE 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 constitutes the Italian race?
A. The Italian race, which is Aryan of the Mediterranean type, is constituted by the very pure blood relationship that unites today's Italians to the generations that have populated Italy for thousands of years.
Q. When did the racial policy of Fascism begin?
A. The principle of Fascist racial policy must be sought in the origins of Fascism itself, which was born, by will of Benito Mussolini, as a revindication of the genuine character and unmistakable virtues of the Italic people.
Q. What were the developments of the racial policy during the various periods of the Fascist Revolution?
A. All the work of the Regime in the social field aims at preserving the Italian race from all dangers and at making it morally and physically strong through numeric power and continuous improvement. The protection of maternity and infant welfare, the preparation of the Fascist Youth, the development of social assistance and social security, the demographic policy in all of its guidelines and measures, the land reclamation, and the return to the countryside are all aspects of the grandiose battle that Fascism led and is leading — with original methods — in order to ensure the triumph of the Italian race in its absolute spiritual and physiological purity.
Q. What effect has the conquest of the Empire had on Fascist racial policy?
A. The conquest of the Empire had the effect of imposing the protection of the unity and purity of the Italian race, as a condition of our colonizing superiority and because we must not allow blood mixtures which lead to the sad and repulsive phenomenon of race-mixing, which destroys nations and empires.
Q. Do Jews belong to the Italian race?
A. No: Jews, even if they are born in Italy, do not belong to the Italian race. They represent the only population that has never assimilated in Italy because it consists of non-European racial elements, absolutely different from the elements that produced the Italians.
Q. Who is considered a Jew?
A. The following is considered a Jew: he who was born to Jewish parents; or to a Jewish father and a mother of foreign nationality; or if, having been born from a mixed marriage, he professes the Jewish religion, or professed it after October 1, 1937.
Q. What, generally speaking, has been the attitude of the Jews towards Fascist Italy?
A. World Jewry has been the instigator of anti-Fascism in all fields, despite the very wide tolerance that Jews have enjoyed in Italy—a tolerance which they abused prior to the adoption of restrictive measures.
Q. What steps have been taken to maintain the purity of Italian blood and spirit and to defend the State and the national soul from any foreign and harmful infiltration?
A. The Regime has taken the following measures:
a) of a general nature:
- the prohibition of marriages between Italians and those belonging to Hamitic, Semitic and other non-Aryan races;
- the prohibition of State employees and employees of public institutions—civil and military personnel—from contracting marriage with foreign women of any race;
- the requirement that marriages between Italians and foreigners—even to foreigners of other Aryan races—must have the prior approval of the Ministry of the Interior;
- the strengthening of measures against those who diminish the prestige of the race in the territories of the Empire, and criminal sanctions for those who diminish the prestige of the race in front of the natives of Italian Africa;
- the enactment of special laws concerning the status of mixed-race individuals in Italian East Africa and their reabsorption by the colored races.
b) of a particular nature:
- the prohibition on the entry of Jews of foreign citizenship into Italy, and the expulsion of foreign Jews who came to Italy after 1919, even if they acquired Italian citizenship, except those over the age of 65 or those who contracted a mixed marriage with an Italian before October 1, 1937;
- the exclusion of Jews from P.N.F.;
- the exclusion of Jews from military service both in peace and in war;
- the exclusion of Jews from public offices;
- the exclusion of Jews from teaching in Italian schools of all levels and grades;
- exclusion of Jewish pupils from Italian schools of all levels and grades;
- the prohibition of Jews from owning, directing, administering or controlling companies that pertain to national defense, banks, credit or social security institutions, and companies of any nature that employ one hundred or more people;
- the prohibition of Jews from possessing land valued at more than 5,000 lire and of buildings with a total taxable income exceeding 20,000 lire;
- the prohibition of Jews from keeping persons of Aryan race as their domestic servants.
Q. What exceptions have been granted to Jews who have particular military and civil merits?
A. Without prejudice in any case to the total exclusion of Jews from teaching in all schools and from attendance at universities, those Jews of Italian citizenship who belong to the following categories are exempt from the above restrictive measures:
- the families of those Fallen in the four wars sustained by Italy in this century: Libyan War, World War, Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War;
- the families of volunteers in the Libyan War, World War, Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War;
- the families of veterans decorated for valor — or at least awarded the War Merit Cross — in the Libyan War, World War, Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War;
- the families of those who were maimed, disabled, or wounded for the Fascist cause;
- the families of Fascists enrolled in the Party in the years 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, and in the second half of 1924;
- families who have exceptional merits, to be evaluated by a special commission.
