Abstract

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Italy began to undergo a process of suppressing the moral infamies associated with Fascist totalitarianism. A veil of oblivion was placed over the recent past, and a myth of «the brave Italians» arose in contrast to their former allies, the Germans, who were now identified as the sole perpetrators of the war and its genocides. The risk that this myth would be taken as a key to a presumed «Italian national character» flourished alongside the notion that minorities in Italy were treated with benevolence - especially the Jews. This paper discusses these risks through the analysis of a recent book on the ties between Jews and other Italians in the modern age.