The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy

A gripping revisionist history that shows how ordinary Italians played a central role in the genocide of Italian Jews during the Second World War

In this brief history of Italy’s role in the Holocaust, Simon Levis Sullam presents an unforgettable account of how ordinary Italians actively participated in the deportation of Italy’s Jews between 1943 and 1945. While most historians have long described Italians as relatively protective of Jews during this time, The Italian Executioners tells a very different story, recounting in vivid detail the shocking events of a period during which Italians set in motion almost half the arrests that sent their Jewish compatriots to Auschwitz. With a historian’s rigor and a novelist’s gift for scene-setting, Levis Sullam dismantles the seductive myth of the “good Italians” who sheltered Jews from harm. In collaboration with the Nazis, and with different degrees of involvement, the Italians were guilty of genocide.