This posting is not in praise of Fascism, but seeks to deal with reality and not baseless rhetoric. Some historians, and many others talk about the Second World War as being a war against Fascism, the truth is that Fascists were Italians, that's where Fascism was born, Italy only played a comparatively small part in WW2, the prime enemy being National Socialism.
Mussolini's regime was undemocratic, aggressive, and often cruel, but in no way did it compare with the Nazis, who were ruthless mass murderers.
One very important example of the vast difference between the two regimes, relates to the treatment of Jews, for the Nazis, complete annihilation of the Jewish race was the solution, not so for the Fascists. So much is known about the Nazis, and what they stood for, I intend to focus on Fascism.
Benito Mussolini the leader of the Fascist movement, came to power in 1922. Anti-Semitism was not part of Mussolini's political platform. For the next ten years, the Fascists and the Jews enjoyed a civil relationship, in fact many Jews joined the Fascist party, and supported Mussolini's national agenda.
In 1936 Mussolini in an effort to please Hitler, initiated an Anti-Semitic press campaign. In September 1938 Mussolini became fully committed to the Rome-Berlin Axis, this resulted in racial anti-Jewish legislation, Foreign Jews were ordered to leave Italy.
Italy entered WW2 in June 1940, at that point Mussolini felt compelled to step up his anti-Jewish measures, foreign Jews who had not left the country, were imprisoned. Their prison camps although not all that comfortable, were nothing like Nazi concentration camps, families were allowed to live together, schools were set up, and there were social and cultural activities for all.
Mussolini became dependant on Hitler, both economically and militarily, so he could not stop his persecution of Jews within Italy, however he never agreed to deport his country's Jews to extermination camps. The Italians also asserted their independence by helping Jews living outside Italy, in Italian-occupied territories, such as France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. In 1942. After Germany began deporting Jews to the death camps in Eastern Europe, the Italian military began a serious rescue operation throughout the territories it administered. In total the Italian authorities saved around 40,000 non-Italian Jews.
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