The Italian newspaper La Stampa, published in Turin, today carries an article attempting to justify the Government order sending Jews to forced labor by asserting that the Jews, when they had a country of their own, also used aliens for forced labor.
The Fascist organ quotes from the first Book of Kings, chapter 9, verses 21 to 23, to “substantiate” its assertion. (The verses to which La Stampa refers tell of King Solomon using the remnants of the conquered people in his dominions as “tributary laborers.”) At the same time it pokes fun at 132 leading Jews of Rome who were sent to clean the banks of the Tiber river. The paper also reports that more than 5,000 Jews are now engaged in forced labor in the vicinity of Rome, working in the woods and the fields.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.