Jews Not Members of “italian Race,” Rome Announces; Italians Held “aryans”

A ten-point program declaring that "Jews do not belong to the Aryan race" and that most Italians are "Aryans" was issued today under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Popular Culture. The racial program, which was drawn up by a group of Fascist university professors, proclaimed the impossibility of Jewish assimilation with native stock, and provoked fears of a pending Government anti-Semitic campaign.

The program asserts the pure "Aryanism" of the great majority of Italians and the "Aryan" basis of Italian civilization. It declares that Jews "are composed of non-European elements thoroughly different from the elements which gave the Italians their origins."

The dictum was laid down that since the "Aryan" characteristics of the Italian people must not be altered in any way, "union is permissible solely within European racial circles." This was interpreted in some quarters as a possible harbinger of a campaign against inter-marriage with "non-European races."

Sounding an ominous note, the authoritative Fascist newspaper Giornale D’Italia declared this program was destined to have a profound effect on Italian customs and "create a new racial mentality in the people."

The professors, however, disclaimed any desire to prove that one race is superior to another — in this respect differing markedly from the Nazi creed of racial supremacy. "Aryanism," according to the new Italian doctrine, is a purely biological concept, having nothing to do with religious or philosophical principles.

Italians, it maintained, should be proud of their European origins, which go back thousands of years into history and set them apart from non-European peoples. "This does not mean, however, the introduction into Italy of German racial theories as they now exist or the assertion that Italians and Scandinavians are the same thing, The document said.

The sharp division from official Reich doctrine was evident in the first paragraph of the 10-point Fascist theory, the Havas News Agency reports, an analysis of which follows:

1 — It is admitted that human races exist, but this does not mean a priori that there are superior or inferior human races.

2 — There are big races and little races. The Nordic and Mediterranean peoples, for example, constitute "from the biological point of view veritable races whose existence is an evident truth."

3 — The concept of race is purely biological.

4 — The majority of the Italian people is of "Aryan" origin and its civilization is "Aryan," this "Aryan" people and civilization "have inhabited our peninsula for thousands of years. Very little remains of the civilization left by the ‘pre-Aryan’ peoples. The origin of contemporary Italians comes simply from the racial elements which constitute and have eternally constituted the living Tissue of Europe."

5 — The mass migrations of people in historic times are legends. "Apart from the Lombard invasion, no important movement of peoples has taken place in Italy which could have influenced the racial physiognomy of the nation. The 44,000,000 Italians today thus go back largely to the families inhabiting Italy at least 1,000 years ago."

6 — There thus exists a pure Italian race. "This affirmation is not based on a biological conception of race or historic and linguistic considerations, but on the very pure blood relationship uniting the Italians of today with the generations peopling Italy for thousands of years. This ancient blood relation is the Italian nation’s greatest title of nobility.

7 — It is time for Italians frankly to proclaim themselves racists. "Everything which Italian Fascism has achieved until now is basically racist. The racist question should be treated from the strictly biological point of view without any philosophical or religious connotation. The racist concept should be essentially Italian and ‘Aryo-Nordic’."

But this is not an adoption of the German theory. "We only want to show Italians the physical, and above all psychological, model of the human race, which, because of its purely European character, is separated completely from all non-European races."

8 — A clear distinction must be made between the Western European Mediterranean peoples on the one hand and the Eastern and African Mediterranean peoples on the other. "The theories which propound an African origin of certain European peoples and take the Semitic peoples into the Mediterranean community are therefore dangerous."

9 — Jews are not members of the Italian race. They are the "only people in Italy who never could become assimilated because they are composed of non-European racial elements thoroughly different from the elements which gave the Italians their origins."

10 — The purely European physical and psychological characteristics of the Italians must not be altered in any way. "Union is permissible solely within European racial circles. The purely European character of Italians is altered by crossing with non-European races, which bring a civilization different from that of the millenary "Aryan" civilization."