TRIESTE: RACIAL LAWS AND A BURDENSOME FASCIST LEGACY
September 18th, 1938, Trieste: a shameful day, and a shameful anniversary indeed. Because this is where, and when, the shameful Italian racial laws were proclaimed.
Benito Mussolini, the “Duce”, the guide of the new Italy united at the price of blood, chose specifically Trieste – annexed to Italy after WWI – as the stage for his announcement of the shameful Italian anti-Jewish laws.
And so, the brutal regime that so much wanted to rid Trieste of its multicultural and multireligious identity raped the city. Indeed, that identity was the legacy of tolerant Austria-Hungary, the Empire that found Trieste a small fishing village and made it a great, cosmopolitan maritime emporium. This was Trieste’s rich culture. And the Jewish community had an important part in it.
The Empire’s fall and the dawn of Fascism hit this European island of tolerance for all ethnicities, shaking its roots, destroying its fruits: harmony born through centuries, lost forever.
Italian racial laws were the beginning of a nightmare. It only ended with the defeat of those bloodthirsty dictatorships that only rose because of Austria-Hungary’s end. Indeed, the Empire had long granted balances in Europe.
But when Austria-Hungary dissolved, it was as if a bright galaxy collapsed, as if hate swallowed and ultimately turned into a black hole of human evil. Europe found itself lightless, so it fell into an abyss of absolute evil.
Even in our days, we must come to terms with the legacy of this latent hatred. And Trieste, martyr city of Italian Fascism and Italian nationalism, knows full well.
Translated from Roberto Giurastante’s blog “Environment and Legality”.
FROM NEWSPAPER IL PICCOLO. TRIESTE, 18 SEPTEMBER 1938:
EPURAZIONE IN ATTO (PURGING). Measures against Jewish workers in Triestine Insurance Companies.
[with translation notes]
“A legal provision with special relevance especially in Trieste is that regarding the exclusion of Jews from the administration of private Insurance Companies. This exclusion is the latest in a series regarding the Civilian administrations of the State, Fascist offices, Provinces, Municipalities, welfare, municipal utilities, parastatal companies established under public law, etc.
Nowadays, private Insurance Companies are almost the same in nature as parastatal companies, therefore they must receive the same treatment. However, while the State, the Party, the Army, the administrations of Provinces, Municipalities, etc. cannot employ people of the Jewish race, not even those discriminated [the meaning of “discriminated” in this context is detailed below], discrimination applies to private Insurance Companies.
Essentially, this means that those described at art. 13 of the law, namely, Italian citizens of Jewish race that belong to families of the Fallen in the Libyan war, of the World War, and of the Spanish was, as well as to families of the Fallen for the Fascist Cause, can maintain employment at Assicurazioni Generali, at Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà and in all the companies depending on them…
Even before the publications of the requirements, our insurance companies started reviewing their personnel on this basis, now clearly set by the Council of Ministers. Obviously, all measures proceed with the needed gradualness, but also with maximum intransigence.
The Government’s decision excluded the Jews from jobs and works as offices or providing services of the State like the Tax Police, Railroads, etc.; the administration of the Province and of the Municipality, including their firms.
No Jew employee can hold a position at assistance facilities like hospitals, the Red Cross, the Congregazione di Carità [Congregation of Charity] etc.
The same measure applies to the bodies of the Party and the organizations that depend on it. But, as for the matter, all that was to be done is done.
All that remains is individuals to be dealt with in the next days. The presence of Jews in big banks like Banca d’Italia, Banco di Sicilia, Banco di Napoli, Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, or Credito Italiano etc. is excluded”…”
The decision about service personnel – The Insurance sector – House ownership – Public employment.
Racial laws and Trieste:
The cancelled history of Jews in Trieste and Mitteleuropa:
Antisemitism and racial laws in Trieste:
- FREE TERRITORY OF TRIESTE AND RACIAL LAWS: A 1960 CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT
- THE DIRTY, DANMED ANTISEMITES OF TRIESTE
- YELLOW STAR OF DAVID AGAINST FREE TRIESTE
The history and legacy of Italian nationalism in Trieste: