Literatura in cenzura - Društvo za primerjalno književnost - ZRC SAZU

Guido Bonsaver:Mussolini's Fascism, Literary Censorship, and the Vaticantaken by the Nazis, the Ministry of Popular Culture produced a “List ofAuthors Unwelcome in Italy” whose work was to be totally banned. Thistotalled 893 names, of which about 800 were Jews. Prefectures were giventhe task of making sure all publishers would comply with it. This was thefirst time that the regime had gone public with regard to its anti-Semiticpolicies. Indeed, no actual legislation was ever produced officially banningJews from publishing books. 16As far as Mussolini is concerned, it must be noted that, despite hisrole as an initiator of this “racial turn”, he was not particularly involved inanti-Semitic censorship on books. Perhaps shrewdly, he preferred to stayat the margins of the policy’s implementation, distancing himself froman issue that he knew to be contentious and also easily ascribed to Naziderivation. Perhaps he need not have worried because very few Italiansdared to raise their voices against such grave suppression of freedom. Oneexception was the Jewish publisher Angelo Fortunato Formiggini, who,when asked to change the name of his publishing house and hand it overto a non-Jew, tragically reacted on 28 November 1939 by throwing himselffrom the Ghirlandina tower of the Modena Cathedral. Jewish authorsaccepted their fate in silence, most accepting having their work entirelybanned, some managing to publish under pseudonyms (such as the caseof Natalia Ginzburg’s first novel, La strada che va in città – The Road to theCity, 1942). Among Italian “gentile” intellectuals, it seems that only liberalphilosopher Benedetto Croce had the courage to raise his voice. When theLaterza publishing house, to which he was closely connected, was orderedto withdraw twenty-two books from its catalogues in December 1939,Croce wrote a letter of protest that reached Mussolini’s office. Once moreIl Duce showed his tendency for ad hoc solutions. Aware of the potentialinternational embarrassment that the criticism of such a prestigious namemight bring, Mussolini allowed most of the Laterza books to remain inprint. 17Fortunately, the regime did not have long to live. The anti-Semitic legislation,however, remains a testimony to the racial barbarity into whichMussolini’s Fascism had descended. It is also an embarrassing example ofthe extent to which Italian society had become subservient to the dictatorship.Active anti-Fascism and the partisan movement grew quickly inthe very last months of the war, mainly after the summer of 1943. Whenanti-Semitism was introduced, in 1938, Italians proved unable to react andrebel.209