First published 2003
Jonathan Steinberg confronts a startling paradox from World War Two. German armies sent captured Jews to concentration camps without exception. Italian fascist forces never delivered a single Jewish prisoner to the same fate. This protection came from men who were not Jewish sympathizers. Many had approved brutal violence against Ethiopians and Arabs before the war began. Steinberg draws on his expertise in both German and Italian history to examine this contradiction. He traces the different motivations that drove Fascism and Nazism down separate paths. The book reveals how two allied movements could produce such opposite outcomes for Jewish lives. Steinberg offers readers a framework for understanding why ideologically similar regimes acted so differently when faced with the same moral choice.
Genres: history, 20th-century, world-war-ii, non-fiction, military-history, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction, political-thriller
Setting: Germany, Italy
Period: World War Two
364 pages · Kindle Edition · Routledge