Introduction Joshua Zimmerman; Part I. Italy Jewry from Liberalism to Fascism: 1. The double-bind of Italian Jews: acceptance and assimilation Alexander Stille; 2. Italian Jewish identity from the Risorgimento to the racial laws Mario Toscano; 3. Mussolini and the Jews on the eve of the march on Rome Giorgio Fabre; Part II. Rise of Racial Persecution: 4. Characteristics and objectives of the anti-Jewish racial laws in Fascist Italy, 1938-1943 Michele Sarfati; 5. The beginnings of racial persecution: the exclusion of Jews from Italian academies Annalisa Capristo; 6. The damage to Italian culture: Jewish university professors in Fascist Italy and after, 1938-1946 Roberto Finzi; 7. Building a racial state: images of the Jew in the illustrated Fascist magazine, La Difesa della Razza, 1938-1943 Sandro Servi; 8. The impact of anti-Jewish legislation on the everyday life and the response of Italian Jews (1938-1943) Iael Nidam-Orvieto; 9. The children of Villa Emma at Nonantola, 1942-1943 Klaus Voigt; 10. Anti-Jewish persecution and Italian society Fabio Levi; Part IV. Catastrophe - The German Occupation, 1943-1945: 11. The Shoah in Italy: some aspects of its history and characteristics Liliana Picciotto; 12. The Mollhausen telegram, the Kapler decodes, and the roundup and deportation of Roman Jewry: the new documents, 2000-2001 Robert Katz; 13. The persecution of Jews in two regions of occupied Northern Italy, 1943-1945: Operationszone Alpenvorland and Operationszone Adriatisches Kustenland Cinzia Villani; Part V. The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy: 14. The papal response to Nazi and Fascist antisemitism: From Pius VI to Pius XII Frank Coppa; 15. Pius XII and the rescue of Jews in Italy: evidence of a papal directive Susan Zuccotti; Part VI. Aftermath: Contemporary Italy and Holocaust Memory: 16. The rescued and the rescuers in private and public memories Anna Bravo; 17. The return of the repressed: contemporary filmmakers confront Italian Holocaust history Millicent Marcus; 18. The secret histories of Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful Ruth Ben-Ghiat.