Giovanni Preziosi
Encyclopedia
Giovanni Preziosi was an Italian
fascist
politician noted for his anti-Semitism
.
Catholicism
. He then followed a career in journalism
, founding the Vita Italian all'estero as a magazine for emigrants. This was followed by his journal La Vita Italiana, which was noted for its anti-semitism in the run-up to World War I
. He soon became involved in right-wing politics, eventually becoming a member of Benito Mussolini
's fascists and taking part in the March on Rome
.
and believed in the notions of a conspiracy between the Jews, communism
, Freemasonry
, capitalism
and democracy
. Much of his thought was derived from La Libre Parole, a newspaper founded by Edouard Drumont
, Howell Arthur Gwynne
's The Cause of World Unrest and The Dearborn Independent
of Henry Ford
. He became the first to translate The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
into Italian
in 1921. Such was the strength of his conviction that Preziosi even attacked fellow anti-Semtie Paolo Orano
for his 'soft' stance on Jews.
Initially, although a hardliner in terms of his fascism, he denounced Nazism
as parochial, exclusionary and responsible for pushing Europe towards communism. In fact in his early years he had demonstrated a strong Germanophobia, even producing a book entitled Germania alla Conquista dell'Italia in 1916. However from 1933 onward, he changed tack, becoming a strong advocate of close co-operation with the equally anti-Semitic Nazi Germany
and occasionally criticised Italian fascism
for its lack of emphasis on Judaism
. His views reached a wider audience after the passing of the 1938 Racial Laws as he began to write virulently anti-Semitic articles for the national press as well as his own journal.
Preziosi also wrote "Ecco il diavolo: Israele".
Preziosi was initially moved to Germany
where he was to serve as Adolf Hitler
's adviser on Italian affairs. Whilst in Germany he also had a show on Radio Munich, which was broadcast to Mussolini's Italy, and used it as a platform to attack the likes of Guido Buffarini Guidi
and Alessandro Pavolini
as "Jew lovers".
He returned to Italy in March 1944 to head up an Ispettorato Generale Della Razza (General Inspectorate of Race). In this role he introduced a system based on the Nuremberg Laws
and used the new code to attack the Jews. Along with fellow anti-Semite Roberto Farinacci
he also became a close ally of Julius Evola
during this period in a pro-Nazi alliance. Preziosi's activities were at times frustrated by Mussolini, who nursed a long-standing personal hatred of the former priest, but Preziosi's efforts still ensured that the puppet Italian state would be involved in the Holocaust
.
Following the end of the war Preziosi, rather than let himself be captured by partisans (as Mussolini, Pavolini, Farinacci, and so many other RSI leaders had been), committed suicide
by jumping from a high window.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
politician noted for his anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
.
Early career
Born into a middle class family he joined the priesthood after completing his studies and, although he was defrocked in 1911, he remained a life-long adherent of conservativeConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. He then followed a career in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, founding the Vita Italian all'estero as a magazine for emigrants. This was followed by his journal La Vita Italiana, which was noted for its anti-semitism in the run-up to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He soon became involved in right-wing politics, eventually becoming a member of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's fascists and taking part in the March on Rome
March on Rome
The March on Rome was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party came to power in the Kingdom of Italy...
.
Anti-Semitism
Preziosi was not initially an anti-Semite but after Italy's poor returns for their invovlment in the First World War he came to blame the Jews for the country's ills. He accused the Jews of being incapable of being fully Italian due to their "double loyalties" and the growth of ZionismZionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and believed in the notions of a conspiracy between the Jews, communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. Much of his thought was derived from La Libre Parole, a newspaper founded by Edouard Drumont
Edouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont was a French journalist and writer. He founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper La Libre Parole.- Early life :...
, Howell Arthur Gwynne
Howell Arthur Gwynne
Howell Arthur Keir Gwynne, CH was a British author, newspaper editor of the London Morning Post from 1911 to 1937. The owner was Lilias, Countess Bathurst , a.k.a. Lady Bathurst, wife of Seymour Henry Bathurst, 7th Earl Bathurst...
's The Cause of World Unrest and The Dearborn Independent
The Dearborn Independent
The Dearborn Independent, a/k/a The Ford International Weekly, was a weekly newspaper established in 1901, but published by Henry Ford from 1919 through 1927. It was notorious for its antisemitic content , and its publication in English of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion...
of Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...
. He became the first to translate The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent, antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century...
into Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
in 1921. Such was the strength of his conviction that Preziosi even attacked fellow anti-Semtie Paolo Orano
Paolo Orano
Paolo Orano was an Italian psychologist and syndicalist politician and writer who later became a leading figure within the National Fascist Party.-Syndicalism:...
for his 'soft' stance on Jews.
Initially, although a hardliner in terms of his fascism, he denounced Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
as parochial, exclusionary and responsible for pushing Europe towards communism. In fact in his early years he had demonstrated a strong Germanophobia, even producing a book entitled Germania alla Conquista dell'Italia in 1916. However from 1933 onward, he changed tack, becoming a strong advocate of close co-operation with the equally anti-Semitic Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and occasionally criticised Italian fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
for its lack of emphasis on Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
. His views reached a wider audience after the passing of the 1938 Racial Laws as he began to write virulently anti-Semitic articles for the national press as well as his own journal.
Preziosi also wrote "Ecco il diavolo: Israele".
Later career
Preziosi growing prestige was rewarded in 1942 when he was made a minister of state. Following the formation of the Italian Social RepublicItalian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
Preziosi was initially moved to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
where he was to serve as Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's adviser on Italian affairs. Whilst in Germany he also had a show on Radio Munich, which was broadcast to Mussolini's Italy, and used it as a platform to attack the likes of Guido Buffarini Guidi
Guido Buffarini Guidi
Guido Buffarini Guidi was an Italian army officer & politician executed in 1945.Buffarini Guidi was born in Pisa.When Italy entered World War I, he volunteered in an artillery regiment...
and Alessandro Pavolini
Alessandro Pavolini
Alessandro Pavolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and essayist, notable for his involvement in the Fascist government during World War II and also for his cruelty against the opponents of fascism....
as "Jew lovers".
He returned to Italy in March 1944 to head up an Ispettorato Generale Della Razza (General Inspectorate of Race). In this role he introduced a system based on the Nuremberg Laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...
and used the new code to attack the Jews. Along with fellow anti-Semite Roberto Farinacci
Roberto Farinacci
Roberto Farinacci was a leading Italian Fascist politician, and important member of the National Fascist Party before and during World War II, and one of its ardent anti-Semitic proponents.-Early life:...
he also became a close ally of Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
during this period in a pro-Nazi alliance. Preziosi's activities were at times frustrated by Mussolini, who nursed a long-standing personal hatred of the former priest, but Preziosi's efforts still ensured that the puppet Italian state would be involved in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Following the end of the war Preziosi, rather than let himself be captured by partisans (as Mussolini, Pavolini, Farinacci, and so many other RSI leaders had been), committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by jumping from a high window.