Europe, Fascism & the Holocaust - HIST 337w Resource Guide

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This article discusses the relationship between fascism and totalitarianism in Benito Mussolini's Italy. While totalitarianism is a system of government marked by authoritarian control independent of ideology, fascism uses right-wing ideological premises to justify state power.

Fascism originated in Italy out of the political party activity of Benito Mussolini in the years immediately following World War I. Mussolini ruled Italy from 1922 until he was deposed in 1943 during World War II. During Mussolini’s reign an Italian fascist philosophy took shape, and he was able to consolidate his power into a dictatorship. He produced the perception of an economically sound society with strict order, efficiency, and modernization. Fascist Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935, alienating other democratic powers, and eventually formed an alliance with Nazi Germany.

In the middle of the nineteenth century Mazzini directed a call to a new generation of Italians to destroy the aged and corrupt Habsburg empire, and to found a 'Young Italy' which would be both the guide for and the symbol of a new order on the European continent. The emergence of a Young Italy would revivify deca- dent Europe with Italian vitality. In this ideological frame youth is elevated to the status of a national principle.

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his program is devoted to the rise of Mussolini and Italian fascism. Using archival footage and historical photographs, it reveals the roots of fascism in Italy and the execution of its seemingly laudable goals of "order" and "discipline."

n dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy, military culture was glorified as a symbol of discipline and dominance. Similarly, the idealism of youth was revered and exploited for the fascist cause. Italian boys and men alike were encouraged to join volunteer and government-sponsored groups like the Blackshirts, who patrolled the streets on the lookout for anti-fascist resistance.

In this two-part series, the dramatic and violent story of Italian Fascism is told in color, as those who endured the period would have witnessed it.

In 1932 Mussolini wrote (with the help of Giovanni Gentile) and entry for the Italian Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism.