brutal friendship'. Both had savage racial laws; both Hitler and Mussolini viciously denounced the Jewish menace'. But while in the Second World War Jews who fell into the hands of the German army were consigned almost without exception for the death camps, not one Jew who came under the control of
the Italian army ended there. The Italian officers protected not just Italian Jews, but Jewish refugees of every nationality. To the Germans, their actions were inexplicable and subversive. Yet the protectors of the Jews were no philo-Semites, nor were they (often) great respecters of human life. Some of those same officers had sanctioned savage atrocities against Ethiopians and Arabs in the years before the war. They saved the Jews because it was unworthy and immoral' to send them to death camps; to sustain morality they risked their careers, and sometimes, their lives. Only a handful of German officers protested; none of them took the same active steps as the Italians. Jonathan Steinberg uses this remarkable
and poignant story to unravel the motives and forces underpinning Nazism and Fascism. As a renowned historian of both Germany and Italy, he is uniquely placed to answer the underlying question; why? What made the armies fighting a savage partisan war in the Balkans behave so differently? His answers must provoke a radical re-think of the whole issue of human responsibility in warfare.
By:
Jonathan Steinberg Imprint: Routledge Country of Publication: United Kingdom Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 725g ISBN:9780415047579 ISBN 10: 0415047579 Pages: 348 Publication Date:21 June 1990 Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Replaced By: 9781138151338 Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Active
Jonathan Steinberg
Reviews for All or Nothing: The Axis and the Holocaust 1941-43
'... a fine book [on] one of the most compelling but least explained chapters in the history of the Holocaust ... marked by careful research and thoughtful analysis' - Times Literary Supplement