Critics Decry Order That Jews Pay Themselves War Reparations

Italy has ordered reparations to Jews who suffered under the anti-Semitic laws of fascism--but insists the money must come from the country’s own Jewish community.

Some Parliament members, saying the Treasury Ministry’s demand is “repugnant,” called on the government this week to stop it.

The ministry issued injunctions in September and January for the Union of Italian Jewish Communities to pay up to $327,000 in reparations, said Tana de Zulueta, a senator for the center-left Olive Tree coalition.

The sum represents the first part of a $1.8-million payment. Most of the money is for back pensions owed to teachers and professors fired under the anti-Semitic laws passed in 1938 by Benito Mussolini’s fascist government.

“It seemed so grotesque, and puts this country in a very bad light,” De Zulueta said Friday. “It’s a typical example of blind bureaucracy.”

The government passed laws in 1970 and 1971 providing for compensation to combatants and victims of the war. The payments were to be channeled through war-related groups, such as the former resistance fighters association, that get funds from the government.

The Jewish union is legally defined as such an agency but receives no government funds. Union assets could be seized if the ministry order is not blocked, De Zulueta said.

The Treasury Ministry did not immediately return a telephone request for comment.

Italy’s Jewish community numbers about 40,000 in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country of 57 million. Historians say Italy had one of Europe’s highest percentages of Jews saved during the Holocaust, although 8,000 Italian Jews were sent to Nazi death camps.