Some Germanic Fascists generally respected the Italians and saw them as racial equals. Others… not so much.
A look at diplomatic intervention in response to German–Italian ‘mixed marriages’ in 1941 provides an even more concrete impression, as this question left little room for diplomatic ambiguity. A law that would generally ban marriages between German citizens and foreigners was in preparation before the war.
According to notes from the Foreign Office, this measure was justified on the basis of ethnic–political concerns: Such a marriage would weaken ethnic strength, it argued, since through marriage to a foreigner, the wife would lose her [Reich] citizenship and cause the loss of German national heritage.18
When the war began, [Berlin] ordered the draft law to be postponed until after its conclusion.19 The reasons for this decision were essentially foreign‐policy related, which means there were diplomatic concerns. The Reich Chancellery had already decided that measures should be taken to prevent Germans from ‘mixing’ with other peoples. Responsibility for this task was delegated to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).20
[…]
Reports were accumulating in Italy about the poor treatment of its workers in [the Third Reich]. In early June the industrialist Alberto Pirelli was told that some Italians in Siemensstadt in Berlin were being treated worse than the French labourers, that housing and food left much to be desired, and that there were not enough toilets, lights, telephones or wash facilities.58 The Italian workers, who had been promised blissful conditions by the [Reich’s] consuls, were flabbergasted by their accommodations.59
The Munich consul also reported that German women had apparently been advised to keep their distance from Italians.60 In August 1941, workers began to engage in protests and strikes in [the Reich’s] factories. In the Linz work camp, tumults and serious riots had broken out in reaction to the insufficient food provisions; in the Heinkel Works in Rostock and Arado Aircraft Works in Brandenburg, workers stopped working for the same reason.
The Italian workers also protested against a measure to introduce a badge that would identify them as Italian. They were told that all foreigners in the German factories had to wear a similar identifying marker,61 but being placed on the same level as all the other ‘foreign workers’ displeased the Italians.
[…]
According to [Fascist] information, relations between German women and Italian workers were subject to severe punishment. In Recklinghausen a woman had had her head shaved and her face smeared with asphalt.63 The Italian consulate general in Dresden added to this report, noting that several workers seen in the company of German women were promptly arrested by the local police. The women received a severe reprimand and were told that they were not to be seen again with the Italians.64
Around the same time, a report from the [Fascist] trade union liaison, a man named Cecchi,65 caused a stir in Rome. In a letter of 17 September, he reported to the agency in charge of dispatching workers that abuses were taking place in the German Reich: workers were not only being beaten in the camps, they were also threatened by watchdogs that were ordered to attack at the most minor offence.
Men who tried to strike, who remained idle or who simply wanted to return home were sent to concentration camps or prison camps without a trial and without notification of the Italian authorities. According to Italian information, the convicted inmates could serve up to 45 days in the Hallendorf camp. After they were photographed and medically examined, they were given a number, clothed in convict uniforms and made to perform forced labour for 16 hours. According to Cecchi, they were hit with a club or beaten whenever they stopped working.66
[…]
The fight over the Cecchi report and Goldbeck memo had a direct impact on the issue of German–Italian ‘mixed marriages’ that had been reintroduced by the RSHA and the Racial Policy Office in July. It was impossible for the Foreign Office to endorse the law initiated by the SS now that the foreign propaganda had made such a big deal over the problems concerning Italian workers.84
Moreover, the first objections were being articulated in Italy. Ambassador Alfieri warned in late October that this issue should not leave the impression that ‘legislation and administrative conduct’ were incompatible with ‘the principles of the Axis friendship’.85 Although articulated in a convoluted way, it was the first sign that [Rome] was having reservations.
(Emphasis added.)
Click here for events that happened today (February 14).
1878: Koki Hirota, Imperial head of state, existed.
1898: Aksel Airo, lieutenant general who collaborated with the Axis, came to life.
1926: In the Weimar Republic, Adolf Schicklgruber summoned the senior NSDAP leadership to a conference at Bamberg. Speaking for five hours he rejected the alternative party programme that Gregor Strasser devised in 1920, in favour of a more ‘revolutionary’ struggle for power. Schicklgruber would emerge with greater control over the NSDAP’s policies.
1932: The Imperialists gained a victory in the Heilongjiang Province.
1939: The Kriegsmarine launched its battleship Bismarck at the Blohm und Voss shipyard, Hamburg.
1940: London agreed to allow British volunteers to serve in the Finnish armed forces. (Although this relates to fascism only indirectly, it’s another telling piece of evidence that the British ruling class considered communists to be a greater threat than fascists.) On another note, Fascist submarines U‐57, U‐53, U‐26, and U‐48 all sank Allied ships, most of which were British. Admiral Graf Spee’s supply ship Altmark reached Norwegian territorial waters off Trondheim, and it was Captain Heinrich Dau’s intension to remain in neutral Norwegian waters to avoid an attack by the British.
1941: Berlin pressured Yugoslavia to officially join the Axis as German and Italian naval leaders concluded a two‐day conference at Merano, Trentino‐Alto Adige, Italy. The second convoy of Wehrmacht troops arrived at Tripoli, Libya, which included the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion and the 39th Anti‐Tank Battalion, but the Axis lost the port city of Kismayu, East Africa to the Allies. Tōkyō’s Ambassador to Imperial America, Kichisaburo Nomura, presented his credentials to Franklin Roosevelt at the White House, Washington, D.C. Axis submarines Bianchi and U‐101 both sank British ships west of Ireland, and Axis armed merchant cruiser Atlantis, with a fleet of two prize ships and one supply ship, made rendezvous with fellow Axis cruiser Admiral Scheer. The ships transferred supplies amongst each other while prize ship tanker Ketty Brøvig refueled Admiral Scheer.
1942: Three hundred sixty paratroopers of the Imperial Japanese 1st Airborne Division landed at Pangkalanbenteng airfield near Palembang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies as Axis troops penetrated the lines manned by the 1st Malay Brigade at Singapore and reached the Alexandra Barracks Hospital.
1943: Commandant Rudolf Höss of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp issued Garrison Order № 3 which instructed the SS guards to ‘maintain an appropriate distance from the prisoners’ to order to prevent the spread of typhus which was rampant among the prisoners.
1944: Heinrich Himmler’s orders to re‐establish the Chelmno Concentration Camp in occupied Poland was received by Axis officials of Reichsgau Wartheland (and the camp resumed extermination in May 1944).
1945: As Dresden suffered another Allied bombing raid, Panzerkorps ‘Großdeutschland’ and German 24th Panzer Corps counterattacked the Soviets near Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), seeing some success against Soviet 4th Tank Army, but the Axis was unable halt the larger Soviet attempt to surround the city. Nearby, the Axis lost the Groß‐Rosen concentration camp in Groß‐Rosen, Germany (now Rogoznica, Poland).
Considering the sources of nazi racism and what was said about Italians there, this isn’t surprising in the least.