Protesting Too Much: Baptized Jews’ Appeals to the Vatican for Aid in Attaining Aryan Status in Fascist Italy, 1938–1943

Abstract: Many of the people categorized as members of the “Jewish race” under Italy’s draconian antisemitic racial laws of 1938–1943 sought relief through recategorization as “Aryans.” This required the collaboration of Church officials to certify the individual’s Catholic credentials, as race categorization depended heavily on one’s religion, having little to do with biology. The newly available Ebrei (Jews) series from the Historical Archive of the Secretariat of State, Section for Relations with States and International Organizations (ASRS) offers a rich trove of materials that illuminate how a large number of those categorized as Jews sought to attain Aryan status. Here we take a first look at the impassioned pleas to the Vatican by offering examples of how the petitioners sought to distance themselves from the Jewish “racial” identity assigned to them by the Italian state. As a result of this research, the key role played by the Roman Catholic Church in the administration of Italy’s racial laws comes into clearer focus.