Description: This book offers a critical edition of the petitions in their original Italian language that (Catholic) Jews residing in Italy submitted to the Fascist General Administration for Demography and Race (Demorazza) in order either to be "discriminated," i.e., not subjected to various provisions of Mussolini's racial laws.
Review Quotes: "Through unpublished documents Maryks allows us to see, from a different point of view, the events relating to the fate of the Jews during World War II. In particular, by focusing on the key figure of Tacchi Venturi we now have a new perspective on things. Of course there is still much work to be done but the book is a good starting point to better understand the background to the attitude of the Church of Rome in the terrible years of war. It is through documents of this kind that we should consider the events of World War II and other subsequent events related to the issues of racism and antisemitism and treat the topic from a new standpoint".
Alessandro Visani, Sapienza University of Rome. In: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 65, No. 1 (January 2014), pp. 228-229.