Italy and the Holocaust on the Eastern Front

[Hyus]

Was there any Italian involvement with the Holocaust on the Eastern Front? I have read of Romanian involvement (such as the Odessa massacres in 1941), but haven't heard anything about Italian forces involved in these sorts of events. Were they able to keep their hands clean in this regard? What was Italian policy towards Jews and other "untermensch" that the Germans were hunting on the Eastern Front?

This question does not relate to Yugoslavia or the territory of Italy itself, those are different topics. I'm specifically curious about the Italian forces sent to fight the Soviet Union.

[Anatol]

I am Russian, I was interested in the topic, and I have never met Italian accusations of the Holocaust on the territory of the USSR.

[Hyus]

I am Russian, I was interested in the topic, and I have never met Italian accusations of the Holocaust on the territory of the USSR.

Me neither. I have talked to one or two Russians and Ukrainians who were interested in the war, and they said that they had heard that Italians were regarded as far more lenient than the Germans. But that's only opinions, so I didn't want to make assumptions. But I haven't heard anything.

[Anatol]

Yes, Italians were the least accused of war crimes, several senior officers-generals were convicted by the Soviet court for such controversial war crimes as destruction of property, and so there are no charges. "Only the SS were worse than the Germans. - quote.

[Hyus]

Yes, Italians were the least accused of war crimes, several senior officers-generals were convicted by the Soviet court for such controversial war crimes as destruction of property, and so there are no charges. "Only the SS were worse than the Germans. - quote.

Have you heard any accusations of war crimes by the local auxiliaries that Italy recruited on the Soviet front? For example these guys: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruppo_sq ... ampello%22

Or these guys (post #46): viewtopic.php?f=75&t=35065&start=45

[Anatol]

I don't know anything about it.

[Carlus]

There is a case of Italian involvement in a Nazi Aktion, where an Einsatzkommando asked for help to guard some 100 Jews not far from Gorlovka in Eastern Ukraine. It is mentioned in Dieter Pohl "Einsatzgruppe C" (1997).

Otherwise some Italian rear guard soldiers witnessed the Mass slaughters committed by Einsatzgruppen in Kirovograd and Dnipropetrovs'k in autumn 1941 and some of them appointed what they saw in their personal diaries.