Renzo De Felice occupies a central place among Italian historians specilaized in modern Italian political history. He broke new ground by first publishing this book in 1961 having obtained special permission to consult the files in the Italian Archives concerning the issue of Fascist persecution of the Jews in Italy from 1938 to 1945. The result was that the book came out at the time of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem bringing the entire to the attention of the general public and other historians around the world. This translation of the final 1993 edition was supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.