Benito Mussolini

Known as Il Duce, Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and head of Italy’s National Fascist Party, which lead the country from 1922 to its ousting in 1943.

In 1938 Mussolini legislated racial laws that severed Italian Jews from Italian society.

This was exactly the time Manduzio and his followers converted and began practicing Judaism.

While Mussolini reigned, they would have to live with uncertainty and fear  before entering back into the greater Italian Jewish community.