To live or to die: Experiences of Jewish accountants and auditors in Italy 1938-1945

A collective biography of ten Jewish accountants and auditors who experienced Fascism and Nazism in Italy is presented. The implementation of racial laws and the expulsion and “discrimination” of Jewish professionals involved complex bureaucratic processes. Through the interactions of accountants and auditors with these processes, we gain insights into the everyday experiences of Jewish professionals under Fascism. It is shown that the careers of Jewish accounting practitioners were seriously impacted by their exclusion, persecution, and stigmatisation. The chapter demonstrates that their personal and family lives were also severely disrupted. With Nazi control of Northern Italy from 1943, some Jewish accountants were deported to concentration camps and murdered there. Five of the individuals examined in the chapter survived the Final Solution, and five did not. The chapter also throws light on survival strategies such as the attempts by Jewish accountants to migrate or construct alternative identities.