Luca Fenoglio, PhD Candidate, History, University of Edinburgh, UK
Mr. Fenoglio’s doctoral dissertation is provisionally entitled “Resisting the ‘Final Solution?’ Fascist Italy’s Policy Towards the Jews in South Eastern France, November 1942 – September 1943.” Central to his study is the understanding of the reasons for Fascist Italy’s changing responses to the German requests for collaboration in the ‘final solution’ before September 8, 1943 and for the alleged protection of foreign Jewish refugees by the Italian Army.Drawing on a vast range of primary sources, Mr. Fenoglio’s research attempts to move beyond the mono-causal explanations currently prevailing in the scholarship on the topic, to try outlining Fascist Italy’s goals as to the ‘Jewish problem’ in southern France. In so doing, he aims to bridge the rich historiographical debate on the origins of the Holocaust and the motivations of its perpetrators on the one hand and the ongoing reassessment of the Fascist dictatorship on the other. In October 2013, Mr. Fenoglio published the first results of his research in a monograph entitled “Angelo Donati e la «questione ebraica» nella Francia occupata dall’esercito italiano.” (Turin: Zamorani) Mr. Fenoglio received funding from the University of Edinburgh, the EHRI and the Holocaust Educational Foundation. His dissertation is supervised by Prof. Donald Bloxham and Dr. Pertti Ahonen.