Social policy/ Family policy
One of the reason why Mussolini failed with his job as a dictator was because he didn’t have any special social policy, “welfare state” is nothing that could be associated with Mussolini and his Italy. Compared to Mussolini Hitler had special policies with the family, for example mothers with many children got special prices, a mother with eight children got a gold medal, six children got a silver medal and with four children got a bronze medal. In this family policy Jews, gypsies and other people that were considered “undesirable” were not included, and over 300 000 “undesirable” people were forced to sterilizing.
Cultural Policy / Educational policy
Both Hitler and Mussolini had the same policy when it came to education. German schoolbooks were often rewritten to fit in with Nazi theory but this was also a way to introduce the Nazi opinions to the younger children. For example, history books were rewritten to support Hitler’s theory that great things could only be achieved by force and biology books were rewritten to support the Nazi race theory. But it was not only the books that were supervised, also teachers, lectures and professors were closely watched to make sure that they did not express any personal opinion that did not support the Nazis. Also the educations in Italy were closely supervised and new books were written to support the fascists. Students were also encouraged to criticize their teachers if they showed a lack of enthusiasm for the party.
Italian children were forced to join the government’s youth organizations, where they were convinced that everything was seen in terms of struggling.
“Believe, Obey, Fight!” was something that the children were told, which meant that they should show total obedience to the authorities.
At the age of 14 all boys in Germany had to join the “Hitler youth” and all girls the “League of German Maidens”. Hitler’s aim with these boys and girls were to ensure that they would obey Hitler in front of everyone else, even their own family. Just like in Italy, children in Germany were encouraged to betray their parents to the secret police (Gestapo in Germany and OVRA in Italy) if they had any sort of suspicion.
The minister of propaganda in Germany controlled all communications and media. At the end of 1934 4000 books were forbidden because they were “un-German”. It was also forbidden to play any music produced or performed by communists, Jews and other “undesirable”. Just like Hitler, Mussolini also forbade all non-fascists newspaper, magazines, radio stations, films etc. If it was not forbidden, a fascist editor controlled and rewrote the script/book/article.
Treatment of the opposition
Both Hitler and Mussolini treated their opponents the same, they banned them and their parties. Fascist was the only party that was allowed in Italy and the Nazis was the only party that was allowed in Germany. An example of the consequences to break this rules is for example what happened to the socialists Giacomo Matteotti and Giovanni Amendola, whom were both beaten to death by fascist thugs. In Germany the separate state parliaments still existed but lost all their power and instead the Nazis took over and ruled and took their decision. When Hitler came to power there were no more state, provincial or municipal elections. In Germany the religion was also brought under the state control since the church was seen as a possible source of opposition. But in Italy Mussolini signed a agreement with the Roman Catholic Church since it was a powerful institution. The agreement covered that the church governed the spiritual side and Mussolini governed the political side of Italy.
Treatment of minorities
This is where Mussolini and Hitler’s views on how to rule a country differed greatly. Hitler’s considered that Jews and other “undesirable” such as gypsies, homosexual and retarded people didn’t deserve to live and sent them to different concentration camps where most of them sooner or later would die. Nothing was as big as Hitler’s hate to the Jewish people and 1938 he authorized what became known as the “Kristallnacht”( the “Night of Broken Glass”). The Kristallnacht was the night when Nazis attacked and burned down synagogues and other Jewish properties throughout the whole Germany. At the end of the World War Two it became clear that Hitler almost managed with his mission to exterminate all the Jews; out of total 9 million Jews living in Europe before the war, were 5.7 million of them murdered during the war.
