Italiani brava gente

[3] In particular, it argued that the Italians had not participated in, or even had opposed, the Nazi persecution of Jews in occupied parts of Eastern Europe.

[4][5] By extension, the term is sometimes applied to describe popular beliefs about the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36) or non-Jewish responses to the Holocaust in Italy.

[6] Hannah Arendt supports the myth by maintaining that Italian Jews had been protected by the "general, spontaneous humanity of a people of ancient civilization".

[8]In contrast with Battista and others, who trace the rise of the myth to the post-World War II period,[8][9] Angelo Del Boca points out that its origins are older and date back to the beginning of Italian colonial expansion (1885), in which the country, the last to start it among the European powers, programmatically attempted to show itself different, more human, a bringer of civilization, strong as it was in its history.

[4] The myth avoided "a public debate on collective responsibility, guilt and denial, repentance and pardon" but has recently been challenged by historians.