Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who claimed to be anti-Semitic even before Adolf Hitler, wanted to exile Jews to an island and was angry over Pope Pius XI's "spiritual closeness" to Jews. Mussolini despised the pope, a new book of his mistress Claretta Petacci's diaries revealed, Haartez reports citing AFP.
The Corriere della Sera daily published extracts of the book "Secret Mussolini," taken from diaries written between 1932 and 1938, on Monday two days before it hits Italian book shops.
While on a boating trip on August 4, 1938, Mussolini talked about the German dictator's new anti-Semitic laws with his mistress, saying "I've been racist since 1921," according to AFP.
"I don't know how they can think that I'm imitating Hitler, he wasn't born yet..." he was quoted as saying.
Two months later, on October 11, Mussolini was quoted as saying: "Those bloody Jews, they should be destroyed ... I'll build an island and put them all there..."
Diary entries also reportedly show Mussolini's anger with Pope Pius XI who said he was "spiritually close to all Semites" and called for Catholic marriages to Jews to be recognised.
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