This work investigates the divergent treatment of Jewish populations by German and Italian fascist forces during the Second World War to understand the ideological roots of wartime atrocity. Jonathan Steinberg, a distinguished historian of modern Europe, utilizes archival evidence and comparative analysis to examine how the distinct political cultures of Nazism and Italian Fascism influenced military conduct. He argues that the systemic extermination policies of the Third Reich were fundamentally different from the opportunistic and often resistant behavior of the Italian military, providing a framework for understanding how state ideology dictates the morality of soldiers in the field.

Historians and scholars of the Second World War recognize this text as a critical contribution to the study of comparative fascism and military ethics. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's meticulous attention to the institutional differences between the two regimes.