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From: Free Thinking Doggie
Interesting bit of history... 'Benito Mussolini considered the annexation of Nice to be one of his main targets. In 1940, the County of Nice was occupied by the Italian army and the newspaper Il Nizzardo ("The Niçard") was restored there. It was directed by Ezio Garibaldi, grandson of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Only Menton was administered until 1943 as if it was an Italian territory, even if the Italian supporters of Italian irredentism in Nice wanted to create an Italian governorate (on the model of the Governorate of Dalmatia) up to the Var river or at least a "Province of the Western Alps". The Italian occupation government was far less severe than that of Vichy France thus, thousands of Jews took refuge there. For a while, Nice became an important mobilization center for various Jewish organizations. However, when the Italians signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies, German troops invaded the region on 8 September 1943, and initiated brutal raids. Alois Brunner, the SS official for Jewish affairs, was placed at the head of units formed to search for Jews. Within five months, 5,000 Jews were caught and deported.[16] The area was returned to France following the war and in 1947, the areas of La Brigue and Tende, which had remained Italian after 1860 were ceded to France. Thereafter, a quarter of the Niçard Italians living in that mountainous area moved to Piedmont and Liguria in Italy (mainly from the Roya Valley and Tenda).

Current Thread	Author	Time
Interesting bit of history......[more]	Free Thinking Doggie	18:38:56
>> The Hotel Excelsior was the Gestapo HQ. ...[more]	Free Thinking Doggie	18:43:20

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