More racist than Hitler

Italy - Excerpts from  a diary kept by Mussolini's mistress reveal the Italian dictator was a rabid anti-Semite and vowed to destroy all Jews - also referring to them as reptiles. He proudly claimed his hatred preceded even Hitler's whom he called a "softy" even though he was moved by the warm reception he felt he'd received by the German dictator at the 1938 conference in Munich. "I have been a racist since 1921. I don't know how they can think I'm imitating Hitler," Mussolini proudly boasted in August 1938 according to the diary. 

Mussolini also ravaged Pious XI for the Pope's criticism of Fascism and the Nazis. Claretta Petacci wrote the diaries between 1932 and 1938 which historians agree are authentic. "Secret Mussolini" will include excerpts and the book is due out this week. Partisans shot Petacci and the dictator in 1945.