(CNN) A letter from a descendent of Italy's wartime King, apologizing for his ancestor's role in enabling Mussolini's fascist policies during World War II, has been criticized by historians and Jewish groups after several decades of silence from members of the disbanded royal family. He said he and his relatives "dissociate ourselves firmly" from the King, who approved Mussolini's rise to power and gave the laws royal assent, and asked for forgiveness for his ancestor's actions. Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy at an event in Los Angeles in 2018. But the gesture, made ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on Wednesday, has been dismissed by historians as "too little too late," and has drawn the ire of Jewish groups who condemned the family's lengthy reluctance to confront its role in laying the groundwork for the Holocaust in Europe. Mussolini's race laws tore away at the civil rights of Jewish Italians between 1938 and 1943, during which time the dictator allied himself to Hitler to form the Axis powers.

Source: CNN January 27, 2021 12:22 UTC