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war they say makes strange bad photos never was this more true than during the second world war
when many former bitter enemies formed uneasy alliances in the service of ultimate victory for
instance soviet union entered the war aligned with nazi germany the two ideological enemies carving
up poland between them in september 1939. two years later it returned on stalin and invaded the
soviet union whereupon the soviets despite their previous actions became britain and america's
greatest ally but this conflict also brought together internal enemies uniting opposition
factions with common patriotic purpose such was the case in the united states where in perhaps the
ultimate case of strange bedfellows the government teamed up with the mafia to help win the war
in the 1930s and 1940s there were two dominant mafia groups in the united states those run by the
italians mainly sicilians and those run by jews while the sicilian mafia can trace its origins to
informal and ancient resistance movements against sicily's various conquerors the modern american
organization was the product of fascist dictator benito mussolini's rise to power in the 1920s as
a northerner mussolini was highly unpopular in sicily and the various mafia clans put up
a determined resistance to his rule on the island mussolini in turn saw the mafia as a challenge to
his power and tossed his right-hand man cesare mori with arresting imprisoning and humiliating
mafia dons and other key members these purges resulted in a mass exodus of mafioso to the united
states where they quickly established themselves as a persistent thorn in the side of american law
enforcement the mafia infiltrated itself into a wide variety of enterprises from bootlegging
during prohibition to more legitimate pursuits like the seafood market and politics new laws had
to be invented to counter the mafia's growth but even these barely put a dent in their operations
indeed by the 1960s the american mafia's annual revenues were estimated at 7 billion yet despite
their antagonistic relationship with their adopted country most american mafioso maintains the hatred
for mussolini in his fascist government this was in stark contrast to many non-mafia-affiliated
italian-americans who continued to see mussolini as a folk hero the fascist league of north america
was founded by italian immigrants in 1925 and quickly became a mouthpiece for mussolini's
regime in america engaging in street brawls and other acts of violence against labor unions and
anti-fascist groups on one occasion the league attempted to assassinate anti-fascist activist
carlo chasker but the mafia intervened and forced the would-be assassin to kiss the organizer's hand
after years of violence mussolini decided to withdraw official support from the league in
1929 but italian-american support for his regime persisted for more than a decade the mafia however
remained staunchly anti-mussolini effect which was to make them very useful once the united states
entered the second world war in many american cities italian immigrants lived side by side
with large jewish communities composed mainly of immigrants who had fled persecution in eastern
europe this community also spawned a variety of organized criminal groups which inevitably
clashed with the italian mafia over territory over time however the two groups drew closer together
and began collaborating on various criminal activities one relationship that epitomized this
growing bond was between italian mafioso charles lucky luciano and jewish gangster mayor lansky in
new york city in the late 1920s as the mafia began to coalesce in new york luciano found himself
working closely with the sicilian mafioso who had escaped mussolini's purges having many jewish
friends and colleagues including lansky luciano quickly grew tired of the older mafioso's rabid
anti-semitism and old world values in 1930 deciano decided to purge the mafia of its old guard during
an ongoing power struggle known as the castamoresi war this war resulted in the creation of the
italian mafia as we tend to think of it today consisting of five new york families chino mangano
profasi bonano and gagliano and several regional families scattered across the united states
while jews irish and other ethnicities were still denied official membership in the italian mafia
the organization still maintained close business partnerships with these groups one of the main
causes uniting the italian and jewish mafias was their shared hatred of fascism 1936 saw
the formation of the german-american bund a domestic political organization allied with
adolf hitler's nazi regime as support for nazism grew and anti-semitic riots began breaking out in
the streets new york state judge nathan palman recruited mayor lansky in the jewish mafia to
disrupt the bun's activities throughout the late 1930s lansky's violent activities against the bond
put him in the spotlight as a top jewish gangster and helped make possible his later collaboration
with the u.s government on december 8 1941 the united states declared war on imperial japan
and nazi germany officially entering the second world war early the following year the german
creeks marine launched operation drum beater concerted u-boat assault on shipping just off
the american coast on february 9 the french ocean liner ss normandy caught fire and kept sized in
new york harbor while being converted to a troop ship while a few months later the fbi apprehended
a ring of german spies and saboteurs who had been landed by u-boats on long island u.s naval
intelligence suspected that saboteurs had set fire to the normandy and were helping to refuel
u-boats operating offshore using small boats it was quickly becoming clear that criminals
or not the people running america's east coast ports could not be ignored in the spring of 1942
naval intelligence launched operation underworld under the direction of captain roscoe c mccall and
lieutenant commander charles radcliffe hafenden the operation set out to infiltrate the dock
workers but this proved difficult without union connections mccall and happened and thus arranged
a meeting with joseph soxlandzer a culpo in the lucianic crime family and head of the seafood
workers union in fulton fish market while lanza was willing to help the authorities his authority
was limited to the fish market if the government wanted to infiltrate other unions he said they
would need to talk to lucky luciano himself but there was once more problem at that time luciano
was serving a 30-year sentence at dhanamora prison in upstate new york having been convicted for
compulsory prostitution in 1936 all attempts at appeal had failed making it likely that
he would remain in prison for life though luciano continued to run his empire from prison with the
help of intermediaries like mayor lansky and frank costello he longed to leave dannemora likening its
isolation and cold climate to siberia the coming of the war and the problem of sabotage in american
harbors seemed to bring the opportunity for escape that had been waiting for following a meeting with
marlansky and naval intelligence luciano agreed to help the government by convincing various elements
of the italian-american community to side against the axis powers naval intelligence officers were
allowed to infiltrate dock workers unions and hotels bars and clubs that were frequented by
suspected spies while the mafia kept an eye out for saboteurs and broke up strikes that might
interfere with the war effort navy agents even performed occasional collection tasks for the
mafia to keep up appearances during all this the government agreed to transfer lucky luciano to
a prison in a warmer climate close enough to new york city to help facilitate the mafia's
cooperation with naval intelligence while the navy made it clear to luciano that this was not a quid
pro quo deal and that his prison sentence would not be commuted luciano driven by his hatred of
fascism gave his full cooperation and helped keep the doc workers in line for the remainder of the
war that anyway is the official version of events however indiciano's and mayolansky's memoirs
both men claimed that luciano was actually playing naval intelligence from the start according to
these accounts luciano had offered his services to the navy much earlier in the war but his
advances were ignored wanting to stage an act of sabotage in order to attract the navy's attention
luciano turned to enforcer albert anastasia who suggested burning the normandy official records
suggest that the normandy fire was the main event which drove naval intelligence to approach the
mafia indicating that they played directly in such another's hands pavluchana's memoirs are known to
be riddled with exaggerations and misinformation and it is far more likely that the fire was
accidentally started by a worker with a welding torch as corroborated by multiple eyewitnesses
whatever the case the mafia's wartime activities extended far beyond america's shores in 1943 the
allies began preparations for operation husky the invasion of sicily believing he could be of great
service to the invasion effort lucky luciano volunteered to land on sicily and make contact
with local mafia families while this request was denied luciano nonetheless succeeded in using his
connections in america to establish communication with the sicilian mafia allowing allied agents
to be infiltrated onto the island ahead of the invasion he also convinced hundreds of italian
immigrants to provide naval intelligence with photos sketches and maps of the sicilian coastline
allowing the landings to be more carefully coordinated operation husky which commenced on
july 9 1943 was an unqualified success resulting in the capture of the island within a month and
the collapse of mussolini's fascist government in an ironic twist of fate ducey's decision to
persecute the sicilian mafia resulted in his ultimate downfall while u.s naval intelligence
credited the swift success of the invasion to luciano's sicilian connections such claims are
highly exaggerated lichana was largely out of touch with the sicilian mafia and the invasion
proceeded so swiftly that any connections he did have would have likely had little impact on the
final victory while luciano did play a key role in the invasion his contributions were largely
limited to providing intelligence on the sicilian coastline despite this and the navy's insistence
that he would not benefit from his collaboration after the war luciano cited his wartime activities
in an attempt to appeal his prison sentence naval intelligence repeatedly denied luciano's
claims until the manhattan district attorney's office investigated and found that to be true
in 1946 ducano was deported to sicily under threat of imprisonment if he returned to america the
u.s government's collaboration with the sicilian mafia continued in the post-invasion years through
the formation of the italian republic in 1946 while the sicilian mafia held different positions
on sicily's independence from italy at first the mafia eventually played a role in quelling
separatist and communist agitation meanwhile lucky luciano enjoyed the boost to his reputation but
not his new life in sicily desperately yearning to return to america in 1946 maya lansky brought
him to cuba where he opened a casino and resort and managed his old empire from closer to home
activities which inspired the plot of the godfather part two after barely a year in cuba
however luciano was arrested and deported back to italy where he spent the remainder of his life
dying of a heart attack in naples in 1962. it should also be noted that one of luciano's mafia
rivals had a very different relationship to mussolini than was the norm for the mafia vito
genovese and luciano were initially on opposite sides of the castomerisi war but sided with each
other to end the conflict after luciano's arrest in 1936 veto genovese saw himself
as his true successor and was willing to fight for his place in the mafia plans changed in 1937 when
genovese fled to italy to avoid a murder charge in italy he supported mussolini even contributing 250
thousand dollars to build a new headquarters for the fascist party genovese was known to operate
in the black markets and even supplied party figures with drugs in 1943 helped the fascists
by using his connections in new york to put a hit on the previously mentioned anti-fascist
activist carlo teresca genovese's loyalties to mussolini and his use of mafia resources
in chaska's assassination angered luciano who tried to leverage his knowledge of genovese's
involvement in his negotiations with the u.s government for his service to the fascist regime
genovese was honored with the commandator del rey a civilian honor genomese changed loyalties
when the allies invaded italy he served as an interpreter for the allies while running
black market operations using the occupation's resources in 1994 genovese was arrested for his
black market activities he was extradited back to the united states to face trial for his original
murder charge back in 1937. the charges against genovese were dropped in 1945 when the poisoning
of a material witness against genovese collapsed the case unlikely charlo genovese found himself
free and able to continue where he left off in the criminal underworld truly all is fair in love
and war the united states wartime collaboration with the mafia is emblematic of the desperate
and often morally fraught lengths the allies went to in order to secure final victory over the axis
powers luciano and genovese had different reasons to cooperate with the allies and each yielded
very different results so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did
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