In the early years of his rule he was sympathetic to the Zionist movement and even hosted a cordial meeting with Chaim Weizmann. Having read "Mein Kampf", he knew that Adolf Hitler despised Italians along with other non-Germanic groups. In 1938, under intense pressure from Hitler, Mussolini enacted relatively minor discriminatory anti-Jewish laws, and even those went largely unenforced. Only in late 1943, after the Germans had invaded northern and central Italy and reduced Mussolini to a puppet, did deportations of Jews begin. The Germans did not inform or consult Mussolini when they began deporting Jews. Some historians have argued the introduction of the Manifesto of Race in 1938 was a deliberate attempt by Mussolini to revive his regime, since it had lost popularity after being in power for 15 years.
