Italian King's descendant apologises for family's role in Holocaust during World War II

Emanuele Filiberto, the great-grandson of Italy's former King Victor Emmanuel III, has apologised to the Jewish community for the latter's role in the Holocaust during World War II. The apology came ahead of Remembrance Day on January 27 as Filiberto condemned his great-grandfather's role in dictator Mussolini's 1938 racial laws that saw over 8,000 Jews being deported to Nazi Germany and later killed on behalf of Hitler. Filiberto sought forgiveness from the Jewish community for the "mistakes" his great-grandfather had made decades ago. 

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"I condemn the racial laws of 1938, of which I still feel all the weight on my shoulders and with me the whole Royal House of Savoy, and I solemnly declare that we do not recognize ourselves in what Vittorio Emanuele III did: a painful signature, from which we firmly dissociate, an unacceptable document, an indelible shadow for my family, a wound still open for the whole of Italy," Filiberto said in a letter he posted on Facebook earlier on Saturday. 

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Filiberto's great-grandfather ruled from 1900 to 1946

Filiberto's great-grandfather ruled Italy from 1900 to 1946 and is known to have played a key role in Mussolini's racial laws that targetted the Jewish community. After the fall of Italy's fascist regime, Victor Emmanuel III abdicated and lived in exile in Egypt for a year before he died aged 78. Victor's son Umberto II ruled Italy for a year before the country became a republic and he was forced to go into exile in Portugal. 

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Umberto II's only son Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy and his grandson Emanuele Filiberto lived most of their lives in exile in Switzerland and Portugal before returning to Italy in 2002 after they officially pledged loyalty to the republic and gave up their demand for compensation. Filiberto has made several television appearances since returning to Italy. He is married to French actress Clotilde Courau and has two children. ​

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