When Benito Mussolini enacted anti-Semitic laws in Italy in 1938, contemporaries either saw them as a copy of the Nuremberg Laws or interpreted them as a result of external political pressure. This interpretation remained prevalent long after the war. The Nazi regime's judgment on how the Italian ally dealt with Jews fluctuated between being appropriate and too lenient. In the 1920s, anti-Semitism in fascist Italy was still latent. This changed in the mid-1930s with the enactment of anti-Semitic laws and the rise of anti-Semitic sentiments. In Berlin, this development was welcomed. As a result of the radicalization of Nazi Jewish policy and the tensions that arose during World War II with the Italian ally, the Nazis once again deemed its anti-Semitism too restrained. However, the post-war myth of the "good Italian" cannot be substantiated.