impedes speaking." Fascism and World War II From 1930 Segre started traveling around Europe, staying mainly in Paris with brief periods in Italy. In 1936 the fascist government prevented reprinting of his books, on moral grounds. Seeking to join the Fascist Party, he wrote directly to Mussolini in 1938. By that time, he was already working as an informant for OVRA, the secret service of the Fascist government. He provided information about anti-fascist Jewish writers in his circle, as well as Jewish relatives. OVRA dismissed him in 1939, after he was exposed in Paris when a file including his name was found by French police in the flat of Vincenzo Bellavia, the OVRA director there. Despite his work for the government, Pitigrilli began to be persecuted as a Jew. His books were banned, as was his magazine, and he could not write for other magazines. In June 1940, Italy entered the war as an ally of Nazi Germany. Turin police included Pitigrilli on a list of "dangerous Jews" to be interned in the south of Italy in Apulia. He and his lawyer, with the help of the intervention of Edvige Mussolini, were able to have the place of internment changed to Uscio, a small town near the Riviera that was two hours from Turin. Pitigrilli appealed directly to the government for release from internal exile, and was freed by the end of the year. By 1941 he went to Rome, where he wrote movie dialog anonymously to circumvent the racial law and make some kind of living. He offered his services again to OVRA, saying his status as a persecuted Jew would provide him cover. He was seeking to have Aryan status confirmed, as he had been baptized Catholic. He was never rehired, and never gained a change in his racial status. In July 1943 Mussolini's fascist regime fell. Six weeks later the Germans occupied Italy, and Pitigrilli fled to neutral Switzerland. His wife and daughter, who were recorded as Catholic, could travel openly and joined him there. They lived in Switzerland until 1947 and after the war's end. Postwar years In 1948 Segre and his family moved to Argentina, then under the rule of Juan Perón. They remained there for ten years. He continued to write but had no novels published in Italy from 1938 to 1948. In 1958, Pitigrilli moved with his family again, returning to Europe to