September 1923, the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris ended with the evacuation of the Italian forces from Corfu, which finally began on 20 September 1923 and ended on the 27th of the same month. World War II After World War I, Italy had embarked on a policy of expansionism towards the Adriatic, in which Corfu played an important role, as it controlled entrance to it. As shown by the incident of 1923, Mussolini and Italian irredentism had set their sights firmly on the island. The Italian community was an especially useful tool, and it was both supported and exploited by Fascist propaganda. During the Second World War Mussolini wanted to possess the Ionian Islands, which he succeeded with the help of the Germans during the Greco-Italian War. The Italians occupied Corfu from 28 March 1941. They implemented a process of Italianization, with creation of Italian schools, centered around the small surviving community of the Corfiote Italians, who still spoke the Venetian dialect, but which by that time numbered only 500 people, living mainly in Corfu city. The first reaction to the Italian occupation happened on the first Sunday of November 1941. During the procession of the Saint Spyridon, the fascist young Corfiot Italians participated and provoked the students of the Greek high schools. When the procession arrived in the Upper Square, the students started to leave whilst singing the national Greek songs. The "Carbinaria" and the "Finetsia" fascist groups attacked and arrested many Greek students, beating them and exiling some of them to the island of Othonous. After that episode there was a relative calm in Corfu until the surrender of Italy on 9 September 1943. From 10 to 14 September 1943, the Germans tried to force the Italian garrison in Corfu to surrender, while the political prisoners from the small island of Lazaretto were set free. Finally, on the morning of 13 September, Corfiots woke up to the disasters of the war, as the Germans attacked the island. The German air raids continued the whole day bombarding the port, the Fortresses and strategic points. During the night of 14 September, huge damages were inflicted to the Jewish quarters of Saint Fathers and Saint Athanasios, the Court House, the Ionian Parliament, the Ionian Academy, in which the Library was lodged, the Schools of Middle Education, the Hotel "Bella Venezia", the Customs Office, the Manor-Houses and the Theatre. Finally the next