3. The National After Work Program for Adults
In 1925 Mussolini and the Fascist government created a program for adult recreation, entertainment, and education throughout Italy which they called the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) which translates to National After-Work Program. It was the largest of several recreational organizations for adults and was instantly popular. The organization built recreational facilities including theaters and movie houses, outdoor grounds for football and other sports, indoor gymnasiums, libraries, and amphitheaters for orchestras. Membership was voluntary, and it was massively popular as well as remaining apolitical. More than three-quarters of Italy’s salaried workers were members by the 1930s, when it shifted its priorities to primarily sports, and they were soon joined by almost half of Italy’s industrial workers.
The success of the Italian program was one of the initiatives admired by Adolf Hitler, and it served as the Nazi’s model for the Strength through Joy program in Germany after Hitler was in power. Unlike the Italians, who admitted members without regard for political affiliation or ethnicity, the Nazis did not allow Jews to participate in their program. The OND was not the only such program started by the Fascists, but it was the largest nationwide as measured by membership rolls. Another program which gained widespread acceptance in Italy was the ONB, which provided recreational facilities for youth, offered clubs and dances, cafes where they could gather to listen to the radio, hiking facilities in the Apennines and Italian Alps, ethnic and sports festivals, and circuses, usually at no cost, or for largely insignificant fees.