Title: The question of Fascist Italy's war crimes: the construction of a self-acquitting myth (1943 – 1948)
Abstract: Abstract Between the announcement of the armistice on 8 September 1943 and 1948, the anti-fascist ruling class developed a narrative of the 'Fascist war' that was destined to mark deeply the historical conscience of the country and the national self-image. Until now, extraneous to both of these has been the awareness of Fascist Italy's role as protagonist in a policy of aggression towards various foreign states (Ethiopia, Albania, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union) and as an occupation regime distinguished by violent forms of repression and control not dissimilar to the abominations committed by Nazi Germany in western Europe. A study of the debate on the question of Italian war crimes and criminals from 1943 to 1948 will shed light on this lacuna in the historical memory of the Italians. Keywords: Second World Warwar crimesItalypublic memory Notes See 'Documenti diplomatici italiani', 10th series, vol. 1 (9 September 1943 – 11 December 1944), Rome, 1992, doc. 231, pp. 282 – 3; hereafter DDI. The speech was given on 20 August 1944 at the Teatro Eliseo. See the first page of the newspaper for 22 and 23 August 1944. See ASMAE, AP Yugoslavia 1946 – 50, b.3, f.2, Foglio dello Stato Maggiore Generale S.I.M. al Ministero Affari Esteri Segreteria Generale, n. di prot. 463/Z/4, 8 October 1944. Reference is made to various incidents of the shooting of civilians, the internment of 36,000 Slovenians in concentration camps and the death of 4,000 of them in the camp at Arbe. See ivi, Appunto per la Dir. Generale degli Affari Politici, n. di prot. 1/763, 27 October 1944, signed by Prunas. See ivi, Telespresso del Ministero degli Affari Esteri D.G.A.P. IV a Stato Maggiore Generale S.I.M., n. di prot. 15/03611/49, 5 November 1944, signed by Prunas. See Archivio centrale dello Stato (hereafter ACS), PCM 1951 – 54, 15.2 10599, sf.3, Stato Maggiore Generale Ufficio Affari vari a Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri Gabinetto, Ministero degli Affari Esteri Gabinetto, n. di prot. 106305/AV, 9 November 1944, signed by Marshal of Italy General Chief of Staff Giovanni Messe. The three Italian officers shot were lieutenant-colonel Ezio Stuparelli, previously chief of staff of the 'Venezia' division, Major Antonio Monzani and Captain Caroti, both of 'Venezia'. Cfr. ivi, Stato Maggiore Generale Ufficio Affari vari, a S.E. il Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri, a S.E. il Ministro per gli Affari Esteri, n. di prot. 110/SP/AV, 17 February 1945, signed by Marshal of Italy General Chief of Staff Giovanni Messe. On Roatta's escape, see Palmer (Citation1996: 160 – 3) and Woller (Citation1997: 325 – 8). The other defendants were Salvatore Melloni, secretary to Jacomoni, and the general of the Carabinieri, Cristiano Agostinucci. See 'L'Albania chiede' (1945). See ACS, Alto Commissariato per la sanzioni contro il fascismo (ACSF), Titolo XV-2 e Titolo I-25/1. References to the incident are also found in ASMAE, AP Jugoslavia 1946 – 50, b.3, f.2. On the press, see: 'Massacratori di istriani' (1945). On the Italian attitude toward Germany, see Focardi (Citation1995). On the image of the 'good Italian' as opposed to the 'bad German', see Focardi (Citation1996, Citation2000a). Donasti (pseudonym for Luciolli) (Citation1945: 271 – 3). On this subject, see Focardi (Citation1999: esp. 157 – 9 with bibliographic indications on the vast historiographical production about the Italian actions in defence of the Jews). See the description of those responsible in the ample dossier on Italiani in Jugoslavia edited in 1945 by Marta Chiesi and Romano Bilenchi for the communist magazine Società 1(3): 182 – 251, wherein are reported numerous examples of violence and oppression committed against the civilian population. The volume had a wide circulation in anti-fascist circles. On this action, see Quazza (Citation1978) and Bianco (Citation1995). This latter work is useful for the new documentary material it produces, but its interpretative hypotheses are debatable. The best reconstruction is Bovio (Citation1987). For a synthesis of the historiography on the policy of Italian occupation in Yugoslavia, we limit ourselves here to mentioning the essays of Collotti (Citation1997) and Mantelli (Citation2000). For an important testimony of crimes committed by Italians in Yugoslavia, see Brignoli (Citation1973). On the story of the foibe, see Valdevit (Citation1997). See, for example, Italicus (Citation1946a, Citationb). See ASMAE, AP Yugoslavia 1946 – 1950, b. 38. See ivi, Ministero della Difesa (Gabinetto) al Ministero degli Affari Esteri, n. di prot. 225734/II/235.5.3, 11 October 1946, signed by Minister Facchinetti. Simonetti was condemned for shooting an English aviator who had jumped with his parachute. The incidents were already noted at the time by the French authorities: Notin (Citation2002) recalls the punishments carried out by the French against some of those responsible for the rapes. For a detailed study on the rapes committed by the American armed forces (while we await research on the rapes committed by the Axis occupation forces such as the Wehrmacht and the Italian army), see Lilly (Citation2003). DDI, Decima serie, vol. 1, pp. 284 – 5 (doc. 232, 26 May 1944). The article was widely picked up, even by the Civiltà Cattolica: see 'Cronaca contemporanea' (Citation1947). The volume collected the texts of a series of remarks previously published in Civiltà Cattolica from February to July 1946 (Lener Citation1946: 1213 – 14). See, for example, 'Il Gen. Orlando' (Citation1948) and 'Documenti che non convincono' (Citation1948). The Turin newspaper also severely criticized the 'attacks of excessive violence' carried out by Avanti! against General Orlando. A different sense to this term is given by Battini (Citation2003).
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 43
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