A Civil War (140 page)

69
Tramontin,
Il clero italiano e la Resistenza
, p. 24.

70
ISRT,
Carte Francesco Berti
, envelope 1, folder 1, verbali del CTLN.

71
Circular from the executive secretariat of the Modena provincial committee, 1 March 1945, cited in Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, p. 357. Gorrieri notes that ‘the concern to reduce the threat of reprisals against the population to a minimum constantly recurs throughout Christian-Democratic documents'.

72
Mautino,
Guerra di popolo
, pp. 34–5.

73
A box in
Fratelli d'Italia
, 22 May 1944.

74
‘Ieri, domani … e oggi',
Il Ferroviere
(Milan), February 1945.

75
Voce Operaia
wrote: ‘Only being present in the struggle, not leaving it to the old ruling class to lead it, can we arise above those old social relations that have led us to ruin' (editorial, ‘Giornate decisive', 18 October 1943). For its part,
L'Unità
attacked attentism as the conscious sabotage of the popular insurrection, originating from those with an interest in giving credit to Nazi-Fascist talk of socialist and communist plots and of partisans ‘coming down into the cities to liquidate the rich, and other nonsense of a similar type'. On this theme, see Chapter 6, above.

76
See the PCI's September 1943 appeal to the Italian people, in
Il comunismo italiano nella seconda guerra mondiale
, p. 216

77
See the article by Vittore Querel, director of the Modena
Gazzetta dell'Emilia
, in its 3 May 1944 edition (quoted in Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, p. 199), and the letter by seventeen-year-old Folgore parachutist Ferdinando Camuncoli (
LRSI
, p. 125). On GNR complaints of the attentism and cowardice of the Italian people, see G. Sciola, ‘Avanzata alleata e popolazione civile nelle fonti della Repubblica sociale italiana', in Rochat, Santarelli and Sorcinelli,
Linea gotica 1944
, pp. 497–523.

78
See Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, pp. 90–1. Here, I would like to pay homage to the memory of Delfino Insolera, who, when the other elements of the band in which he was initially involved crossed the border from Valtellina into Switzerland, instead went back to Milan, telling his sister Melina that he wanted to stay there where the battle for freedom was being fought.

79
Letter to a British officer (‘Signor Rossi') in Switzerland, 1 December 1944 (IG,
BG
, 07194).

80
The words quoted are from Meneghello,
I piccoli maestri
, pp. 284–5; the rest is a paraphrase of the definition of ‘free rider' in Hirschman,
Shifting Involvements
, p. 92.

81
G. Balladore Pallieri, ‘La guerra', in P. Fedozzi and S. Romano, eds,
Trattato di diritto internazionale
, vol. III, Padua: Cedam, 1935, pp. 380ff. See, by the same author,
Diritto bellico
, Padua: Cedam, 1954, pp. 357–61.

82
Article III, 19 of the convention, cited in S. Klarsfeld,
Le livre des otages: la politique des otages menée par les autorités allemandes d'occupation en France de 1941 à 1943
, preface by M.-C. Vaillant-Couturier, Paris: Les Éditeurs français réunis, 1979, p. 19.

83
Ibid.

84
Ibid., p. 20. The decree was provoked by the killing of a German officer as a response to the shooting of two Communists.

85
Ibid., p. 23. The number of Communists to be shot for each German soldier killed was set between fifty and one hundred. To see the attention with which the Allies followed the question of hostages, see
The Axis System of Hostages
, London–New York: Inter-Allied Information Committee, United Nations Information Office, 1942. This document also speaks of the hostages taken by the Italians in Greece.

86
‘Ostaggi', in the 7 January 1944 edition; a box in the 26 March 1944 edition entitled ‘Un comunicato ‘Stefani' sui fatti di via Rasella'. A box in
Voce Operaia
, ‘Ancora sui GAP' reproached the Vatican's organ for having spoken of ‘those sacrificed to vendetta and the reprisal for the vendetta' and of ‘crime against crime'. Canfora,
La sentenza
, p. 158, aptly comments that, according to
L'Osservatore
, ‘the attackers, the terrorists were, in reality, holding all the defenceless hostage'.

87
M. Barrès,
L'âme française et la guerre. Le suffrage des morts
, Paris: Émile-Paul Frères, 1919, pp. 281, 223–32, where the articles ‘Le Crabe' and ‘Les représailles? C'est le blocus resserré' are reproduced.

88
‘Générosité … ou intérêt bien compris',
93. Organe des héritiers de la Révolution française
, July 1942. This paper wrote ‘Kollaborateurs' with a ‘K'.

89
‘L' épuration [i.e. the purge, termed an ‘immense desire'] premier pas vers notre avenir', in
14 juillet. Organe de la résistance de la sous-région de Lyon
, 15 May 1944.

90
Atti CVL
, p. 80; letter from Parri to Galimberti, 11 August 1944 (
Formazioni GL
, p. 135).

91
‘Direzione. Verbali riunioni 1944', IG,
Archivio PCI
.

92
Editorial in the 30 October 1943 Rome edition of
L'Italia Libera
.

93
Pesce,
Senza tregua
, p. 32. See. p. 237: ‘We oppose the enemy's terror with our own terror'.

94
See Cicchetti,
Il campo giusto
.

95
The unsigned leaflet, 24 March, is held at ISRT, Raccolta volantini, PCI Firenze (clandestini 1943–1944).

96
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 235; the notes mention the similar response by the Command of the 3
^rd
Liguria Division, 25 August, to a Special Tribunal trial against ‘thirty-one Italians', warning that for each shooting ordered by the tribunal, they would shoot ‘two of the hostages we have in our hands … (functionaries and agents of the Pubblica Sicurezza, GNR, officers and militiamen)'.

97
INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 6, folder 3, subfolder 17. Already on 31 December 1943, this same CLN had announced: ‘If the Germans continue to shoot imprisoned partisans, the same will go for the German prisoners' (ordinance no. 11, published in
La Riscossa italiana
, January–February 1944).

98
Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, p. 115.

99
Undated, available in IVSR, Archivio, S. 1, envelope 49, CLN, Stampa non periodica.

100
Letter to the inspector Riccardo, with the 3
^rd
Aliotta Division (Oltrepò Pavese), 16 November 1944 (IG,
BG
, 0342).

101
L'Unità
, northern edition, 9 April 1945.

102
As stipulated by the disciplinary code of the 5
^th
Piedmont Garibaldi Division (see Dellavalle,
Operai
, p. 182). See also
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 152–3.

103
This happened in Varzi: see ‘Relazione sull'Oltrepò pavese dell'ispettore Giorgio', 20 March 1945, in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 510.

104
‘Appello in favore dei detenuti politici'. On 30 January 1945, the Fascists in Milan had killed nine political prisoners (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 3, folder 2, subfolder 3/III).

105
As ‘the comrades responsible' wrote to the political commissar of the 5
^th
Zone (Cuneo area), Pietro, on 28 December 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 152–3).

106
See Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, p. 32.

107
See Quazza,
Un diario partigiano
, p. 217 (19 October 1944).

108
Dellavalle,
Operai
, pp. 123–4, 142, 144; Poma and Perona,
La Resistenza nel Biellese
, pp. 227–31, which recounts how a threatened counter-reprisal, for which authorisation was sought from the Allied Command (in August 1944) put a stop to mass reprisals for the whole of the rest of the year.

109
The letter, whose addressee is not indicated (but is probably the formations under their watch) is dated 12 October 1944 (INSMLI,
CVL
, envelope 93, folder 4, subfolder 2).

110
Ibid., envelope 93, folder 4, subfolder a. On the role in carrying out these reprisals attributed to the Valsesia, Ossola, Cusio and Verbano divisions-group (20 shootings), see the order sent from the Group Command to the 1
^st
Division, 15 October 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 442).

111
IG,
BG
, 01417 (15 September 1944).

112
Letter from Andrea, responsible for the organisational office of the Liguria Regional Command, to the Command itself, 6 October 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 405).

113
‘Contro il terrore, contro la fame, contro le deportazioni', northern edition, 8 October 1944.

114
ISRP, envelope 28, folder b.

115
See Poma and Perona,
La Resistenza nel Biellese
, pp. 422–7, and Dellavalle,
Operai
, p. 286.

116
See Mautino,
Guerra di popolo
, p. 195.

117
See Dellavalle,
Operai
, p. 161.

118
Testimony of Remo Scala (Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 277).

1
Testimony of R. L., in Portelli,
Assolutamente niente
, p. 142.

2
Il comunismo italiano nella seconda guerra mondiale
, p. 216.

3
La Vérité
, 25 September 1941;
Prometeo
, 1 February 1944.

4
Scotti,
La nascita delle formazioni
, p. 69.

5
See, for example, ‘Il terrorismo individuale nella situazione italiana',
Lo Stato Operaio
VI (1932), pp. 326–31.

6
See the pamphlet
Consigli sulla tattica
, in the GL archive, available at ISRT, S. IV, folder 2, subfolder I, insert 2, document 9. My thanks to Costanzo Casucci for making me aware of its existence.

7
Parri, in conversation with the author.

8
‘GAP' in
Enciclopedia dell'antifascismo e della Resistenza
, Pietro Secchia, ed. Milan-Rome: Edizioni La Pietra, vol. II, 1971, pp. 475–9. Already in his article ‘Perché dobbiamo agire subito' (
La nostra lotta
, November 1943, 3–4, pp. 20–1), Secchia had put together a clear
summa
of the Communists' positions. Luciano Canfora has noted that in the German edition of this text, from 1959, that the word ‘persons' is replaced with ‘institutions' (
La sentenza
, p. 158).

9
Secchia wrote that ‘the PCI's GAP recruited exclusively Communists' and that the GAP were instituted upon the initiative of the General Command of the Garibaldi Brigade, towards the end of 1943 (see the encyclopaedia piece ‘GAP', cited above). According to Ragionieri, the PCI had in fact already stipulated their creation with a circular in May 1943 (see Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, pp. 328–9).

10
Letter addressed to the Piedmont Regional Military Command, and for the information of the other Commands, 15 November 1944, to reassure them that the GAP should not mean ‘formations of patriots of any particular political orientation' (
Atti CVL
, pp. 251–2). See also the subsequent confirmation letter, from 1 December (ibid., p. 264).

11
Valiani,
Tutte le strade
, pp. 169–72. Canfora has noted the author's subsequent (in truth, partial) self-censorship. In the 1983 reissue (Bologna: Il Mulino, pp. 128–30) ‘militant anti-Fascism' becomes ‘part of militant anti-Fascism', while the words ‘all democratic parties' become ‘and also other democratic parties'. See Canfora,
La sentenza
, pp. 155–7. On the Action Party's GAP, see the above-cited ‘Relazione del commissario politico del Comando piemontese delle formazioni GL', 31 December 1944, which, in ‘a substantially negative … assessment' of the ‘organisation of the urban squads', advanced a distinction between ‘activists and terrorists' and other combatants (
Formazione GL
, pp. 284–5). See also the 30 January 1945 order from the Lombardy GL Command to ‘Command 734', to proceed with the seizure of hostages who could be exchanged for Parri, himself captured by the Germans on 2 January ‘with the promise of a major individual reward (even above 10,000 lire) if this coup can be pulled off' (ibid., p. 300).

12
See the preamble in Elio Vittorini,
Conversazione in Sicilia
, Milan: Bompiani, 1942.

13
‘La bomba Ercoli', in the 5 April 1944 Rome edition. The 9 February order of the day, reacting to the conclusions of the Bari congress, appears in the 14 February issue.

14
The leaflet, datable to the third week of December 1944, is published in Arbizzani,
Manifesti, opuscoli, fogli volanti
, p. 454. Note the resemblance to Churchill's admonishment that, in the case of an enemy invasion, every English citizen should kill, if possible, one Hun, even if with a pitchfork.

15
Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, p. 32.

16
See the report (unsigned and undated – the attack was on 7 April 1944), in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. I, pp. 348–9.

17
See, for example,
Quatre-Vingt-Treize. Organe des marraines des francs-tireurs et partisans. Détachement Victor Hugo
, January 1944, and
Vaincre
, whose 17 May 1944 ‘Supplément' is dedicated ‘to the military communiqués of the partisans and
francs-tireurs
of Gascony and the Pyrenees'.