A Civil War (35 page)

67
Primo, who stood out for ‘love of the people, courage, honesty, the spirit of sacrifice', then – according to the author of the document – moved into line: not only did all the Communist symbols disappear, but he also succeeded in having as chaplain-commissar in the brigade an excellent patriot Salesian priest (report by Andreis [Italo Nicoletti], inspector at the 6
^th
Langhe division, to the Piedmont delegation of the General Command of the Garibaldi brigades, 12 October 1944, quoted in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, ed. G. Nisticò, p. 436).

68
In April 1943 anti-partisan paratroopers were sent into the zone between Caporetto and Postumia. Their commander, Captain Edoardo Sala, was to be head of a regiment of RSI paratroopers and sentenced, after the Liberation, for crimes committed in Piedmont (M. Di Giovanni's degree thesis, and Neppi Modona,
Giustizia penale
, p. 76).

69
Letters by Ottavio Luccheto to his wife, February 1942, and by Salvatore Seldi to his family, 1 July 1942, quoted in P. Moraca, ‘I crimini commessi da occupanti e collaborazionisti in Jugoslavia durante la seconda guerra mondiale', in E. Collotti, ed.,
L'occupazione nazista in Europa
, Rome: Riuniti, 1964, p. 543. According to Yugoslav sources used by the editors of
LRE
, pp. 557–8, the dead caused by the occupation numbered about half a million. For Italian repressive measures in Russia (round-ups, reprisals, forced labour, under pain of serious punishment, to report the presence of partisans), see L. Porcari, ‘La “Cunneense” sulle fronti di guerra', in Istituto storico della Resistenza in Cuneo e provincia,
Gli italiani sul fronte russo
, pp. 261–89 (which includes as an appendix a circular on this subject by General Nasci, commander of the Alpino corps, dated 2 August 1942).

70
With regard to the protection given to Jews by the Italian troops, especially in southern France, see L. Poliakov,
Bréviaire de la haine. Le III Reich et les Juifs
, Paris: Calman-Lévy, 1951.

71
See
La Riscossa italiana. Organo piemontese del Fronte di liberazione nazionale
, 20 October 1943, article entitled ‘La gioventù italiana'; and
L'Azione. Organo del Movimento cristiano sociale
, 20 November 1943, article entitled ‘Non c' è tradimento'. The latter, actually, rather than describing an event that really occurred, illustrates the ideal behaviour of a Christian.

72
In his last letter to his mother Tone Tomšic, Triestine by birth, leader of the Slovene Communist party, ordered to be shot in Lubyana 21 May 1942 by the Italian military tribunal, writes that ‘the Italians dare to shoot us' only thanks to the help and endorsement given to them by ‘the bishop, Ehlich and all the other renegades of our nation' (
LRE
, pp. 568–70). For the stereotype suggested in the text see Fussell,
Tempo di guerra
, pp. 159–63.

73
Ceva,
Cinque anni
, p. 10.

74
A. Omodeo, ‘Momenti della vita di guerra. Dai diari e dalle lettere dei caduti 1915–1918', published in instalments in
La Critica
from 1929 to 1933, then collected in one volume, Bari: Laterza 1933. The book was republished in 1968 by Einaudi with a long, fine Introduction by Alessandro Galante Garrone, who recommends that readers of the work distinguish between ‘storiografico, rievocativo, polemico' (‘historiography, reminiscence, and polemic' [p. xxxi]).

75
L. Spitzer,
Lettere di prigionieri di guerra italiani 1915–1918
, Turin: Boringhieri, 1976 (original edition
Italienische Kriegsgefangenbriefe Materialien zu einer Charakteristik der volkstümlichen italienischen Korrespondenza
, Bonn: Peter Hanstein Verlag, 1921). Spitzer is the main source of Omodeo's Appendix, mentioned in the text.

76
In his presentation of Spitzer's book, cited above, Lorenzo notes the affinities of the texts collected by the Austrian scholar with those published by Revelli in
L'Ultimo fronte
, which I have mentioned several times.

77
The two documents, conserved in ACS, are quoted respectively in Belmondo et al.,
La campagna di Russia
, p. 441, and in Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, p. 66.

78
The passage, taken from the preface to a book on the
arditi
, is quoted by Rochat,
Gli arditi della grande guerra
, p. 79.

79
See G. Rochat, ‘L'esercito e il fascismo', in G. Quazza, ed.,
Fascismo e società italiana
, Turin: Einaudi, 1973, pp. 89–123.

80
I use these expressions in the sense that G. Germani gives them in
Autoritarismo, fascismo e classi sociali
, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1975. The notice, posted in the public offices during the war, ‘Here one does not discuss high politics and high strategy, here one works', offers shameless proof of this failure. Compare Moltke's last letter to his wife, where the maxims proclaimed by the people's court that tried the 2 July 1944 conspirators are paraphrased: ‘Whoever discusses questions of high politics with persons who in no respect whatsoever have the competence and particularly with those who do not in any way belong to the Party are preparing high treason … Whoever dares express opinions on questions to be decided by the Führer is preparing high treason' (
LRE
, p. 414).

81
‘War', the Duce prophesied on that occasion, ‘will be won by the army that becomes a political army more quickly than its opponents' (Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship
, p. 320).

82
Cited in ibid., p. 132.

83
For a keen but unsuccessful search for the new Fascist man, see R. De Felice,
Intervista sul fascismo
, ed. M. A. Ledeen, Bari: Laterza, 1975.

84
‘Spiritual testament' addressed to his wife on 16 April 1944 by Mario Moretti, a twenty-eight-year-old Neapolitan, former combatant in 1940–43, who died the following June (
LRSI
, p. 78).

85
Letter of 8 December 1940, in Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, p. 133.

86
I am referring above all to P. Fussell,
The Great War and Modern Memory
, New York: Oxford University Press, 1975; E. J. Leed,
No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in World War I
, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979; A. Prost,
Les anciens combattants dans la société française 1914–1939
, Paris: Presses de la fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1977. For the Italian experience see, in a predominantly political key, G. Sabbatucci,
I combattenti nel primo dopoguerra
, Bari: Laterza, 1974.

87
R. O. Paxton's review of Prost's book, in
Journal of Social History
XIV: I (Fall 1980), pp. 157, 160.

88
This theme is widely covered by Leed, again as regards the First World War, in the last chapter of
No Man's Land
, ‘The Veteran Between Front and Home', and particularly in the section ‘The Economy of Sacrifice and its Collapse'.

89
This is a series of examples treated by Ceva,
Cinque anni
, p. 98 (it is Captain Gabardini, mentioned above); Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, pp. 131, 149; diary of paratrooper Pallotta during leave (quoted in M. Di Giovanni's degree thesis).

90
Letters quoted in Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, pp. 150, 130, 132; diary quoted in the previous note.

91
Letter of 9 July 1942, quoted in Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, p. 105.

92
Corporal's letter to a woman of Poggio Rusco (Mantua), 15 June 1942, quoted in Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, p. 130).

93
This is what G. Mayda recounts in ‘Morto Scorza, l'ultimo ras del fascismo', in
La Stampa
, 27 December 1988, according to the testimony of Gambetti himself.

94
Tarchi (G. Tolloy),
Con l'armata italiana in Russia
, p. 163.

95
Undated letter from Tripoli, quoted in A. Asor Rosa, ‘La cultura', in
Storia d'Italia
, Turin: Einaudi, 1975, vol. IV, p. 187.

96
See M. Di Giovani's degree thesis.

97
For the ‘Congiura detta dei “tre B” ' (‘The So-Called Conspiracy of the “Three Bs” '), namely Francesco Maria Barracu, mutilated in one eye, and undersecretary for the presidency of the Council, Carlo Borsani, blinded in war and president of the ‘Associazione combattenti nella RSI', and the great disabled Fulvio Balisti, see Bocca,
La Repubblica di Mussolini
, p. 148. Bocca also recalls the brusque way in which, at the Verona congress, Alessandro Pavolini greeted the proposals of a trade-unionist, Lequio di Milano, to include agriculture among the activities to be socialised, by way of reparation for the promises of land that had been made but not kept to the peasants who were First World War veterans (ibid., p. 94).

98
Rochat justly writes that at least part of the memoirs about the campaign in Russia highlight values, such as
esprit de corps
, that were ‘only partially alternative to the traditional ones … which however … acquire a significance as a criticism and rejection of the structure and tradition of the army and potentially of the political structures which are at the origin of so much suffering and grief'. And he adds that ‘Nikolaevka and all the fighting during the retreat are, in a certain sense, partisan battles because they were faced by those who were convinced that they wanted to do it' (Rochat,
Memorialistica e storiografia
, pp. 472–3).

99
Testimony by Gaudenzio Peroni, from Novara, born in 1919, street vendor, condemned in 1942 for desertion, in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 76, where similar expressions appear about officers on the Greek–Albanian front.

100
Report by the Mantua provincial censorship commission, 13 July 1942, in Rizzi,
Lo sguardo del potere
, p. 73.

101
Letter by Igino Carbone, peasant (5
^th
year Elementary school certificate), 15 August 1942 (later killed in Tunisia), in Revelli,
L'ultimo fronte
, p. 18.

102
P. Levi,
Il sistema periodico
, Turin: Einaudi, 1975, p. 66 (published in English as
The Periodic Table
).

103
The expression is used by G. Fogar, ‘Le brigate Osoppo-Friuli', in Istituto di storia medievale e moderna dell'Università di Trieste,
Fascismo-guerra-Resistenza. Lotte politiche e sociali nel Friuli-Venezia Giulia 1918–1945
, Trieste: Libreria Internazionale Italo Svevo, 1969, p. 292.

104
Ricostruzione
, April 1943.

105
Bollettino
Popolo e Libertà
, July 1943.

106
Pintor,
Doppio diario
, p. 112.

107
Revelli,
La guerra dei poveri
, pp. 186–7 (24 March 1944) and pp. 166–7 (27 January 1944). During the days of 8 September Revelli had performed a symbolic stripping gesture: ‘It was almost morning when I got home. I took off my uniform: never again will I wear it!' (p. 1370).

108
Letter of August 1942 by Gino Prinetti Castelletti, member of an ancient Milanese family, who had been a student at the Turin artillery and engineers school. A Garibaldino, he was to be killed in Valsesia in 1944 (Ceva,
Cinque anni
, pp. 24–6).

109
‘Trovarsi smarriti', article signed ‘Un giovane', in
Avanguardia. Giornale della gioventù socialista
, June 1944.

110
‘Impegno', leading article of the first number of
La Nostra Lotta
(Rome), organ of ‘Unione studenti italiani (unitari)', 26 March 1944.

111
Here I shall recall two cases. The first is that of second lieutenant Domenico Mezzadra, ‘constructed', with the name ‘Americano', as Garibaldino commander of the Pavese Oltrepò (‘Relazione dell'ispettore Giorgio sulla 3
^a
divisione Aliotta', 6 March 1945, in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 441–3). The second is that of Candido Pinazza, knifegrinder from of a peasant family, gunner, who on 12 August 1943 wrote from Greece: ‘I'll continue to preserve myself always with my honour, offering all that is necessary, because I want to return to my native country with my head held high.' Having joined the Greek partisans after 8 September, he was killed on 5 May 1944. (A. Ventura, ‘La società rurale veneta dal fascismo alla Resistenza', in
Società rurale
, pp. 59–60).

112
Testimony about Guido Targetti by Chaplain Lieutenant Angelo Beccherle, in Bilenchi,
Cronache degli anni neri
, p. 59.

113
See for example
Il Popolo
, Rome edition, 31 December 1943, where it is asserted that the most ‘serious and combative', the ‘most assiduous' anti-Nazis are the officers and soldiers who have fought alongside the Germans.

114
Orientamenti programmatici
, edited by Lombard regional federation of the Italian Liberal Party, p. 12 (the author of the pamphlet is Paolo Sereni).

115
Inverni (V. Foa),
I partiti
, p. 82. In the constituent assembly Foa was to propose, in vain, an inquiry into those responsible for the disaster of the war, in order to prevent them from the indecency of presenting themselves as representatives and avengers of the fighting (Foa's own testimony to the author).

116
Words probably spoken in Naples and quoted by
Risorgimento Liberale
, northern edition, March 1944, in an article entitled ‘Parole ai combattenti'. In Omodeo's speech broadcast on Naples radio on 22 December 1943, the words quoted by the Liberal paper do not figure; but the inspiration of the speech is identical. Omodeo said: ‘No one will outrage your grief, the sufferings you have borne, the blood you have spilled'; and added: ‘It is not we, O friends, who have betrayed Italy, even if with our hearts we were on the side of those who defended, beyond the frontiers, the traditions of human civilisation' (A. Omodeo,
Libertà e storia. Scritti e discorsi politici
, Turin: Einaudi, 1960, pp. 134–8).