A Civil War (63 page)

93
It is well known that this was the solution then adopted for Somalia.

94
For the Action Party, see the
Progetto di piano di lavoro
of the Alta Italia executive committee, edited by the regional secretariat for Emilia and Romagna (copy in ISRT); regarding this document, of which a later edition of December 1944 is attributed to Altiero Spinelli and conserved in INSMLI,
Carte Damiani
(envelope I, folder 7, where, however, a still later manuscript note reads ‘Valiani'), see E. Rotelli,
L'avvento della regione in Italia
, Milan: Giuffrè 1967, pp. 106–8;
L'Italia Libera
, northern edition, 8 January 1945; R. Lombardi,
Il partito d'azione: cos'è e cosa vuol
e, December 1943 (reprinted in May 1945). For the Italian Liberal Party: the
Orientamenti programmatici della federazione regionale lombarda
, written by Paolo Sereni. For Christian Democracy: ‘Idee ricostruttive della Democrazia cristiana', in Andrea Damilano, ed.,
Atti e documenti della Democrazia cristiana 1943–67
, Rome: Cinque Lune, 1968, p. 8. Sturzo had expressed the view that the pre-Fascist colonies should not be treated in the same manner as Ethiopia, and then he too looked to a general European solution of the ‘problema africano' (Sturzo,
L'Italia di domani
, pp. 6–7). Among the Socialists, Nenni too used the formula ‘libero accesso alle materie prime' (‘free access to raw materials'). Speech in Naples, 3 September 1944. For the permanent presence of these themes among the Actionists even during the phase of the peace treaty discussion, see Tristano Codignola and Enzo Enriques Agnoletti's letter, 14 August 1946, in ISRT,
Carte Enzo Enriques Agnoloetti
.

95
Compare, for example, the request formulated by the anarchist Camillo Berneri, when the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo entered the Spanish Republican government, to give Morocco its independence immediately, without allowing itself to be held back by the colonialistic fears of France and Great Britain (article entitled ‘Che fare', in
Guerre di classe
, 24 October 1936, quoted in Olivari,
L'azione politica di Camillo Berneri
, p. 224).

96
Declaration to the
New York Times
, 24 January 1946 (see Kogan,
Italy and the Allies
, p. 167). One should, however, bear in mind that, as Kogan himself points out, Parri, as prime minister, had defended the North African possessions, appealing to Italy's need for an open port to the Mediterranean.

97
See Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, p. 410. Ragionieri refers to the debates that followed, in the various party petitions, at the conference of the insurrectional triumvirates held in occupied Italy from 5 to 7 November 1944.

98
In an article, ‘Il problema delle colonie', published in
L'Unità
, 14 September 1945, Togliatti was to put an end to a series of contradictory statements by inviting his readers ‘not to weave in the shadows intrigues against the Soviet Union'. Togliatti,
Opere scelt
e, pp. 397–9.

99
Article entitled ‘La storia dei popoli coloniali ed oppressi, elaborati dagli scienziati sovietici', in
Italia alle Armi!
, 5 April 1945.

100
‘Informazioni da Milano: riunione del settore E. I e del sottosettore E. I', December 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
). The document is published with the date 15 December, which is however that of the report from which part of the ‘informazioni' is taken, in Secchia,
Il PCI e la guerra di liberazione
, pp. 707–9. Secchia omits the passage relating to England. The ‘informazioni' are published, without any omissions, in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 169–80. On the end of Italian colonialism, see A. Del Boca,
Gli Italiani in Africa orientale
, vol. IV,
Nostalgia delle colonie
, Bari: Laterza, 1984. The first chapter is wisely entitled ‘Una battaglia inutile'.

101
Integrità nazionale
, Rome edition, 4 October 1943.

102
This is how the New York Italian anarchist newspaper expressed itself, with a clarity that was hard to find in Italy. ‘Questioni non territoriali', in
L'Adunata dei refrattari
, 29 July 1944 (quoted in Laura Valentini's degree thesis, where another article, dated 3 February 1945, and entitled ‘Confini scellerati' is also mentioned).

103
Lussu,
La ricostruzione dello Stato
, pp. 2, 9–10.

104
Article entitled ‘Scopi di guerra e di pace', 7 May 1944 (edizione della Lombardia).

105
Article entitled ‘Politica e Religione. Superamento', in
L'Azione dei lavoratori
, 10 February 1944.

106
Rivoluzione dall'alto?
, Rome edition, 20 May 1944. It is well-known that the most candid recognition of this novelty came from Stalin. See M. Djilas,
Conversations with Stalin
, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967. ‘This war', said Stalin in April 1945, ‘is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own social system, as far as his army has power to do so; it cannot be otherwise.'

107
Appello di Capodanno ai giovani
, Rome edition, 12 January 1944.

1
This is how, on 20 November 1943,
L'Azione
defined him in the already cited article ‘Non c'è tradimento', appealing to the authority of Cesare Balbo and Pietro Colletta.

2
See Schmitt,
The Concept of the Political
, pp. 36, 37, 110, and
Theory of the Partisan
, p. 78. For a criticism of this point of view, which sees the ‘political' as being the sole guarantee against the inhuman, see Chapter 3.1, above.

3
See
L'Unificazione
, ‘Edizioni del Comando delle formazioni partigiani Giustizia e Libertà, 3', 15 March 1945, p. 4. The words ‘sacro suolo della Patria' (‘sacred soil of the Patria'), ‘l'Italia, madre comune di tutti noi', ‘secolare nemico' and ‘barbarie teutonica' were also used by Togliatti (in his
Appello agli italiani
of 1 April 1944 and in his speech to the Brancaccio theatre in Rome, 9 July 1944: Togliatti,
Opere
, vol. V, pp. 39, 59). ‘Nemico millenario' (‘Millenary enemy') appears in
Italia nuova
, the right-wing Roman clandestine newspaper, 24 January 1944.

4
Artom,
Diari
, p. 76.

5
This and other passages from
La Germania alla conquista dell'Italia
, published in 1916, are maliciously quoted in an anonymous note about Preziosi conserved in ACS,
SPD, CR, RSI
, envelope 24, folder 166.

6
On 14 May 1940 a Milanese informer expressed the view that the German threat to shoot ten prisoners for every paratrooper killed behind the lines ‘lent itself to a revival of Barbarossa's acts of barbarity, the story of the hostages of Crema'. Quoted in M. Rigotti Colin, ‘Il soldato e l'eroe nella letteratura scolastica dell'Italia liberale', in
Rivista di storia contemporanea
, XIV, 1985, p. 342, which then refers the reader to Cesare Balbo's
Storia d'Italia
.

7
‘L' éternelle barbarie' is the title of an article that
Avenir. Journal provisoirement clandestin destiné aux jeunes de France
, printed in Paris, published after a German reprisal.

8
‘Atrocità e rapine tedesche', in
Il Popolo
, Rome edition, 23 October 1943.

9
This is what is said in the cyclostyled broadsheet
San Giusto! Organo democratico per la lotta di liberazione
, August 1944.

10
Undated Ligurian leaflet of the Action Party (
Saggio bibliografico
, n. 2195).

11
Sui monti
, broadsheet of the Verona CLN, 1 July 1944.

12
These words belong to C. Antoni, ‘Il nazismo, fenomeno culturale', in
Nuova Europa
I: 2 (17 December 1944), p. 9. Antoni wrote: ‘One is left terrified before the bewildering weakness of that ‘spirit which Germans of other times had so assiduously cultivated'.

13
Article entitled ‘La civiltà', in
L'Aratro e il Martello. Organo del Partito comunista del Friuli occidentale
, 15 October 1944.

14
E. Lugaro, ‘Pazzia d'imperatore o aberrazione nazionale?', in no. 7 (July 1915), pp. 23, 29 of the extract. Lugaro was professor of psychiatry at the University of Turin. During the Second World War Churchill often called the Germans ‘Huns'.

15
‘Bollettino n. 33', 8 August 1944, of the Command of the 52
^nd
Clerici (Lombardia) brigade, named ‘Fronte Popolare' in another document (IG,
BG
, 0565).

16
The expression is in ‘Bollettino n. 33', cited in the preceding note. See
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 171, n. 3.

17
See Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, p. 147 (June 1944).

18
This is how two leaflets begin: one of the Bologna ‘Gruppi di difesa della donna' (‘Groups for the Defence of Women'), the other of the Forlì PCI (
Saggio bibliografico
, nn. 3138 and 1890).

19
‘Manifesto alla popolazione', 10 February 1945, in Bernardo,
Il momento buono
, p. 216.

20
See Collotti,
L'alleanza italo-tedesca
, p. 33.

21
Mazzantini,
A cercar la bella morte
, p. 165. A soldier training in Germany admired the ‘fighting spirit' and the ‘will to victory' that animated the German people but not, alas, the Italian people. Last page of Nicola Tufano's diary, 21 September 1944 (
LRSI
, p. 165).

22
Revelli,
La guerra dei poveri
, pp. 202–7. In Russia Tolloy had noted the satisfaction felt by many Italians in seeing that the Germans too stole (Tarchi,
Con l'armata italiana in Russia
, p. 40).

23
Chiodi,
Banditi
, p. 126 (23 March 1945). Leonardo Cocito had recounted to Chiodi: ‘We arrested two Germans who, trembling all over, showed us Communist documents'. In Innsbruck, during his imprisonment, Chiodi had noted: ‘I felt joy seeing so many Germans running like madmen' (ibid., pp. 25, 81, 20 June and 23 September 1944).

24
Anonymous, ‘Romagnolo', 1943–45, p. 342.

25
Claudio Locci's testimony in Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 282.

26
Mathieu in
La mort dans l'âme
(English title
Iron in the Soul
). In the French underground press the Germans are often called ‘Seigneurs': ‘14 Français fusillés pours un Officier Nazi envoyé “ad patre” [
sic
]. Il appartenait il est vrai à la caste des Seigneurs' (L'Unité de la Sarthe. Organe régional du Parti communiste français: half-title of the September 1941 number).

27
Hillgruber speaks of the ‘continuity in error' encountered in the Germans. He himself, however, when dealing with the Norwegian resistance to the invasion in April 1940, described it not only as ‘unexpected' but also as ‘stubbornness'. A. Hillgruber,
Hitlers Strategie. Politik und Kriegführung 1940–1941
, Munich: Bernard & Graefe, 1965, and
Der Zweite Weltkrieg 1939–1945
, Stuttgart–Berlin: Kohlhammer, 1982.

28
See the German consul Moellhausen's testimony: the partisans' presence was ‘anomalous … an affair that regarded Wolff and the SS' (Bocca,
La Repubblica di Mussolini
, pp. 104–5). Wolff was commander of the SS in Italy.

29
Article entitled ‘Cambio d'ostaggi', in
Voce nostra
, organ of the 9
^th
Garibaldi division A. Imerito (Piedmont), 18 March 1945.

30
Lazagna,
Ponte rotto
, p. 283.

31
Fenoglio,
Golia
, pp. 250–4. See what padre Gemelli wrote about the treatment of prisoners in the 1915–18 war: ‘When they take a prisoner, our soldiers look at him as a child looks at a toy he's never seen before, and soon they become friends with a cigarette or a piece of bread' (Gemelli,
Il nostro soldato
, p. 66).

32
N. Chiovini and A. Mignemi, ‘Il 44 sulle sponde del Lago Maggiore', in
Novara. Notiziario economic
2 (1987), p. 47.

33
‘Relazione da Milano', on a meeting of the 4
^th
sector, 14 April 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 621).

34
Article entitled ‘Libere Opinioni', 31 January 1944.

35
Article entitled ‘La Conference di Crimea', in
La Voce del Popolo
, 15 March 1945.

36
Bandiera Rossa
, 5 October 1943, ‘La funzione dell'URSS nel conflitto mondiale', and 22 October 1943, ‘Anche Benedetto Croce per la Repubblica?'

37
Leading article entitled ‘Riscossa', in
La Riscossa Italiana
, 20 October 1943.

38
Leading article entitled ‘Il Partito liberale italiano ai fratelli dell'Italia occupata', July 1944 (Piedmont edition).

39
The title of the poster was ‘L' Armata Rossa spezza ogni resistenza: la Germania è sconfitta' (‘The Red Army breaks all resistance: Germany is defeated'). IG,
Archivio PCI
.

40
Letter written by Manlio Rossi-Doria to Leone's sister, Marussa, and published by Parri with the title ‘Ricordo di Leone Ginzburg', in
L'Astrolabio
, 14 March 1977, pp. 22–5.

41
See the order given on 21 September 1944 by the Command of the 28
^th
Mario Gordini brigade (ISRR, 2, LXXIII, i., 23), and the report on the ‘attività svolta dalla compagnia effettiva al distaccamento della bassa romagna', (‘activity engaged in by the company in withdrawing from the lower region of Romagna'), undated (ISRR, 2, CVI, d. 7).