Table Of ContentItalian and Italian American Studies
Stanislao G. Pugliese
Hofstra University
Series Editor
This publishing initiative seeks to bring the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian Ameri-
can history, literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general
readers, and students. I&IAS will feature works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present)
and Italian American culture and society by established scholars as well as new voices in the
academy. This endeavor will help to shape the evolving fields of Italian and Italian American
Studies by reemphasizing the connection between the two. The following editorial board con-
sists of esteemed senior scholars who act as advisors to the series editor.
REBECCA WEST JOSEPHINE GATTUSO HENDIN
University of Chicago New York University
FRED GARDAPHÉ PHILIP V. CANNISTRARO†
Queens College, CUNY Queens College and the Graduate School, CUNY
ALESSANDRO PORTELLI MILLICENT MARCUS
Università di Roma “La Sapienza” Yale University
Queer Italia: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film
edited by Gary P. Cestaro, July 2004
Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture
edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, October 2004
The Legacy of Primo Levi
edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, December 2004
Italian Colonialism
edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller, July 2005
Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City
Borden W. Painter Jr., July 2005
Representing Sacco and Vanzetti
edited by Jerome H. Delamater and Mary Anne Trasciatti, September 2005
Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel
Nunzio Pernicone, October 2005
Italy in the Age of Pinocchio: Children and Danger in the Liberal Era
Carl Ipsen, April 2006
The Empire of Stereotypes: Germaine de Staël and the Idea of Italy
Robert Casillo, May 2006
Race and the Nation in Liberal Italy, 1861-1911: Meridionalism, Empire, and Diaspora
Aliza S. Wong, October 2006
Women in Italy, 1946-1960: An Interdisciplinary Study
edited by Penelope Morris, October 2006
Debating Divorce in Italy: Marriage and the Making of Modern Italians, 1860-1974
Mark Seymour, December 2006
A New Guide to Italian Cinema
Carlo Celli and Marga Cottino-Jones, January 2007
Human Nature in Rural Tuscany: An Early Modern History
Gregory Hanlon, March 2007
The Missing Italian Nuremberg: Cultural Amnesia and Postwar Politics
Michele Battini, September 2007
Assassinations and Murder in Modern Italy: Transformations in Society and Culture
edited by Stephen Gundle and Lucia Rinaldi, October 2007
Piero Gobetti and the Politics of Liberal Revolution
James Martin, December 2008
Primo Levi and Humanism after Auschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections
Jonathan Druker, June 2009
Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans
Edited by Luisa Del Giudice, November 2009
Italy’s Divided Memory
John Foot, December 2009
Italy’s Divided Memory
John Foot
italy’s divided memory
Copyright © John Foot, 2009.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61847-3
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of
the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998,
of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-38105-0 ISBN 978-0-230-10183-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230101838
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foot, John, 1964-
Italy’s divided memory / John Foot.
p. cm.—(Italian and Italian American studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-349-38105-0
1. Italy—History—1914–1945. 2. Italy—History—1945– 3. World
War, 1914–1918—Social aspects—Italy. 4. World War, 1939–1945—Social
aspects—Italy. 5. Memory—Social aspects—Italy. 6. Collective memory—
Italy. 7. Monuments—Italy. 8. War memorials—Italy. 9. Political culture—
Italy. 10. Italy—Social conditions. I. Title.
DG568.F66 2009
945.091—dc22 2009023745
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: December 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Divided Memory: Theory, Methodology, Practice 1
2 World War I: Monument Wars, Unknown Soldiers, and
Open-air Cemeteries 31
3 Fascist Memories, Memories of Fascism 55
4 Italian Wartime Camps, Italians in Wartime Camps: Traces,
Memories, Silences, 1940–2008 71
5 1940–1943: Victory, Occupation, Defeat, Collapse, Memory 97
6 Nazi Massacres and Divided Memory: Stories, Causes,
Scapegoats, Memoryscapes 125
7 The Resistance: Three Wars, Many Memories, Many Silences 147
8 The Strategy of Tension and Terrorism: Piazza Fontana and
the “Moro Case” 183
Conclusion: End of the Voyage: Facts, Memory, History 205
Notes 209
References 225
Index 251
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Illustrations
1.1 San Miniato, Tuscany, 2008: New plaque dedicated to the
1944 killings. 29
3.1 Matteotti portrait, 1980s: Italian Socialist Party symbol. 65
4.1 Bolzano: Public artwork dedicated to wartime deportations.
Christine Tschager (artist). 88
4.2 Bolzano: Plaques dedicated to the memory of the wartime
Nazi camp, 2008. 89
5.1 Bologna: Plaque commemorating the events of Cefalonia
and Corfu. 119
6.1 Guardistallo: Plaque dedicated to the massacre of 1944. 140
7.1 Carrara: Damaged monument to the Resistance. 150
7.2 Carrara: Plaque relating to the damage to the monument. 151
7.3 Moiaccio (Piacenza): Plaque (with fascist graffitti) relating to
the killing of four partisans. 162
8.1 Piazza Fontana, Milan: Plaque dedicated to Giuseppe Pinelli. 187
8.2 Piazza Fontana, Milan: New plaque dedicated to Giuseppe
Pinelli, 2006. 190
8.3 Piazza Fontana, Milan: Both plaques dedicated to Giuseppe
Pinelli, 2008. 192
9.1 San Miniato: The two plaques dedicated to the deaths of 1944.
Council Building, 2008. 207
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Acknowledgments
Many, many people have helped with the research upon which this book is
based and its writing. I am grateful to numerous individuals and institu-
tions for advice over material and individual cases of “divided memory,”
as well as monuments, plaques, or ex-memorials. I would like to thank all
the following for help with specific questions: Alfio Bernabei, Alan Davis,
David Forgacs, Filippo Colombara, Adolfo Mignemi, Enzo Pennone,
Roberta Suzzi Valli, Stuart Oglethorpe, John Quick. Carla Giacomozzi of
the Archivio Storico in Bolzano was an extraordinary source of help, mate-
rial and good humor. Her work around the memory of the wartime camp
in Bolzano, including the superb guides that tourists can now use to visit
the many places of memory in that city, has been exemplary. Eleanor Chi-
ari, Phil Cooke, John Dickie, Maria Novella Mercuri, and Robert Gordon
were all generous with their time and read chapters of the manuscript. Dan
Sayer and Nick Dines were invaluable in my thinking about memory and
place during work in Naples, Venice, and Milan. Thanks also go to Gloria
Nemec in Trieste and the staff of that unique institution that is the Istituto
De Martino in Sesto Fiorentino in Florence. In San Miniato I was gener-
ously assisted by Roberto Cerri, who guided me with good humor through
the difficult highways and byways of public and private memories in that
small hill town. The Arts and Humanities Research Council awarded me a
research leave grant in 2008 to complete this project and the Italian depart-
ment at University College London gave me a term of leave for the same
purpose. Monica Foot was as efficient as ever with the index.
Giovanni Contini’s work and insights into divided memories have been
a constant inspiration, as has been the work of Luisa Passerini and Alessan-
dro Portelli. Some of the stories told in this book were first aired on Radio
Popolare Network in a program run by a brilliant young broadcaster,
Paolo Maggioni. At the same time the best magazine in Italy, Internazio-
nale, generously hosted a series of ten articles that form the basis of this
volume. Thanks to all those at Internazionale and to the director, Giovanni
de Mauro, for the opportunity to write for a larger public than that usually
afforded to academics.
