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Good Italian” Origins, Contestations and Trajectories

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Good Italian” Origins, Contestations and Trajectories Marauta 1 Marie Chantal Marauta April 12, 2019 Advisor: Professor Holly Case DUS: Professor Naoko Shibusawa Understanding the Myth of the “Good Italian” Origins, contestations and trajectories ABSTRACT The notion of the “Good Italian” has been ingrained in national historical narrative and has thus constructed popular notions of what it means to be “Italian” both domestically and internationally. Films like Rome, Open City (1945) and Life Is Beautiful (1997) demonstrate the idea that for the most part, Italians were a benevolent people who aided persecuted populations during the war, and the popularity of these mass mediums has heavily propagated this perspective. Moreover, Italian high school curriculums are more focused on the atrocities of the Nazis during the Second World War (WWII), and there is little education about the Italian army’s extreme brutality in their occupied territories (namely, Yugoslavia and certain regions in Africa). Consequently, this paper argues that this widespread notion of the universality of the “Good Italian” is extremely problematic and does not capture the complex nature of the Italian army’s role (and the complicity of the Italian population) during WWII. This thesis highlights the problematic nature of this notion through a comparison and contrast between popular media and political images of the “Good Italian,” and the brutal actions of General Mario Roatta and his soldiers in Italian-occupied territories in Croatia that present a contrast to the universality of this myth. When exploring Roatta, as well as Italian responsibility for war crimes, this essay primarily uses two (relatively) recently published texts: Laura Bordoni’s Il Caso Roatta (2017) and Alessandra Kersevan’s Lager Italiani: Pulizia Etnica E Campi Di Concentramento Fascisti per Civili Jugoslavi 1941-1943 (2008). Overall, this thesis argues that: a) this myth was propagated by postwar national mass media and politics in order to create cohesion and national unity in a fragmented and socio-economically unstable state; b) this myth has become ingrained in national identity, and it’s universality rarely questioned in popular culture and secondary education, and c) the lack of accountability for Italian responsibility for, or complicity in the development of, war crimes has resulted in a lack of social and political consciousness of the dangers of extreme racism and discrimination. Marauta 2 TaBle of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 Italiani, brava gente ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Origins of the narrative ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Glorification of Partisans and a “Second Risorgimento” ............................................................................. 11 The Influence of the Left ................................................................................................................................. 14 The “Good Italian” in Popular Media ............................................................................................................ 18 The “Good Italian” in Popular Novels and Poetry ........................................................................................ 21 The “Good Italian” in Politics and Journalism ............................................................................................. 24 Case Study: Mario Roatta ............................................................................................................................... 27 Mario Roatta and the Italian Occupation of Yugoslavia .................................................................................... 29 Background and Overview .............................................................................................................................. 29 Roatta as a push back against the “Good Italian” ......................................................................................... 33 Roatta’s Diaries, 6 September-31 December 1943 ......................................................................................... 33 Roatta’s “Otto Milioni di Baionette” .............................................................................................................. 34 Roatta’s Defense .............................................................................................................................................. 37 Evidence Against Roatta’s Claims .................................................................................................................. 40 Concentration Camps and the Dilemma of Documentation .......................................................................... 44 So what? Mussolini and the Rise of the Extreme Right Today ..................................................................... 46 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................ 54 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................................... 56 Marauta 3 Introduction I have taken numerous classes on the Second World War (WWII) throughout my academic career, from secondary school to college and at schools in Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, the United States and England. When taking a myriad of classes on the subject, I have often found myself wondering why school curriculums’ focus on guilt for war crimes has been studied in the German and Japanese contexts but rarely in the Italian one. After all, the Axis powers of the 20th Century consisted of Germany, Japan and Italy, yet while both Germany and Japan have been scrutinized for their role in committing war crimes on an international stage,1 Italy’s role in mass brutality has largely been ignored in popular discourse.2 I decided I wanted to further look into historiography surrounding Italian involvement in the war, and understand whether there was a larger story that was not being widely told. In my research, I came across the efforts of numerous historians who have attempted to bring to light a darker side of Italy’s wartime involvement. Such historians include: Pavia University’s Laura Bordoni, who explored the U.S. government’s mild stance towards prosecuting Italian war criminals;3 Alessandra Kersevan, who wrote extensively about Italian concentration camps in their occupied territories; Gianni Oliva, renown leftist politician who has criticized international post-war treatment of Italian war criminals; and numerous others whose work will be used later on in this analysis. In other words, despite the vast range of historiography regarding the Italian army’s brutality during WWII, the Italian high school curriculum glosses over the history of Italian mass brutality in occupied territories. As a result, unlike Germany, Italy has never acknowledged the extent of the racism and xenophobia inherent in socio-political thought towards the populations they invaded. 1 Buruma, Ian. "War Guilt, and the Difference Between Germany and Japan." The New York Times, DecemBer 29, 1998, https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/29/opinion/war-guilt-and-the-difference-between-germany-and- japan.html. 2 Rory Carroll, "Italian Atrocities in World War Two," The Guardian, June 25, 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/jun/25/artsandhumanities.highereducation. 3 Laura Bordoni, Il Caso Roatta (Odradek, 2017), 31. Marauta 4 The sanitization of Italy’s role in WWII has permeated national historical narratives and popular media, as is seen through box-office hits like Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945), Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful (1997) and John Madden’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001). Instead of exploring narratives about Italian occupation and war crimes committed during the war, Italian academic and popular national history has focused on the military’s successes in taking over territories in Croatia and Austria, without significant analysis of the methods behind these invasions. It is true that the Italian army committed a much smaller number of war crimes as compared to Germany, but in Eastern Europe alone, the Italian occupying army exterminated nearly 2,050 Yugoslavians (and this is a recorded number, not counting the unrecorded death rate amongst the thousands sent to concentration camps), both due to the horrifying conditions and grueling labor at concentration camps and because of mass murders committed at Yugoslavian villages that the army marched through.4 This is a story that needs to be further explored and understood on a larger scale, and the smaller number of individuals affected does not justify this national narrative being swept under the rug. Some historiography concerning Italian war crimes has come in the speeches and works of prominent politicians such as Gianni Oliva (Communist party member until it’s dissolution in 1991 and current participant in the Democratic Party of the Left) and Matteo Salvini (current Deputy Prime Minister
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