DOCSLIB.ORG

Was There a Fascist Revolution? the Function of Penal Law in Fascist Italy and in Nazi Germany

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Was There a Fascist Revolution? the Function of Penal Law in Fascist Italy and in Nazi Germany This article was downloaded by: [Universita degli Studi di Siena] On: 09 May 2013, At: 07:25 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Modern Italian Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmis20 Was there a fascist revolution? The function of penal law in fascist Italy and in Nazi Germany Lutz Klinkhammer a a German Historical Institute, Rome Published online: 27 May 2010. To cite this article: Lutz Klinkhammer (2010): Was there a fascist revolution? The function of penal law in fascist Italy and in Nazi Germany, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 15:3, 390-409 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13545711003768592 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub- licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 15(3) 2010: 390–409 Was there a fascist revolution? The function of penal law in fascist Italy and in Nazi Germany Lutz Klinkhammer German Historical Institute, Rome Abstract Did the fascist seizure of power cause a revolutionary change in the administration of justice in Italy? Did the fascist dictatorship transform the judicial institutions it inherited from liberal Italy? During the early phase of seizure of power (1923–1926), the fascist regime deployed existing instruments to influence judges and prosecutors by means of Ministerial instructions, threats of disciplinary measures or denial of career advancement. The first major innovation came with the creation of a Special Tribunal for Crimes Against the State in 1926, to punish anti-fascist activities and opinions. Although there is still a great deal of research to be done on the working of the ordinary courts, there is considerable evidence that both the courts and the magistrates were subject to an effective process of ‘fascistization’ and recent studies illustrate how the ordinary administration of justice provided an effective support mechanism for the more overt apparatus of repression carried out by the police, the fascist militia and, in the case of the occupied or annexed territories, the army. Although there were many striking similarities with Nazi policies, especially when it came to the working of the Special Courts, the fascist dictatorship was always less radical than its German equivalent and the differences became increasingly evident after 1939. Keywords Fascism, Italy, justice, repression, Nazism, Second World War. Did the ‘fascist revolution’ lead to a revolutionary organization of justice? To what extent was the administration of justice ‘fascistized’? Downloaded by [Universita degli Studi di Siena] at 07:25 09 May 2013 The day of the so-called ‘March on Rome’, 28 October, 1922, was later celebrated as a major revolutionary event by Italian fascists. Especially in the years after the regime’s tenth anniversary in 1932, the date marked the most important festivity in the new fascist calendar and a key instrument of fascist self-representation. In reality, the ‘March on Rome’ was in military terms little more than a well calculated bluff, but the fascists’ threat to use military violence if necessary to enter Rome had worked well: the crisis led the king, Victor Emanuel III, to adopt a legal procedure to appoint Mussolini as prime minister. Journal of Modern Italian Studies ISSN 1354-571X print/ISSN 1469-9583 online ª 2010 Taylor & Francis http://www.informaworld.com DOI: 10.1080/13545711003768592 Was there a fascist revolution? Mussolini was received by the king not at the head of his ‘victorious’ fascist troops but in a bourgeois morning suit. Although Italy’s constitution (the Statuto Albertino) was successively undermined by the fascists, the ways in which the take over of state power was achieved, and which Hitler tried to copy although without success until 1933, had important institutional consequences. Italy remained a monarchy and the king, who thanks to the Duce and the invasion of Ethiopia acquired the new title of emperor, continued to sign all laws and decrees. This was very different from the situation in Nazi Germany where after 1934 the office of the Reich President remained vacant. In contrast, Mussolini regularly went in person to the monarch’s residence in the Quirinale palace to report on matters of state. As a result, the transition from constitutional monarchy to fascist dictatorship in Italy took place step by step in a gradual process. Nor was this by any means irreversible, as would become evident in the summer of 1943 when after the king had deposed Mussolini he was arrested, following the motion approved by the Grand Council of Fascism at its famous meeting on 25 July in the Palazzo Venezia. The motion had called for Mussolini to restore the military high command to the monarch, a vote that implied a clear declaration of no confidence (De Felice 1996; Grandi 1983). Despite its revolutionary claims, from this institutional perspective fascist Italy remained essentially within the legal framework of the unified liberal nation state that had been founded in 1861.1 This was very evident in the first year of the fascist seizure of power when institutional continuity was the norm for both the state bureaucracy and the administration of justice. The oath to the monarch remained unchanged and so did the traditionally strong but indirect powers that enabled the Minister of Justice to influence judges and public prosecutors, either through withholding promotions, or by means of disciplinary measures and punishments, or simply by transferring magistrates quite arbitrarily to other and often uncongenial locations. It was established practice to give instructions to even the most senior judges, be they general attorneys and the public prosecutors at the Courts of Appeal, but sometimes even the Chief Judges of the appeal courts as well, by means of political directives, or circolari, issued by the Minister of Justice. These measures were by no means new and had been employed extensively by 2 Downloaded by [Universita degli Studi di Siena] at 07:25 09 May 2013 Giolitti (Neppi Modona 1973: 134). In fact until 1941, when the Minister of Justice Dino Grandi decided to reorganize the administration of justice, the fascist regime did not attempt to change the existing organization of the administration of justice or relation between executive and judicial power. Indeed, Guido Neppi Modona has argued the regime did not need to intervene to make the administration of justice more fascist. This was partly because the authoritarian nature of the pre-fascist Italian judicial system meant that such intervention was not necessary (Neppi Modona 1973: 136).3 However, in order to avoid conflicts with the judges and to remove potential difficulties facing perpetrators of fascist violence, the new government introduced a series 391 Lutz Klinkhammer of general amnesties (1922, 1923, 1925) for crimes committed during the years of civil war that had accompanied the fascist seizure of power (Ferrajoli 1996: 575; Neppi Modona 2007b: 343–4; Neppi and Pelissero 1997: 767).4 The only change in the instructions sent by the fascist Ministry of Justice was that as well as the public prosecutors and attorney generals, judges now also received direct instructions from the government. There were also some attempts to impose a fascist style on the administration of justice, especially by the first fascist Minister of Justice, Aldo Oviglio. Although he resigned after Mussolini’s ‘Discorso del Bivacco’, Oviglio deposed the Chief Judge and the General Attorney of the Supreme Court. Still more decisive was the reduction of the number of the courts which fell by 30 per cent. Fifty-four of 169 courts were closed, six of twenty-four courts of appeal and five civil sections of the Supreme Court were unified into a single section sited in Rome. These measures affected career and promotion opportunities and hence served to reinforce attitudes of obedience and accommodation on the part of the judges (Meniconi 2008: 184–5, 2006; Preti 1983: 38). The most important Minister of Justice during the fascist ventennio was Alfredo Rocco. During his seven years in office he made extensive use of the traditional means of relocation and promotion to discipline uncooperative judges or to reward others for their political accommodation, especially when it came to silencing political opposition after the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti. A new law approved on Christmas Eve 1925 (Law n. 2300, 24 December 1925) that was initially claimed to be temporary allowed for the suspension of judges who were allegedly not in keeping with the political directives of the regime and resulted in the early retirement of seventeen judges in 1926 (Meniconi 2008: 187).5 Thanks to these removals and the threat of inconvenient relocations for those judges who remained in office, Dino Grandi could hypocritically praise the administration of justice’s ‘new independence from political influence’, even though in reality the judiciary had been penetrated by members of the Fascist Party and the fascist style. Guido Neppi Modona, a former judge at the Italian Supreme Constitutional Court, is one of the most insightful analysts of the fascist administration of justice and the use made of the instructions issued by the Ministry of Justice during the ventennio.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Refractory Migrants. Fascist Surveillance on Italians in Australia 1922-1943
    Refractory Migrants. Fascist Surveillance on Italians in Australia 1922-1943 by Gianfranco Cresciani Gianfranco Cresciani emigrated University of New South Wales in from Trieste to Sydney in 1962. He 2005, in recognition of worked for EPT, the Ethnic Affairs “distinguished eminence in the field Commission and the Ministry for of history”. In 2004 the Italian the Arts of the NSW Government Government awarded him the on cultural and migration issues. In honour of Cavaliere Ufficiale 1989 and 1994 he was member of dell‟Ordine al Merito for facilitating the Australian Delegation re- cultural exchanges between Italy negotiating with the Italian and Australia. He has produced Government the Italo-Australian books, articles, exhibitions and Cultural Agreement. Master of Arts radio and television programs in (First Class Honours) from Sydney Australia and Italy on the history of University in 1978. Doctor of Italian migration to Australia. Letters, honoris causa, from the There are exiles that gnaw and others that are like consuming fire. There is a heartache for the murdered country… - Pablo Neruda We can never forget what happened to our country and we must always remind those responsible that we know who they are. - Elizabeth Rivera One of the more salient and frightening aspects of European dictatorships during the Twentieth Century, in their effort to achieve totalitarian control of 8 their societies, was the grassroots surveillance carried out by their state security organisations, of the plots and machinations of their opponents. Nobody described better this process of capillary penetration in the minds and conditioning of the lives of people living under Communist or Fascist regimes than George Orwell in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four (1), published in 1949 and warning us on the danger of Newspeak, Doublethink, Big Brother and the Thought Police.
    [Show full text]
  • Between the Local and the National: the Free Territory of Trieste, "Italianita," and the Politics of Identity from the Second World War to the Osimo Treaty
    Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2014 Between the Local and the National: The Free Territory of Trieste, "Italianita," and the Politics of Identity from the Second World War to the Osimo Treaty Fabio Capano Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Capano, Fabio, "Between the Local and the National: The Free Territory of Trieste, "Italianita," and the Politics of Identity from the Second World War to the Osimo Treaty" (2014). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 5312. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/5312 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Between the Local and the National: the Free Territory of Trieste, "Italianità," and the Politics of Identity from the Second World War to the Osimo Treaty Fabio Capano Dissertation submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Modern Europe Joshua Arthurs, Ph.D., Co-Chair Robert Blobaum, Ph.D., Co-Chair Katherine Aaslestad, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Sicily and the Surrender of Italy
    United States Army in World War II Mediterranean Theater of Operations Sicily and the Surrender of Italy by Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth Assisted by Martin Blumenson CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY UNITED STATES ARMY WASHINGTON, D.C., 1993 Chapter XIV The Climax Sardinia Versus the Mainland The successful invasion of Sicily clarified strategic problems and enabled the Allies to turn from debate to decision. The Combined Chiefs of Staff at the TRIDENT Conference in May had directed General Eisenhower to knock Italy out of the war and contain the maximum number of German forces, but they had not told him how. Preparing to launch operations beyond the Sicilian Campaign, AFHQ had developed several outline plans: BUTTRESS, invasion of the Italian toe by the British 10 Corps; GOBLET, a thrust at the ball of the Italian foot by the British 5 Corps; BRIMSTONE, invasion of Sardinia; and FIREBRAND, invasion of Corsica. But a firm decision on the specific course of action to be taken was still lacking.1 The four plans, Eisenhower had explained to Churchill during the Algiers meetings in June, pointed to two broad alternative courses. If the Axis resisted vigorously in Sicily, thereby forecasting high Italian morale and a bitter and protracted struggle for the Allies, then BRIMSTONE and FIREBRAND, insular operations, were preferable. Otherwise, operations on the Italian mainland were more promising. Despite Churchill's articulate enthusiasm for the latter course, Eisenhower had made no commitment. He awaited the factual evidence to be furnished in Sicily. Meanwhile, the Americans and British continued to argue over strategy.
    [Show full text]
  • Il Parlamento E L'evoluzione Degli Strumenti Della Legislazione
    Tavola rotonda su IL PARLAMENTO E L’EVOLUZIONE DEGLI STRUMENTI DELLA LEGISLAZIONE promossa dal Comitato per la legislazione in conclusione del secondo ciclo di Presidenza 12 gennaio 2010 Sala della Lupa Camera dei deputati Roma La tavola rotonda, promossa dal Comitato per la legislazione a conclusione del secondo ciclo di presidenza, riunisce personalità politiche che rivestono, o hanno rivestito, diverse posizioni di responsabilità nello svolgimento del processo legislativo. La tavola rotonda pone al centro della riflessione il ruolo fondamentale del Presidente di Assemblea, nell’esperienza dei presidenti della Camera dei deputati che si sono succeduti nelle ultime quattro legislature e che hanno tutti dovuto far fronte a rilevanti difficoltà nel procedimento legislativo. Nelle stesse quattro legislature il Comitato per la legislazione, istituito nel gennaio 1998, ha operato a supporto di tale impegnativa funzione presidenziale, svolgendo i suoi compiti di vigilanza sulla qualità dei testi legislativi, con particolare riferimento alle forme prevalenti di legislazione (deleghe e decreti legge). Presso entrambe le Camere, le Commissioni Affari costituzionali svolgono anch’esse un delicato ruolo di controllo con riferimento agli aspetti di costituzionalità, che investe non solo i contenuti ma anche le procedure e il sistema delle competenze. Inoltre, le due Commissioni sono al centro dei processi di riforma costituzionale. Sul versante governativo, il Ministro per i rapporti con il Parlamento svolge un ruolo altrettanto complesso nel misurarsi con le difficoltà del processo legislativo collegando un doppio fronte: l’insieme dei rapporti interni al Governo e quello con i diversi organi parlamentari in entrambe le Camere. Come base della discussione si offrono le analisi delle tendenze della legislazione elaborate di recente nell’ambito del Comitato: la “nota di sintesi” del Rapporto sulla legislazione 2009, edito dalla Camera dei deputati, e “Tendenze e problemi della decretazione d’urgenza”, presentato al Comitato per la legislazione il 12 novembre 2009.
    [Show full text]
  • Inventing the Lesser Evil in Italy and Brazil
    Fascist Fiction: Inventing the Lesser Evil in Italy and Brazil by Giulia Riccò Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Lamonte Aidoo, Supervisor ___________________________ Roberto Dainotto ___________________________ Nicola Gavioli ___________________________ Saskia Ziolkowski Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 i v ABSTRACT Fascist Fiction: Inventing the Lesser Evil in Italy and Brazil by Giulia Riccò Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Lamonte Aidoo, Supervisor ___________________________ Roberto Dainotto ___________________________ Nicola Gavioli ___________________________ Saskia Ziolkowski An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 Copyright by Giulia Riccò 2019 Abstract My dissertation, Fascist Fiction: Inventing the Lesser Evil in Italy and Brazil, accounts for the resilience of fascism by tracing the rhetoric of the “lesser evil”—a discursive practice constitutive of fascism—through contemporary politics and literature in Italy and Brazil. By invoking the looming presence of a graver, more insidious threat the rhetoric of the lesser evil legitimizes fascist violence against dissidents and vulnerable populations. Through an analysis of texts by fascist philosopher Giovanni Gentile and his Brazilian counterpart Miguel Reale, I reveal that the rhetoric of the lesser evil is a constitutive part of fascist discourse and that in Italy and Brazil this aspect of fascist doctrine met a favorable combination of subjective and objective conditions which has allowed it to thrive within democratic structures.
    [Show full text]
  • Violence in Fascist Criminal Law Discourse: War, Repression and Anti-Democracy
    Int J Semiot Law DOI 10.1007/s11196-012-9296-3 Violence in Fascist Criminal Law Discourse: War, Repression and Anti-Democracy Stephen Skinner Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012 Abstract This article constructs a critical historical, political and theoretical analysis of the essence of Fascist criminal law discourse in terms of the violence that shaped and characterised it. The article examines the significance of violence in key declarations about the role and purpose of criminal law by Alfredo Rocco, Fascist Minister of Justice and leading ideologue, in his principal speech on the final draft of the 1930 Italian Penal Code. It is grounded on the premise that criminal law is particularly significant for understanding the relationship between State power and individuals, and so what was distinctive about Fascist thinking in this regard. The article analyses Rocco’s declarations as a discourse in order to highlight their contextual foundations, construction and ideological connections. It argues that the core theme of that discourse is violence, which has three principal dimensions: a close historical and rhetorical connection with war, a focus on repressive and intimidatory force, and a paramount concern with subordinating individuals to State interests. The article then uses this analysis to develop a theoretical reading of the nexus between criminal law and violence in Fascism, in terms of its foundations and reversal of ends and means. The article thus provides an original perspective on Fascism and criminal law, which it argues is important for critical engagement with criminal law discourse in our democracies today. Keywords Fascism Á Violence Á Criminal law Á Anti-democracy Á Democracy S.
    [Show full text]
  • Ruling Elites.Indb
    António Costa Pinto is a professor Dictators do not rule alone, and a governing elite stratum is always ANTÓNIO COSTA PINTO After the so-called ‘third wave’ of de- of politics and contemporary Euro- formed below them. This book explores an underdeveloped area in the study ANTÓNIO COSTA PINTO mocratisation at the end of the 20th pean history at the Institute of Social of fascism: the structure of power. The old and rich tradition of elite studies Edited by century had significantly increased the Sciences, University of Lisbon. He has can tell us much about the structure and operation of political power in the number of democracies in the world, been a visiting professor at Stanford dictatorships associated with fascism, whether through the characterisation of the survival of many dictatorships has University (1993) Georgetown Uni- had an important impact. Taking as the modes of political elite recruitment, or by the type of leadership, and the versity (2004), a senior associate mem- starting point the dictatorships that ber at St Antony’s College, Oxford relative power of the political institutions in the new dictatorial system. emerged since the beginning of the University (1995) and a senior visiting Analyzing four dictatorships associated with fascism (Fascist Italy, Nazi 20th century, but mainly those that fellow at Princeton University (1996) Germany, Salazar’s Portugal and Franco’s Spain), the book investigates the were institutionalised after 1945, the and at the University of California, dictator-cabinet-single party triad from
    [Show full text]
  • Consensus for Mussolini? Popular Opinion in the Province of Venice (1922-1943)
    UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND CULTURES Department of History PhD in Modern History Consensus for Mussolini? Popular opinion in the Province of Venice (1922-1943) Supervisor: Prof. Sabine Lee Student: Marco Tiozzo Fasiolo ACADEMIC YEAR 2016-2017 2 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the University of Birmingham is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of my words. 3 Abstract The thesis focuses on the response of Venice province population to the rise of Fascism and to the regime’s attempts to fascistise Italian society.
    [Show full text]
  • Archival Sources
    ARCHIVAL SOURCES League of Nations Archives, Library of the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland (LoN Archives): – Registry Files – Section Files – Personal Papers: Alexander Loveday; Thanassis Aghnides; Sean Lester; Arthur Salter; Joseph Avenol; Eric Drummond Archivio Storico Diplomatico del Ministero Affari Esteri, Rome, Italy (ASMAE) – Archivi del Gabinetto e della Segreteria Generale (1923–1943) – Serie affari politici (1931–1945) – Società delle Nazioni – Archivi delle rappresentanze diplomatiche a Londra (1861–1950) – Ministero Cultura Popolare (1920–1944) – Archivio conferenze (1916–1934) – Archivio del Contenzioso Diplomatico – Archivi del Personale – Personal Papers: Dino Grandi; Fulvio Suvich; Luigi Aldovrandi-Marescotti © The Author(s) 2016 273 E. Tollardo, Fascist Italy and the League of Nations, 1922–1935, DOI 10.1057/978-1-349-95028-7 274 ARCHIVAL SOURCES Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome, Italy (ACS) – Segreteria particolare del Duce: Carteggio Riservato – Segreteria particolare del Duce: Carteggio Ordinario – Presidenza Consiglio dei Ministri – Ministero degli Interni, Divisione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza: Serie Annuali – Ministero degli Interni, Divisione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza, Divisione Polizia Politica: fascicoli personali e per materia – Ministero degli Interni, Divisione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza: Interpol – Ministero degli Interni: Associazioni – Archivi Fascisti, Cassetta di Zinco – Ministero Cultura Popolare – Casellario Politico Centrale – Ministero degli Interni, Divisione Generale Sanità – Personal
    [Show full text]
  • The United States and Fascist Italy: the Rise of American Finance in Europe
    84 • Italian American Review 8.1 • Winter 2018 The United States and Fascist Italy: The Rise of American Finance in Europe. By Gian Giacomo Migone. With a preface and translated by Molly Tambor. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015; originally published in Italian in 1980. 405 pages. Gian Giacomo Migone has written a powerful argument for the continuities of U.S. economic policy from the post–World War I period to the post–World War II period, a primary goal of which was the stabilization of Europe as an outlet for U.S. capital and manufactured goods. In this project, Mussolini was a key component. Instead of viewing him as the destroyer of democracy in Italy, many Americans saw him as the guarantor of stability and a willing partner in U.S. capitalist expansion in the 1920s. This commitment required peace, which Mussolini dutifully offered, contrary to all his bellicose rhetoric, because he needed U.S. investment to stabilize his fledgling dictatorship. It was only the Depression and the contraction of U.S. economic involvement in Europe that broke this close relationship and led Italy down the path of imperialism and war. Migone’s argument is premised on the fact that after World War I the United States needed to keep expanding its production and needed outlets for its excess capital. For this to happen, Europe had to be stabilized, debts owed to the United States had to be settled, and any nationalist agendas, specifically French desires to keep Germany weak, had to be eliminated. Europe, and specifically Italy, went along with this U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • ITALY: Five Fascists
    Da “Time”, 6 settembre 1943 ITALY: Five Fascists Fascismo's onetime bosses did not give up easily. Around five of them swirled report and rumor: Dead Fascist. Handsome, bemedaled Ettore Muti had been the "incarnation of Fascismo's warlike spirit," according to Notizie di Roma. Lieutenant colonel and "ace" of the air force, he had served in Ethiopia, Spain, Albania, Greece. He had been Party secretary when Italy entered World War II. Now the Badoglio Government, pressing its purge of blackshirts, charged him with graft. Reported the Rome radio: Ettore Muti, whipping out a revolver, resisted arrest by the carabinieri. In a wood on Rome's outskirts a fusillade crackled. Ettore Muti fell dead. Die-Hard Fascist. Swarthy, vituperative Roberto Farinacci had been Fascismo's hellion. He had ranted against the democracies, baited Israel and the Church, flayed Fascist weaklings. Ex-Party secretary and ex-minister of state, he had escaped to Germany after Benito Mussolini's fall. Now, in exile, he was apparently building a Fascist Iron Guard. A Swiss rumor said that Roberto Farinacci had clandestine Nazi help, that he plotted a coup to restore blackshirt power, that he would become pezzo grosso (big shot) of northern Italy once the Germans openly took hold of the Po Valley. Craven Fascist. Tough, demagogic Carlo Scorza had been Fascismo's No. 1 purger. Up & down his Tuscan territory, his ghenga (corruption of "gang") had bullied and blackmailed. He had amassed wealth, yet had denounced the wartime "fat and rich." Now, said a Bern report, Carlo Scorza wrote from prison to Vittorio Emanuele, offering his services to the crown.
    [Show full text]
  • Anti-Fascism and Italians in Australia, 1922-1945 Index Bibliography ISBN 0 7081 1158 0 1
    Although Italians had migrated to Australia since the middle of the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1920s that they became aware that they were a community in a foreign land, not just isolated individuals in search of fortune. Their political, cultural, economic and recreational associations became an important factor. Many of them, although settled in Australia, still thought of themselves as an appendage of Italy, a belief strengthened by Fascism’s nationalist propaganda which urged them to reject alien cultures, customs and traditions. The xenophobic hostility shown by some Australians greatly contributed to the success of these propaganda efforts. Moreover, the issue of Fascism in Italy was a contentious one among Italians in Australia, a large minority fighting with courage and determination against Fascism’s representatives in Australia. This broad study of Italian immigrants before and during World War II covers not only the effects of Fascism, but also records the ordeal of Italian settlers in the cities and the outback during the Depression and the difficulties they faced after the outbreak of the war. It deals with a subject that has long been neglected by scholars and is an important contribution to the history of Italian migrants in Australia. Although Italians had migrated to Australia since the middle of the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1920s that they became aware that they were a community in a foreign land, not just isolated individuals in search of fortune. Their political, cultural, economic and recreational associations became an important factor. Many of them, although settled in Australia, still thought of themselves as an appendage of Italy, a belief strengthened by Fascism’s nationalist propaganda which urged them to reject alien cultures, customs and traditions.
    [Show full text]