Yesterday, Italy commemorated the anniversary of the Foibe massacres, the killing of civilians of Italian ethnicity by Yugoslav partisans at the end of WWII in retribution for the crimes committed by Italian fascists. The commemoration was overshadowed by the vandalising of the Basovizza monument to the victims, committed on the eve of the national memorial day called ‘Il Giorno de Ricordo’, the Day of Remembrance. Unknown perpetrators sprayed the graffiti “Trieste is ours. Death to fascism, freedom to the people” on the pedestal of the monument on Sunday. The slogans were painted over personally by the mayor of Trieste, Roberto Dipiazza, on the same day. Prime Minister Meloni strongly condemned the incident in a statement, describing it as “trampling on the memory of the martyrs.”
What happened in Basovizza more than 80 years ago was part of a larger wave of repression unleashed on ethnic Italians in territories controlled by alternating powers before and during the war. In two separate waves of terror, first in September 1943 and then in 1945, all those viewed as enemies of the new revolutionary order to be instituted in Venezia-Giulia, Istria, and Dalmatia were targeted following the defeat of Nazi-fascism. Large swathes of the Italian population were expelled, deported, locked up in concentration camps, starved or simply killed in the spirit of ‘collective guilt.’ The perhaps most brutal retribution was the murdering of thousands in the Trieste area, with the bodies of the victims thrown into the sinkholes (many still alive, according to testimonies), then used as mineshafts, on Trieste’s Karst Plateau.
The national memorial day was instituted in 2004 by the second Berlusconi government. What might seem like a non-controversial gesture of remembrance for the victims of illegal reprisals is still at the centre of significant controversy, both in Italy and in the post-Yugoslav states of Slovenia and Croatia. As with many other instances of what are believed to be settled narratives of historical events, reminders that what happened decades or centuries ago was not necessarily black and white are met with scepticism, irritation, or outright hostility.
A classic example is how the memorial day and its commemoration are framed by the mainstream press. Balkan Insights’ most recent coverage is typical in this respect. Their February 9th headline reads “How Italy’s Government Polices Teaching of ‘Foibe’ Massacres”. Clearly, that was the most important thing the publication felt compelled to share, stressing that “While historians from the three countries mainly affected by the massacres—Croatia, Slovenia and Italy—agree on every major aspect, right-wing Italian politicians dismiss the historical analysis and have been pushing nationalistic narratives to fire up their voters and appeal to far-right movements.” Translation: history (like science in general) is settled, stop overblowing what happened, forget it, shut up, and sit down.
The expulsion of more than 14 million (!) Germans from their homes in various parts of Europe, including Yugoslavia, following the Second World War, with nearly two million ethnic Germans being deported to forced labour in the Soviet Union as “reparations in kind” is a little-publicized fact of history. Few are aware to this day that more than two million ethnic Germans perished as a result of their expulsion, either as victims of lethal violence or as a consequence of exposure, hunger and disease. The “my victims are the only victims” attitude that characterizes a large part of the so-called antifascist Left continues to poison Europe, Central and Eastern Europe in particular. This is most salient in post-Communist countries where more than forty years of Soviet-type, anti-nationalist historiography have been quite successful in making public discourse exclusively conductible around the fascist versus anti-fascist dichotomy.
This mindset is reflected in the defacing of the Basovizza monument, too. There is the nationalist-chauvinist element as well (“Trieste is ours”). Trieste has seen the kind of changing of sovereigns that is only rivalled by the once-Hungarian regions of Transcarpathia. The town used to be under Venetian and then under Habsburg rule for centuries, and was at one point called the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s Gate to the Sea. It has always had an ethnically diverse population, the majority of which, however, has consistently been Italian. The claim to Trieste by the (presumably) Slovenian defacer therefore is not very well-founded. But the more troubling part of the inscription is the second part. Why would commemorating the victims of unlawful reprisals in any way undermine the legitimate fight against Italian fascism and German Nazism? Why would paying respect to the victims, whose only guilt was being Italian, threaten the morally fundamental tenet that Nazism and fascism were wrong and the peoples of the countries and regions occupied by Mussolini’s and Hitler’s armies needed to be liberated?
Europe is a continent of many nations, all with distinct histories, national identities, languages, cultures, and heritage. It is inevitable that the way history is officially narrated will differ from country to country, given the differing perspectives and points of view of those telling the stories. However, for the sake of social peace, cohesion, and the ultimate reconciliation of European nations, historical truth must be unearthed, shared, respected, and taught. Victims are victims, and perpetrators are perpetrators, and they should be recognized as such.
Over Dead Bodies—Europe’s Endless History Wars
Photo: Alice Fumis / ANSA / AFP/ ITALY OUT
Yesterday, Italy commemorated the anniversary of the Foibe massacres, the killing of civilians of Italian ethnicity by Yugoslav partisans at the end of WWII in retribution for the crimes committed by Italian fascists. The commemoration was overshadowed by the vandalising of the Basovizza monument to the victims, committed on the eve of the national memorial day called ‘Il Giorno de Ricordo’, the Day of Remembrance. Unknown perpetrators sprayed the graffiti “Trieste is ours. Death to fascism, freedom to the people” on the pedestal of the monument on Sunday. The slogans were painted over personally by the mayor of Trieste, Roberto Dipiazza, on the same day. Prime Minister Meloni strongly condemned the incident in a statement, describing it as “trampling on the memory of the martyrs.”
What happened in Basovizza more than 80 years ago was part of a larger wave of repression unleashed on ethnic Italians in territories controlled by alternating powers before and during the war. In two separate waves of terror, first in September 1943 and then in 1945, all those viewed as enemies of the new revolutionary order to be instituted in Venezia-Giulia, Istria, and Dalmatia were targeted following the defeat of Nazi-fascism. Large swathes of the Italian population were expelled, deported, locked up in concentration camps, starved or simply killed in the spirit of ‘collective guilt.’ The perhaps most brutal retribution was the murdering of thousands in the Trieste area, with the bodies of the victims thrown into the sinkholes (many still alive, according to testimonies), then used as mineshafts, on Trieste’s Karst Plateau.
The national memorial day was instituted in 2004 by the second Berlusconi government. What might seem like a non-controversial gesture of remembrance for the victims of illegal reprisals is still at the centre of significant controversy, both in Italy and in the post-Yugoslav states of Slovenia and Croatia. As with many other instances of what are believed to be settled narratives of historical events, reminders that what happened decades or centuries ago was not necessarily black and white are met with scepticism, irritation, or outright hostility.
A classic example is how the memorial day and its commemoration are framed by the mainstream press. Balkan Insights’ most recent coverage is typical in this respect. Their February 9th headline reads “How Italy’s Government Polices Teaching of ‘Foibe’ Massacres”. Clearly, that was the most important thing the publication felt compelled to share, stressing that “While historians from the three countries mainly affected by the massacres—Croatia, Slovenia and Italy—agree on every major aspect, right-wing Italian politicians dismiss the historical analysis and have been pushing nationalistic narratives to fire up their voters and appeal to far-right movements.” Translation: history (like science in general) is settled, stop overblowing what happened, forget it, shut up, and sit down.
The expulsion of more than 14 million (!) Germans from their homes in various parts of Europe, including Yugoslavia, following the Second World War, with nearly two million ethnic Germans being deported to forced labour in the Soviet Union as “reparations in kind” is a little-publicized fact of history. Few are aware to this day that more than two million ethnic Germans perished as a result of their expulsion, either as victims of lethal violence or as a consequence of exposure, hunger and disease. The “my victims are the only victims” attitude that characterizes a large part of the so-called antifascist Left continues to poison Europe, Central and Eastern Europe in particular. This is most salient in post-Communist countries where more than forty years of Soviet-type, anti-nationalist historiography have been quite successful in making public discourse exclusively conductible around the fascist versus anti-fascist dichotomy.
This mindset is reflected in the defacing of the Basovizza monument, too. There is the nationalist-chauvinist element as well (“Trieste is ours”). Trieste has seen the kind of changing of sovereigns that is only rivalled by the once-Hungarian regions of Transcarpathia. The town used to be under Venetian and then under Habsburg rule for centuries, and was at one point called the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’s Gate to the Sea. It has always had an ethnically diverse population, the majority of which, however, has consistently been Italian. The claim to Trieste by the (presumably) Slovenian defacer therefore is not very well-founded. But the more troubling part of the inscription is the second part. Why would commemorating the victims of unlawful reprisals in any way undermine the legitimate fight against Italian fascism and German Nazism? Why would paying respect to the victims, whose only guilt was being Italian, threaten the morally fundamental tenet that Nazism and fascism were wrong and the peoples of the countries and regions occupied by Mussolini’s and Hitler’s armies needed to be liberated?
Europe is a continent of many nations, all with distinct histories, national identities, languages, cultures, and heritage. It is inevitable that the way history is officially narrated will differ from country to country, given the differing perspectives and points of view of those telling the stories. However, for the sake of social peace, cohesion, and the ultimate reconciliation of European nations, historical truth must be unearthed, shared, respected, and taught. Victims are victims, and perpetrators are perpetrators, and they should be recognized as such.
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