Analysis of Specific Modern Italian Historiography Topics

Abstract

The article is based on the book The Order Has Already Been Carried Out – Rome, the Ardeatine Caves, Memory by Alessandro Portelli, whose translation by Nevenka Troha will be published by the ZRC SAZU. In this article, the author analyses specific topics discussed by contemporary Italian historiography and Portelli’s book. These include the following: the outlook on the wars waged by Fascist Italy between 1935 and 1943; the capitulation of Italy in September 1943; the German occupation of Rome and the local resistance with a particular focus on the attack against a convoy of German policemen in Rome on 23 March 1943, during which 33 policemen were killed; the repression of the German occupation forces, especially the massacre of 335 people in the Ardeatine Caves in Rome the day after this attack; the events following the massacre, including the reactions to it; the question of guilt, especially the response of those who shifted the blame from the Nazis to the partisans; the structure of the victims; the problem of the victims’ burial and the mourning of those left behind; the commemorations; the legal epilogues and the attitude towards the representatives of the resistance movement in post-war Italy.