A Civil War (17 page)

53
S. Freud, ‘Thoughts for the Times on War and Death', 1915, available at
panarchy.org
.

54
Worth quoting, among all the documents that can be invoked on this score, is the telegram sent by Eisenhower to Badoglio on 10 September: ‘If Italy rises up now as a single man we shall grab every German by the throat. I urge you to make an overwhelming appeal to all Italian patriots. They have already done much locally, but their action seems uncertain and disconnected.' But already on 13 September, writing to the Chief of Staff George Marshall, Eisenhower spoke of ‘weak and supine Italians … of little help and inert'. Badoglio's reply of 11 September had, besides, been unsatisfactory to the point of impertinence: Badoglio had assured the Anglo-American commander-in-chief that he had ordered the armed forces (not at any rate the patriots, as Eisenhower had requested) to ‘act vigorously against German aggression' (see M. Toscano,
Dal 25 luglio all'8 settembre
, Florence: Le Monnier, 1966, pp. 216, 218). For the pressure exerted directly on the king and Badoglio by Roosevelt and Churchill to do something for the good of Italy, see N. Kogan,
Italy and the Allies
, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961, pp. 42ff).

55
Churchill,
Second World War: Closing the Ring
, pp. 134–5.

56
Bloch,
L'étrange défaite
, p. 158. See also, on p. 202: ‘Our leaders did not only allow themselves to be beaten: they immediately found it natural to have been beaten.'

57
A. Bravo and D. Jalla, Introduction to
La vita offesa
, p. 23.

58
F. T. Marinetti had spoken of a ‘disastro splendido' as something desirable in his essay ‘Futurismo e Fascismo', published in
La civiltà fascista
, Turin: UTET, 1928 (cf. Casucci,
Il fascismo
, p. 106).

59
See M. Bloch, ‘Réflexions d'un historien sur les fausses nouvelles de la guerre', in
Mélanges historiques
I, Paris: Écoles des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1983, pp. 41–57 (in particular, p. 54).

60
See Zangrandi,
1943
, p. 181, which refers to a testimony by J. Di Benigno,
Occasioni mancate. Roma in un diario segreto
, Rome: SEI, 1945, p. 137.

61
Thus Calamandrei,
La vita indivisibile
, p. 112 (8 September in Venice).

62
N. Revelli,
La guerra dei poveri
, Turin: Einaudi, 1962, p. 127.

63
Calamandrei,
La vita indivisible
, pp. 109–10.

64
Testimony by Carlo Barbaglia, from Como, born in 1910.

65
Testimonies by Luigi Airaldi, from Milan, stationed at Pegli; of Tullio Benigni, from Umbria, stationed in Vicenza; of Aldo Accorsi, from Carpi, a sailor who embarked on one of the ships that managed to reach Malta from Pola (
CU
).

66
G. Quazza, ‘Un diario partigiano', in
La Resistenza italiana. Appunti e documenti
, Turin: Giappichelli, 1966, pp. 133–5.

67
G. B. Lazagna,
Ponte rotto
, Quaderni di ‘
Il Novese'
, Nuovi Ligure: 1967, p. 17.

68
Testimony by A. B., from Padova,, who was sixteen years old at the time (
CU
).

69
Testimony of the attorney Adolfo Gatti (
La Repubblica
, 7 September 1983). The same sentry replied to the present author: ‘We have orders to hand in our weapons as soon as they arrive – The Anglo-Americans? – No, the Germans.'

70
Artom,
Diari
, p. 76 (10 September). On the first day the diary records (p. 75) the meeting with the captain who, when asked ‘What can those who defend the
patria
do?', replies: ‘Why are you asking me?' – ‘Because you are an officer in the army' – ‘I have nothing to do with it', he replies, ‘Ask the command of the territorial defence' – ‘And how will they greet us?' – ‘They won't even listen to you'.

71
Testimony by Uberto Revelli in Bravo and Jalla, eds,
La vita offesa
, p. 80.

72
Testimony by the Tuscan Giuseppe Bandin (
CU
). On the dissolution of the 4
^th
army see Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Cuneo e provincia,
8 settembre. Lo sfacelo della IV armata
, Turin: Book Store, 1979.

73
D. Benelli,
Un Ponte fra due castelli. Fascismo e antifascismo nelle Signe
, Florence: Istituto Gramsci Sezione Toscana, 1983, cited and appropriated in the testimony of private P (
CU
).

74
‘Declaration' of lieutenant Raffaele Sciandone regarding Linate Pozzolo (Gallarate) airport, n.d., attached to a report by the CLNAI delegation in Switzerland, November 1944 (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 3, folder I. Ib).

75
Testimony by Claudio Locci in A. Portelli,
Biografia di una città. Storia e racconto: Terni (1830–1985)
, Turin: Einaudi, 1985, p. 258.

76
The document, preserved in the Historic Museum of the Folgore Parachute Brigade, is cited in M. Di Giovanni's degree thesis, which also quotes a police report of 20 July 1943 describing the airmen of Ciampino airport who took to the country after an air-raid and who, the following morning, ‘were wandering along the via Appia, several kilometres from the field, without their jackets, with a blanket over their shoulders and a flask in their hands'.

77
An observation of this sort is in Zangrandi,
1943
, p. 22.

78
See Borrini, Mignemi and Muratore,
Parlare
, p. 22. Gastone, for the time being, chose to disguise himself as a military chaplain.

79
Testimony in
La Repubblica
, 7 September 1983.

80
Battaglia,
Un uomo
, p. 19.

81
P. Chiodi,
Banditi
, Turin: Einaudi, 1975, p. 15 (9 September).

82
L. Bocci, ‘Ricordi di un allievo ufficiale', in Bilenchi,
Cronache degli anni neri
, p. 40.

83
Testimony by Marina Azzoni Soldat (
CU
).

84
D. L. Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, Turin: Einaudi, 1973, pp. 6–7.

85
Borrini, Mignemi and Muratore, eds,
Parlare
, p. 23.

86
A. Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, Turin: Einaudi, 1972, p. 23.

87
Testimony by Elsa Oliva in Bruzzone and Farina,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 127.

88
Testimony by Olimpio Zuffa (
CU
).

89
Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, pp. 26, 21.

90
See G. Carocci,
Il campo degli ufficiali
, Turin: Einaudi, 1954, p. 26. A colleague had said ‘let's flee too'; and Carocci writes: ‘But it bothered me for the sake of the soldiers' (p. 25).

91
Mazzantini,
A cercar la bella morte
, p. 18.

92
This, for example, is what Gorrieri writes in
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
(p. 28). On the pillaging that took place in Milan, see E. Tortereto, ‘Notizie sul movimento operaio in Milano dal 25 luglio 1943 al marzo 1944', in
Il Movimento di liberazione in Italia
, July 1956, 43, pp. 16–41; on those that occurred in Lazio, V. Tedesco, ‘Vita di guerra, Resistenza, dopoguerra in provincia di Roma', in Gallerano, ed.,
L'altro dopoguerra
, p. 226.

93
A proclamation of September of the German military command of Modena (
Fondo RSI
, no. 313).

94
On the huge amount of booty captured by the Germans in Italy, see Zangrandi,
1943
, pp. 379–81, and G. Bocca,
La Repubblica di Mussolini
, Bari: Laterza, 1977, p. 67.

95
Mussolini is ‘the last Roman, but behind his powerful figure a people of gypsies will end up putrefying' (10 September). The previous day Goebbels had written: ‘I presume that the Italians, who put their hands up in every theatre of war, will do the same when they find themselves facing German soldiers' (quoted in E. Ragionieri,
Italia giudicata
, Turin: Einaudi, 1976, pp. 796, 795). In agreement with his minister, the diary of a German soldier in Italy (G. Nebel,
Unter Partisanen und Krezfahrern
, Stuttgart, 1950) describes ‘splendidly', according to Schmitt, ‘when a large regular army dissolves and, as a mob, is either exterminated by the local population or itself turns to killing and plundering' (C. Schmitt,
Theory of the Partisan
, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, p. 71).

96
I. Calvino, ‘Angoscia in caserma', in
Ultimo viene il corvo
, Turin: Einaudi, 1976, pp. 102–3.

97
See Zangrandi,
1943
, p. 129; E. Forcella, ‘Un black-out ante litteram, come e perché giornali e radio non parlano dell'8 settembre', in
Il Manifesto
, 9 September 1983.

98
‘Una seconda Caporetto' (‘A second Caporetto'), says an elderly station-master of Mestre. See Benelli,
Un ponte fra due castelli
, p. 80.

99
See A. Degli Espinosa,
Il Regno del Sud
, Rome: Migliaresi, 1946, p. 81.

100
I have had to omit specific references to the situation created after 8 September in the Balkans and the Aegean islands between the Italian occupying troops, where ‘those who had a shred of common sense started to cry, because for us the worst was beginning' (testimony by Antonio Paccagnella in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 79).

101
See Borrini, Mignemi and Muratore,
Parlare
, p. 21, and the testimonies of Bruno Simioli and Felice Perosino in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, pp. 80, 128. On the role played by the railway workers and the Germans' distrust of them, see E. Vallini,
Guerra sulle rotaie: contributo ad una storia della Resistenza
, Milan: Lerici, 1964.

102
This is how it was to be recalled in the article entitled, ‘I contadini e la guerra di liberazione', in
L'Italia Libera
, 30 May 1944 (Roman edition).

103
Testimony by Carlo Rameri, in D. Borioli and R. Botta,
I giorni della montagna. Otto saggi sui partigiani della Pinan Cichero
, Alessandria: WR Edizioni, 1990, p. 80.

104
Testimony by Luigi Airaldi.

105
See Artom,
Diari
, p. 74 (9 September).

106
See G. Pesce,
Senza tregua
, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1974, pp. 15–16.

107
Ibid., p. 19.

108
These are Calvino's words in
Angoscia in caserma
, p. 105.

109
A Garibaldini report reads: ‘We went along to the barracks of the 88
^th
infantry and tried to persuade the soldiers not to abandon their posts, or at least to come and swell our ranks. We found a great incomprehension in them, and correspondingly a great yearning to go home, and so we made them give up their weapons. As the days went by the collapse of our army became more and more accentuated' (report on the ‘squadra d'azione di Castiglioncello' [Castiglioncello action squad] of the 3
^rd
Garibaldi brigade, signed by the detachment commander, Francesco Pandolfi). The author of the report recalls the ‘moral depression' which this behaviour on the part of soldiers generated in his men (IG,
BG
, 012056).

110
‘The National Front is warned through the assemblies; it protests (the representatives of the various parties are all infatuated by legality) saying that assemblies should not be held because the prefect does not authorise them, that they could cause incidents, that by doing so the Communist Party breaks with the National Front, et cetera. Only the Action Party representative agrees with us': this is what Giovanni (Remo Scappini) wrote in a ‘report from Turin' of 15 September (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

111
E. Forcella, ‘L'arte della fuga: il black-out dell'informazione nella crisi italiana dell'8 settembre 1943', in
Movimento operaio e socialista
, n.s., VI, 1983, pp. 481–97. See also Zangrandi,
1943
, pp. 130–1.

112
See
Il Lavoro
(formerly
Il lavoro fascista
, which became the organ of the confederation of workers during the Badoglian period). This title and the entire contents of the newspaper, particularly an article by Mario Alicata, should be considered among the first explicit incitements to armed struggle.

113
Editorial in
Giustizia e Libertà. Notiziario dei patrioti delle Alpi Cozie
, October 1944, quoted in M. Giovana,
Storia di una formazione partigiana
, Turin: Einaudi, 1964, pp. 199–200.

114
M. Fioravanti, ‘Stato (Diritto intermedio)', in
Enciclopedia del diritto
, Milan: Giuffré, 1987, p. 41 of the extract.

115
‘Relazione sull'attività del CTLN', presented to the Allies, 9 August 1944 (ISRT,
Carte Francesco Berti
, envelope I, folder 3, subfolder CTLN
verbali
).

116
Testimony by Alberto Petrini regarding the abandonment of the city after the bombings that followed 8 September (Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 255).

117
C. Inverni (V. Foa), ‘I partiti e la nuova realtà italiana (la politica del CLN)',
Quaderni dell'Italia Libera
, n.s., I, p. 17 (written in Turin in March 1944).

118
Speech made in Cuneo on 18 September 1948, in the presence of the president of the republic, Luigi Einaudi, at the award ceremony for valour for seven partisans (see Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, Appendix, p. 149).