A Civil War (83 page)

30
See Calamandrei,
La vita indivisibile
, p. 113.

31
Mazzantini,
A cercar la bella morte
, p. 29.

32
Testimonies of Edovillo Caccia, in Dellavalle,
Operai
, p. 58, and of Alberto Todros, a Jew, in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 78.

33
See the
Intervista sulla guerra partigiana
he gave to L. La Malfa Calogero and M. V. de Filippis.

34
Northern edition, article ‘L'ultimo quarto d'ora'.

35
‘La Direzione del PCI per l'Italia occupata ai triumvirati insurrezionali e ai comitati federali', 24 April 1945, morning (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 683).

36
Article ‘Chi sono i ribelli! Chi sono i patrioti!' (n.d. but between January and March 1944, No. 3).

37
See ‘Ricordi di un allievo ufficiale' (Luigi Bocci), in Bilenchi,
Cronache degli anni neri
, p. 38.

38
From the author's own recollections (Lopresti was later shot at the Fosse Ardeatine).

39
Rome edition, 23 January 1944, article ‘Italia e Antitalia: gli eroi di Monte Canino'.

40
A passage from the Fascist paper
Emmerossa
(an unusual title), ‘news-sheet of the youth militia', republished with some satisfaction in the Rome
L'Italia Libera
of 20 January 1944, in the article ‘Riesumazioni'.

41
Fenoglio,
Il partigiano Johnny
, p. 9.

42
‘Che cos'è il Comitato di liberazione nazionale',
Quaderni dell'Italia Libera
, 1 October 1943, No. 3, p. 6. In the preceding pages we read ‘Let us be clear: the black-shirted Fascists today leave the Italian people rather indifferent: a few lowly personal vendettas or raving displays of revenge do not change the overall situation.'

43
LRI, p. 106.

44
‘Under the gaze of the occupant, there will be great reckoning.' Rousso,
Vichy
; J.-P. Azéma, ‘Une guerre de deux cents ans?' – an essay from which (p. 148) the citation in the text is taken, in
Vingtième Siècle
5 (January–March 1985), pp. 147–53.

45
Held in the ISRT, Raccolta volantini, PCI Firenze (clandestini 1943–1944).

46
See Flamigni and Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, p. 35.

47
See Passerini,
Torino operaia
, p. 76.

48
Togliatti,
Opere
, vol. III, book 2, p. 758.

49
Cited in Deakin,
Brutal Friendship
, p. 319, which adds the comment: ‘Mussolini might have added that the second part of the civil war began, for similar reasons, in 1943.'

50
See Petersen, ‘Il problema della violenza', p. 990.

51
See Lyttelton, ‘Fascismo e violenza', p. 978.

52
Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 161. In the testimony given by Agramante Androsciani a direct link is made between the Arditi del popolo and the partisans (p. 163).

53
Mazzantini,
A cercar la bella morte
, p. 250. The ‘BL', the first-mass-produced truck from Fiat, was often used in fascist parades and spectacles.

54
See the short piece ‘Buffonate' in the Rome edition of 19 September 1943.

55
Article without byline or date in
Evviva i partigiani!
, No. 1 (see
Saggio bibliografico
, n. 4875).

56
Published in the ‘Bollettino di partito', of 1 October 1943.

57
See also, in
L'Unità
's Rome edition of 26 October 1943, the article ‘Aberrazioni fasciste', which laments that some anti-Fascists, ‘whether out of fear or foolishness, have swallowed the bait'.

58
Rome edition, article, ‘Fascisti, attenzione!'

59
IG,
Archivio PCI
. The document is partly quoted, without any indication as to its date, in Flamigni and Marzocchi,
Resistenza in Romagna
, p. 135. On the part of the ‘Direttive' concerning the PCI attitude to the capitalists, see the next chapter.

60
To the partisans who took his wife, he essentially said, ‘Do what you like with her'. See the ‘Relazione del commissario politico Remo al Comando di brigata', regarding the Giordano Cavestro division, of 23 May 1944 (IG,
BG
,
Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.2.2).

61
‘Il Partito liberale italiano ai fratelli dell'Italia oppressa', in
Risorgimento Liberale
, Piedmont edition, July 1944.

62
Rome edition, article, ‘Astuzie di ladroni'.

63
‘Primi chiarimenti', a pamphlet of the Movimento Liberale Italiano, dated 1 May 1943, p. 1.

64
La Riscossa italiana
1: 3 (December 1943), article ‘I precedenti dell'ordine internazionale di Hitler'.

65
Giustizia e Libertà. Notiziario dei patrioti delle Alpi Cozie
, June 1944, No. 4, article ‘I nostri nemici' (cited in Giovana,
Storia di una formazione partigiana
, pp. 101–2).

66
As we read in the piece signed ‘Cap. G. Neri', in the
Bollettino
No. 35 of the Command of the 52
^nd
Garibaldi Brigade (Upper Lombardy), 13 August 1944 (IG,
BG
, 0589).

67
Rome edition, 20 February 1944, article ‘Demagogia repubblicana: la socializzazione'.

68
IZDG, envelope 272b, folder 1/A and B.

69
Rome edition, 13 January 1944.

70
‘Che cos' è il Comitato di liberazione nazionale'.

71
Editorial ‘La politica di Badoglio', 19 September 1943. See also, in the same issue, ‘Il vergognoso fallimento del governo Badoglio'.

72
Rome edition, 26 September 1943. In the same issue we read, ‘With the tomfoolery of the Fascist restoration and the harlequinades of the monarchy's
volte-face
, the saddest twenty years of the
patria
's history is now complete' (in the article ‘Benito Pulcinella').

73
‘Un popolo e due governi', in
L'Azione
, 20 October 1943.

74
Rome edition, 20 February 1944.

75
On the purges see Pavone,
La continuità dello Stato
, pp. 228–67, and M. Flores, ‘L' epurazione', in
L'Italia dalla liberazione alla repubblica
, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1977, pp. 413–67. Also see L. Mercuri,
L'epurazione in Italia, 1943–1948
, Cuneo: L' Arciere, 1988.

76
See B. Constant,
Mémoires sur les Cent Jours en forme de lettres
, Chez Béchet aîné, vol. II, Paris, 1822. ‘De l'hypothèse de la légitimité de Bonaparte jusqu'en 1814, et de son illégitimité en 1815', pp. 102–5.

77
Gabrielli,
La stampa di Salò
, pp. 163–74. The comment by Mussolini is taken from Note 46 of Radio Repubblicana, ‘I puri e gli epurati', 31 July 1944.

78
I am referring to the slender volume
Pensiero e azione del Risorgimento
, published in the Saggi Einaudi collection in 1943.

79
Lombardi,
Il Partito d'azione. Cos' è e cosa vuole
, p. 8; L. Salvatorelli,
Sovversivismo conservatore
, in
Il Tempo
, 24 September 1919, and then in Salvatorelli,
Nazionalfascismo
, Turin: Piero Gobetti Editore, 1923, pp. 34–8.

80
‘Responsabilità', in
L'Italia Libera
, Rome edition, 11 November 1943, reproduced ‘from the Turin organ of the Partito d'Azione'.

81
Giustino Fortunato is the source of the first, well-known definition. The second appeared in an article by Piero Gobetti in the
Rivoluzione Liberale
of 23 November 1922, then again featured in P. Gobetti,
La Rivoluzione Liberale
, Turin: Einaudi, 1947, p. 185.

1
Falaschi,
La Resistenza armata
, p. 183.

2
Fenoglio,
Golia
, pp. 255–6 (the discussion is about the appropriate treatment of a German prisoner).

3
See, as a very clear example, an untitled article appearing in the Roman
Italia Libera
of 30 October 1943, where the cause being fought for is defined as ‘universal', as against a Nazi-Fascism ‘that denies and tyrannises humanity'.

4
At the Brescia conference on the RSI I have already referred to several times – Poggio,
La Repubblica sociale italiana
, pp. 440–1 – Mario Venanzi recalled the case of two brothers, one partisan, the other in the Decima Mas; however, remarkably, this episode was used in defence of the view opposing the use of the term ‘civil war'. At the same event a statement from Aldo Gamba,
Cenni sui servizi militari e politici di spionaggio e di informazione
(pp. 275–87), spoke of a partisan who was the nephew of Valerio Borghese. See also the case of a prisoner of the Allies, who remained a Fascist, whose brother, a partisan – ‘he over there … and I here' – was shot by the Fascists, ‘thus by my own side'. G. Tumiati,
Prigionieri nel Texas
, Milan: Mursia, 1985, pp. 150–2.

5
LRE
, p. 489.

6
Testimony of Pierino Vero, a carpenter, in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 124.

7
Testimony of Rocco Giovinazzo, a barber, in ibid., p. 80.

8
In a letter to his parents, from Montebelluna (‘Esame della corrispondenza censurata al 30 giugno 1944', in ACS, SPD, CR, RSI, envelope 9, folder 3).

9
See Conti,
La RSI e l'attività del fascismo clandestino
, p. 950.

10
U. Saba,
Scorciatoie e raccontini
, Milan: Mondadori, 1946, pp. 13–14.

11
Arendt,
Sulla rivoluzione
, p. 13.

12
‘Relazione del Commissario politico del Comando piemontese delle formazioni GL', 31 December 1944 (Formazioni GL, p. 268).

13
Letter sent on 31 December 1944 to the Lombard delegation of the General Command of the Garibaldi Brigades (IG,
BG
, 07501).

14
Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, dated 11 December 1944, p. 251 (see also p. 260). The observation relates to the Baulard garrison in the Val di Susa.

15
B. Fenoglio, ‘Il padrone paga male', in
Un giorno di fuoco e altri racconti
, p. 126.

16
Chiovini and Mignemi,
Il 44 sulle sponde del Lago Maggiore
, p. 9.

17
Testimony of the Istrian Francesco Del Caro, in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 84.

18
E. Enriques Agnoletti, ‘Prefazione', in
LRI
, p. 14.

19
‘Rapporto del Comitato sportivo', Reggio Emilia, n.d. but February or March 1944 (IG,
BG
,
Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.2.7).

20
From the Divisional Command delegation for the Marche to the Garibaldi Assault Brigades Central Command, 27 June 1944 (IG,
BG
, 01229–97).

21
Lombard delegation of the Garibaldi Brigades General Command to the Command of the 54
^th
Valcamonica Brigade, 17 September 1944 (INSMLI,
Brigate Garibaldi
, envelope 2, folder 1, subfolder 1).

22
See the ‘Circolare n. 13', containing the ‘directives for action' of the Ravenna provincial military committee of 3 July 1944 (cited in Casali,
Il movimento di liberazione a Ravenna
, vol. I, pp. 71–2).

23
Meneghello,
Bau-sète
, p. 25.

24
See the report by ‘Oreste', the military organiser of the Piedmont insurrectionary triumvirate, ‘Sulla situazione della brigata e distaccamento Garibaldi dislocati nelle Prealpi verbanesi (Gruppo Zeda)', 24 June 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 64).

25
Giglioli's report of 20 January 1945 (IG,
BG
,
Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.2.6: see
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 288, n. 4).

26
‘Rapporto del commissario politico', 27 March 1944 (IG,
BG
, 09965).

27
See the testimony of G.B.A., ‘Fucilazione alle Cascine', in Bilenchi,
Cronache degli anni neri
, p. 71.

28
Such was the case of Walter Magri, shot by the Fascists at Poggio Renatico on 27 March 1945 (
LRI
, p. 125).

29
‘Relazione della riunione del Comando brigata Tollot a Coledi', 27 March 1945 (INSMLI,
CVL
, envelope 35, folder 1, subfolder 3).

30
Mautino,
Guerra di popolo
, p. 47.

31
Cecco ‘to comrades Livio and Cyrano', 20 December 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 119).

32
See the unusual encounter between a German official and the GAP commander Cicchetti in an Emilian peasant's house, recounted in Cicchetti,
Il campo giusto
, p. 209.

33
See the ‘Direttive per la collaborazione fra il plenipotenziario del Grande Reich [Rahn] e il generale plenipotenziario della Wehrmacht in Italia', Toussaint, n.d. (in Collotti,
L'amministrazione tedesca
, pp. 276–9).

34
As the Milan military commander, Colonel Seeberg, adjudged the action he had taken in the city's factories to quell the tensions being fomented, as he put it, by the foolishness of the Italian authorities (18 January 1944 report, cited in Collotti,
L'amministrazione tedesca
, pp. 197–8). The Japanese ambassador was also impressed by the Germans' efficiency and discipline, as against the egoism, arrogance and tyranny ‘as it was before' of the Fascists (see his report to the Mikado, n.d., in Ragionieri,
Italia giudicata
, p. 804).