Venticinque Aprile

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Today is Liberation Day in my country. It celebrates the war of partisan resistance fought against Germany and its Fascism puppet government in Italy from September 8, 1943, to May 2 (or thereabouts) 1945. The day April 25 was chosen because on that day the Nazis - negotiating via the Church - surrendered the city of Milan to the Partisans (and not to the allies, who only made it there a day or two later); because, according to the conventional viewpoint, he who holds Milan, holds Italy, and because Milan had been the central strategic target of the great battle that had begun two weeks earlier. Once it had fallen, there was nothing left for the invaders but to try and fight their way to the Alpine passes and home.

It may seem little to Americans or Britons, and very little in the enormous pageantry of blood in which even Britain and America count as co-protagonists at best, but this period of our history is of immense importance to us. It means, for a start, that we do not have to regard ourselves as having collaborated with evil at all times. It is not, after all, an ex post facto eulogizer, but a Fascist bureaucrat drawing up an intelligence report, who estimates that in 1944, no more than 5% of the population favoured the Fascist government. It means that freedom was not something given us as a contemptous favour by a victorious enemy, but something that our fathers took for themselves, with guns in their hands, at the risk of death and torture - whatever the Americans and the British thought of us (and their deliberate attempt to wreck the Italian economy, their refusal to treat Italy as an ally, the incredible order in September 1944 that Italian partisans should lay down their weapons and go home, and the ghastly final peace settlement, showed very well what they thought). And for all the flaws of the partisan movement, the internecine violence, the Communist presence, nevertheless, the fact that 250,000 living men in arms were present to take the surrender of Nazi invaders and Fascist traitors, and that 50,000 dead testified with their blood the commitment of the Partisan forces and the people behind them to victory against Nazism, means that we earned that freedom. With all its faults, the free Italian state, whose values are those of the Founding Fathers of sixty years ago, imprinted in the opening articles of the Constitution, stands still. We lost freedom once; we took it again with our blood, and, God willing, we shall not easily lose it again.

Comments

[dirigibletrance.livejournal.com]

Know this, though: That however irrational the American dislike of France is, we do not hold Italy in the same light, even the deliberately ignorant masses here in the States who only care about fashion trends and sports teams and little else. We do remember Rome and the Renaissance and the great thinkers and writers from there. Italy is thought of as a place of culture and learning over here, even by those who know little of it beyond what's told to them in pop-culture.

You also gave us Pizza. We are forever in your debt.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Not everyone agrees. To judge by one of your fellow-countrymen, pizza began in Chicago some time in the fifties. 8-)

[bufo-viridis.livejournal.com]

If they meant special-puffy pie, Pizza-hut style ones, were I you, I'd rather agree with them.
Better blame Americans...

[patchworkmind.livejournal.com]

The American government and (the so-called intelligentsia) may have had, or maybe still do, a poor opinion and regard for Italy and the Italians, but the general public do not necessarily follow. I speak from the southeastern United States, an area of the country looked down and spat upon by every other corner of the place. Primarily, as someone else pointed out, most have low regard for the French, for various reasons, some good and many lame.

Now to reference another post of yours, where did the Partisans get there firearms?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

In a country covered with armies, whose own conscript army had just collapsed leaving enormous depots open to looters and other interested persons, and where on top of it hunting on foot with guns is a national pastime - do you have to ask?

[patchworkmind.livejournal.com]

I am not yet terribly as familiar with particular European history and of the specific countries therein. I thought of it quite offhand.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

At any rate, I did not refer to the view of Italy that is general among any section of America today. In fact, several sectors of contemporary Italy deserve the most profound contempt - including nearly every politician, all the leadership in business and soccer, a considerable section of the public (all the football hooligans, all the idiots who vote for Communist and allied parties) and last but not least the fashion industry. I was speaking about the specific activities of the Allies between 1943 and 1948, specifically their refusal to treat Italy as an ally and the humiliating and disastrous peace treaty imposed on the country. In similar circumstances, De Gaulle forced the Allies to treat France as an ally; but Italy had no De Gaulle and no chance to impose itself in any way.

[patchworkmind.livejournal.com]

My reckoning is that since Italy had recently been 'officially' an Axis power, in the minds of many of the time, they needed to "pay for it." Such sentiments are not uncommon. Not many will allow a person or a country to change its mind without some sort of "moral payment."

These are just random thoughts during an hour I should already be asleep. As usual. I'll be more coherent tomorrow. This is a matter of much interest to me.