Publicaciones recientes en torno al martirologio del fascismo italiano

Señalamos aquí dos artículos que se han publicado recientemente y que abordan el martirologio del fascismo italiano. Ambos demuestran la vitalidad de las investigaciones en este tema, que reflejan también otras obras como la de Amy C. King sobre la memoria del incendio de Primavalle de 1973, o el libro de Andrea Martini, Fascismo immaginario. Riscrivere il passato a destra. El análisis de la cultura sacrificial fascista forma parte de una poderosa línea de investigación que se ha beneficiado de la historia cultural de la muerte, y que ha dado resultados en los casos del nazismo y del franquismo.

– Emanuele Ertola, I “sacrari per i martiri della rivoluzione”. Sincretismo e religione politica del culto fascista. Contemporanea 1/2024: 3-25

Resumen en inglés: The shrines constituted the most sacred places of the Lictor cult. Here, often in monumental constructions enriched with a complex symbolic apparatus, the names of «martyrs» were venerated, public ceremonies were celebrated, involving rituals that ecompassed both religious and civic aspects. These sites were present in almost every Italian city, yet – with few exceptions – they have received limited historiographical attention and have never been the subject of systematic study. This article provides a comprehensive examination of shrines in seven different Lombard cities, based on archival sources and local press, within the interpretative framework offered by studies on political religion in totalitarian regimes and the relationship between the Church and fascism. This approach allows for an overview of the various types of spaces designated as shrines; an exploration of the reasons and functions of these distinctive architectural forms; an analysis of the syncretism between Catholicism and fascist mysticism evident both in iconography and the rituals performed therein; and finally, a reflection on the role of shrines in the public sphere, designed not for esoteric purposes but for the involvement of the masses in fascist liturgy.

– Pierre Lannoy, Le cimetière des fascistes. Comment ne pas dire l’histoire des soldats italiens décédés en captivité en Belgique et en France durant la Grande Guerre, Laboratoire italien 31/2023 (en línea)

Resumen en inglés: During the First World War, around 25,000 Italian soldiers taken prisoner during the Battle of Caporetto were sent to the rear of the Western Front in the Belgian and French territories that the Germans had occupied since 1914, condemned to work for their enemy. More than two thousand of them died there, their graves spread over more than one hundred and fifty different localities. Even before the end of the Great War, various tributes were paid to these soldiers who had died in captivity. But after 1922, the Fascist regime undertook erasing the history of Italian captivity. Thus, during the “ventennio fascista”, Belgian and French cemeteries containing Italian graves became political stages where the Fascist (re)vision of Italian military history was ardently transmitted. The aim of this article is to identify the transformation of Italian ceremonial practices in Belgium and France between 1918 and 1940. To understand the particularities of this political work, we will first describe the discourses to which the prisoners of Caporetto were subjected until the advent of fascism. By way of comparison, we will then identify the ceremonial inventions of Fascist officials in Belgian and French cemeteries, and present three ways in which they elided Italian captivity during the inter-war period. The conclusion will evoke some consequences of this memorial policy through the second half the 20th century.