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Italiani brava gente

For the 1964 Italian film of the same name, from which the term derives, see Attack and Retreat.

"Italians, the good people" (Italian: Italiani brava gente) is a phrase adopted by historians to refer to Italian popular beliefs about the allegedly limited, even non-existent, participation of Fascist Italy and the Royal Italian Army in the Holocaust and war crimes committed by Axis soldiers during World War II. The phenomenon is also known as the myth of the good Italian.[1][2]

Spanish republican poster, reading "The claw of the Italian invader intends to enslave us", during the Spanish Civil War

Concept

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A form of historical revisionism which emerged under the post-war republic, it was argued that Italian soldiers had been "good" or "decent people" (brava gente) who had acted with humanity and compassion, supposedly inherent Italian values, in contrast to their ideologically motivated and brutal German allies.[3] In particular, it argued that the Italians had not participated in, or even had opposed, the Nazi persecution of Jews in occupied parts of Eastern Europe.[4][5] By extension, the term is sometimes applied to describe popular beliefs about the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36) or non-Jewish responses to the Holocaust in Italy.[6] Hannah Arendt supports the myth by maintaining that Italian Jews had been protected by the "general, spontaneous humanity of a people of ancient civilization".[7]

The concept is based on the benevolent characteristics of the Italian people, such as to make them potentially immune from inhumanity towards the enemy in war or towards colonized nations, and capable of guaranteeing Italians special indulgence in return from other peoples. Pierluigi Battista defines it as:

A shield of good-naturedness, joviality, a natural inclination towards meekness and cordial sociability which should have protected [the Italians] from brutal hostility, a comfortable cushion capable of cushioning the dramatic impact of history and cruelty.[8]

In contrast with Battista and others, who trace the rise of the myth to the post-World War II period,[8][9] Angelo Del Boca points out that its origins are older and date back to the beginning of Italian colonial expansion (1885), in which the country, the last to start it among the European powers, programmatically attempted to show itself different, more human, a bringer of civilization, strong as it was in its history.[10] This led to the affirmation of the phrase, distorted by the Eritrean population, of bono italiano ('good Italian').[11]

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Notable examples of the phenomenon in popular culture are the film Mediterraneo (1991) directed by Gabriele Salvatores and the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1994) by Louis de Bernières which was also adapted into a film in 2001.[4] The myth avoided "a public debate on collective responsibility, guilt and denial, repentance and pardon" but has recently been challenged by historians.[4] The myth parallels the popular beliefs about the "Clean Wehrmacht" popular in post-war West Germany or the "victim theory" in Austria.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Paolo Favero, Italians, the “Good People”: Reflections on National Self-Representation in Contemporary Italian Debates on Xenophobia and War, in Outlines - Critical practice studies, No. 2 (2010), p. 138-153
  2. ^ Diego Guzzi, The myth of the "Good Italian", the antisemitism and the colonial crimes, in Constelaciones - Revista de Teoría Crítica, No. 4 (2012), p. 255-264
  3. ^ Bartolini, Guido (2 October 2018). "'Italiani brava gente' as a Transmedial Phenomenon". Interdisciplinary Italy. Arts and Humanities Research Council. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Petrusewicz, Marta (2004). "The hidden pages of contemporary Italian history: War crimes, war guilt and collective memory". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 9 (3): 269–270. doi:10.1080/1354571042000254700. S2CID 143230795.
  5. ^ Rodogno, Davide (2005). "Italiani brava gente? Fascist Italy's Policy Toward the Jews in the Balkans, April 1941-July 1943". European History Quarterly. 35 (2): 213–240. doi:10.1177/0265691405051464. S2CID 143672344.
  6. ^ Wilcox, Vanda (2021). "Imperial Thinking and Colonial Combat in the Early Twentieth-Century Italian Army". The Historical Journal. 65 (5): 1333–1353. doi:10.1017/S0018246X21000741. ISSN 0018-246X. S2CID 240134142.
  7. ^ Allegra, Luciano (April 2013). "Italiani, brava gente? Ebrei, fonti inquisitoriali e senso comune". Quaderni storici (PDF) (in Italian). Vol. 142. Bologna: il Mulino. p. 252.
  8. ^ a b Battista, Pierluigi (28 August 2004). "Italiani brava gente. Un mito cancellato". La Stampa (in Italian).
  9. ^ Allegra, Luciano (April 2013). "Italiani, brava gente? Ebrei, fonti inquisitoriali e senso comune". Quaderni storici (PDF) (in Italian). Vol. 142. Bologna: il Mulino. p. 251.
  10. ^ Del Boca, Angelo (2005). Italiani, brava gente? (in Italian). Vicenza: Neri Pozza. p. 47. ISBN 978-88-6559-178-9. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  11. ^ Del Boca, Angelo (2005). Italiani, brava gente? (in Italian). Vicenza: Neri Pozza. p. 48. ISBN 978-88-6559-178-9. Retrieved 27 January 2021..

Further reading

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  • Focardi, Filippo; Klinkhammer, Lutz (2004). "The Question of Fascist Italy's War Crimes: The Construction of a Self-Acquitting Myth (1943 – 1948)". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 9 (3): 330–348. doi:10.1080/1354571042000254755. S2CID 143876226.
  • Del Boca, Angelo (2011). Italiani, brava gente? Un mito duro a morire (5th ed.). Venice: Neri Pozza. ISBN 9788854503199.
  • Fogu, Claudio (2006). "Italiani brava gente: The Legacy of Fascist Historical Culture on Italian Politics of Memory". In Lebow, Richard Ned; Kansteiner, Wulf; Fogu, Claudio (eds.). The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. pp. 147–176. ISBN 978-0-8223-8833-3.
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