Memories of the Resistenza: Between Interpretive Conflicts and Historical Change

Author: Milan Spindler

There has never been a single, unified memory of the events and experiences that are today brought together under the term Resistenza. In both postwar Italy and the two German successor states of the ‘Third Reich’, perceptions of the anti-fascist resistance after 1945 were shaped by different political, social, and personal contexts. How the Resistenza was spoken about and remembered depended decisively on which side one had experienced the years 1943–45 and on one’s political orientation. Moreover, interpretations of both the German occupation and the Italian resistance have shifted over the decades: assessments of these years have been subject to continuous historical change.