Author: Milan Spindler

The Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia (ANPI), the national association of Italian partisans, plays a key role in keeping alive memory of the Resistenza. It is committed to preserving the legacy of the anti-fascist struggle against German occupation and the crimes of Nazism and Fascism during the Second World War. At the same time, it promotes democratic values, political education, and social justice, and has taken on a central role in public debate on modern Italian history as well as on the political and cultural heritage of the resistance.

Yet even decades after the end of the war, the memory of this resistance has never become a unified legacy, not least because of Italy’s deep political and geographical divisions. Experiences in the south and north of the country, for example, differed significantly. For a long time, political discourse on the Resistenza was shaped by a variety of factors, among them the block formation of the Cold War. The PCI’s political role was subject to constant scrutiny: while the party in the postwar years emphasized the patriotic dimension of the resistance, it simultaneously remained tied to Communist internationalism.

Rhetorical exaltation often obscured the complex and contentious aspects of the resistance, including its civil war character and the violent confrontations between different partisan groups. For a long time, the ANPI milieu remained silent about crimes such as the Porzûs massacre, in which Communist partisans murdered members of another partisan formation, or the executions of predominantly Fascist officials in the foibe gorges of the Karst region along the Italian-Yugoslav border. Political debates over these issues remain unresolved to this day.

In addition, Italy’s roles as an Axis power, an aggressive colonial actor, and a supporter of Fascist warfare in Spain remained largely unexamined for decades, while public memory focused primarily on the years 1943 to 1945. Criticism has also been directed at the long neglect of other groups of partisans, such as Soviet citizens who resisted German occupation in Italy. The participation of Italian Jews, as well as of Sinti and Roma, likewise remained for many years a little-regarded chapter in public memory.

Despite wide-ranging efforts toward a more differentiated engagement, the theme of the Resistenza remains politically and socially contested. The role of the Allies, the military contribution of the resistance to Italy’s liberation, and the handling of violence during the Liberazione continue to be central fields of debate, not only for academic research but also for Italian society at large.