Gendering the Resistance: A Historical Introduction (Essay‪)‬

The past is never past, especially in Italy. Just as contemporary scholars debate the meaning of the French Revolution or the American Civil War, Italians (and others) must grapple with the political, intellectual, and cultural legacy of the armed Resistance against Fascism and Nazism. Was the armed Resistance an illegal movement that betrayed the nation-state and 8 September 1943 a betrayal of Italy's Axis partner, Nazi Germany? Or was the Resistance a second, and truly popular, Risorgimento, the nineteenth-century movement for national unification, bringing the masses into the struggle for a democratic republic founded on the principles of social justice and individual liberty? Were the Fascist and Nazi massacres of civilians legitimate acts of war, or were they crimes against humanity? Was the Italian Communist Party (PCI)--the largest and most influential of the anti-Fascist forces--a patriotic organization or the tool of Stalin's Soviet Union? Were the Resistance tactics of sabotage, killings, and executions of Mussolini, Fascists and Nazis legitimate acts of war or acts of terrorism? Interpretations and readings of the Fascist ventennio and the Resistance have proven to be extraordinarily contentious for more than six decades. The fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war in 1995 served as a catalyst for a major re-examination of the issues that bore more than a passing resemblance to the infamous Historikerstriet (historians' debate) over the nature of Nazism in Germany during the 1980s. In short, historians, intellectuals, and public figures are forced to take a stand and their political philosophy is thus immediately recognized by their scholarly stance. Ideals of history as a social "science" grounded in objectivity are, for better or worse, not the dominant intellectual framework in Italy. Ada Gobetti of the Action Party (Partito d'Azione) spoke for many in this later recollection about the post-war period: "In a confusing way I sensed, however, that another struggle was beginning: longer, more difficult, more tiring, even if less bloody. It was no longer the question of fighting against arrogance, cruelty, and violence [...] but [...] of not allowing that little flame of solidarity and fraternal humanism, which we had seen born, to die in the calm atmosphere of an apparent return to normal life" (414).