308. Italy- Liberation Day: The War Untold
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| Italian Villagers re-enacting Hemingway's World War I |
The second world war which was more or less a consequence of
the first world war, Hitler waiting in the wings to get his own back, is a
phenomenon that structured the last century and infinitely affected the lives
of our parents and grandparents.
Even if we are only the children of those who have lived
through those harrowing events which scarred the 20th century we too
have been influenced by such events, much of the tragedy and senselessness of
it was passed on to us only by virtue of living alongside those who had been an
integral part of it all- consequently we too have been woven into that
atmosphere.
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| Italian Villagers re-enacting Hemingway's World War I |
But we are the last generation to claim such. We are the last to remember, for those who
come after us will no longer inhabit that atmosphere, have no access to the
memory for it will be far gone and faded by then.
That’s why we have writers and historians so that reality
can be captured and passed on. Historians
pass on the facts without which nothing of the past could be pieced together
again. Writers on the other hand pass on
the memory.
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| Italian Villagers re-enacting Hemingway's World War I |
What has survived vividly in history are those people,
places and battles that marked world war II, but little is known of what went
on behind the scenes- if some moments have come alive it is thanks to writers
such as Ernest Hemmingway or the Alpine soldier, Mario Rigoni Stern who
recreated the “unofficial” side of what went on in the daily life of ordinary
people living an extraordinary existence.
There are not all that many people left whose memory writers
can still tap into, but writers old enough to be the children of those same
protagonist and therefore embedded in that atmosphere are writers who can still
write “genuine” war stories, and so they should before the “memory” dies
completely.
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| Italian Villagers re-enacting Hemingway's World War I |
There is very little taught in schools in Italy about the 2nd
world war and generations of Italian youth know next to nothing of the anomaly
that had hit their country during this period.
The official facts of Italy’s involvement in the war are stark and not
brilliant. But that was only one side of
Italy. There was a war within Italy
itself, the unofficial and hidden Italy fighting the official Italy- that side
of Italy has barely been set out in books for future generations to read
because it is the Italy no one knows about.
The story of this hidden Italy was the story of ordinary men
and women who fought against all odds in the Resistance- this much is known-
what is not known is that these people were not left alone. If Italy was officially with Germany, with the
underground Italy there were the OSS the special services from the USA fighting
alongside them to eventual freedom and liberty from Fascism- which is what we
celebrate today, 25th April.
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| Italian Villagers re-enacting Hemingway's World War I |
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