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‘I was there, too’: memories of victimhood in wartime Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Philip Morgan
Philip Morgan*
Affiliation:
University of Hull
*
∗Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article looks at the contribution that the recording of personal memories makes to the history and to the collective and public remembrance of the Second World War in Italy. It concentrates on a product of the 1980s boom in oral and written testimonies about the war, Giulio Bedeschi's edited anthology of the personal stories of civilian victims, Fronte italiano: c'ero anch'io. La popolazione in guerra. The article assesses the anthology's theme of victimhood and its implications for how Italians have chosen to remember the war. It considers the standing of these personal memories as historical sources, and the extent to which they can contribute to a historical understanding of the Italians’ war experiences.

Keywords

memorytestimonySecond World War
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 217 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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