Observing Memories Issue 3 | Page 44

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Giorgio Napolitano and Augusto De Luca, opening of a photographic exhibition of Augusto De Luca in the Chamber of Deputies. December 6, 1995 | Ferdinando Castaldo via Wikimedia Commons (especially on the right) to favour the celebration of Northern League. Both Ciampi and Napolitano acts of solidarity and aid made by Italians. sought to construct an “all-encompassing memory” One figure highlighted in particular was Giorgio which included new elements that were not part of Perlasca, a former Fascist volunteer in the Spanish the earlier anti-fascist narrative such as the memory Civil War, who claimed to be the Spanish consul in of the foibe, the victims of Allied bombing of Italian Budapest in 1944 and managed to save thousands of cities, and the rapes committed by the French people. For this act, he was awarded the “Righteous expeditionary force in Italy. But, above all, they among the nations” honour. The recognition of revived and defended the memory of the Resistance Perlasca and other “saviours of Jews” has thus by protecting and defending it against the revisionist revived the image of the “good Italians” among campaign. public opinion. The danger of this policy is that it Thanks to the presidency of the republic, the provides a comfortable smokescreen behind which demand that the boys of Salò should be placed on the national conscience can hide – and thus avoid the same footing as the Partisans has been rejected. coming terms with the country’s involvement in the The same happened with the proposal to abolish 25 persecution of the Jews. April as a national holiday. Ciampi and Napolitano In the Italian “war of memory” – with all its placed the recognition of the Resistance at the battles, its ceasefires and its compromises – a crucial centre of the institutional memory interpreting role was played by the Presidents of the Republic, it in a neo-patriotic fashion and as a struggle Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (1992-1999), Carlo Azeglio for national liberation resulting from the union Ciampi (1999-2006), Giorgio Napolitano (2006- between people and the army. Both presidents 2015), and lastly Sergio Mattarella, the present limited the explicit references to anti-Fascism incumbent. Ciampi and Napolitano in particular and supported the idea of the Resistance for the chose memory as a privileged area of intervention to armed forces who remained loyal to the king and hold together a country which had long been divided stood up to the Germans. It is no coincidence that by the bitter political clash between centre-right the Greek island of Kefalonia, the scene of the and centre-left under Berlusconi and whose national Wehrmacht’s worst massacre of Italian soldiers, cohesion was under threat from the separatist has become a key site of memory. The Presidents of 42 Observing Memories ISSUE 3