The memory of Italian concentration camps in Croatia (1941-1943)

The memory of the Italian concentration camps in Croatian occupied territories from 1941 to 1943 is still vivid in survivors and their families. However, it is almost totally absent from the collective memory and official history in Croatia today. The oblivion is due, among others, to the fact that the fascist camps were not extermination camps (even though in some of them, like Rab, the mortality, caused by starvation and diseases, was as high as in Buchenwald). When compared with nazi camps, they seemed bland, and were used in the postwar period in Italy for the construction of the myth of the “good Italian soldier”. The most prominent today’s researchers on the topic, however, decline the method of comparison between the camps, and invite us to observe Italian camps as the case of violation of human rights and manifestation of political violence (Capogreco 2004). Italian historiography in the last 20 years has contributed a lot to increase the awareness on this topic by mapping the historical sites, collecting documents and memories. In Croatia the memory has gone through different phases from the war until today, but the current situation is that of oblivion or relativisation of fascist crimes. In the last few years I have collected traces of memory about these camps. My main interest are the ways in wich a difficult experience is narrated in words or pictures in different social and political circumstances, and trasmitted to the next generations.