Axis or Ally: Italy in World War II
Italy is a place for marriage, get-togethers, and anniversaries. Where Italians can feel great pride in the magnificent nation they are from, as Italian Manuel Faccio states. But there is also a hole, a hole in our world created by the people who wish to dictate, inflict suffering, and exploit people's rights. And Italy is a part of that hole, just as much as it is the patching up of that hole. Which begs us with the question, was Italy an Axis or an Allied power?
World War II was led by Adolf Hitler, a German dictator. Under his rule, millions of Jewish people (Jews) were killed, and many more were tortured. Children were ripped away from their parents, spouses separated, and the elderly sentenced to a permanent fate. The second world war raged from 1939 to 1945, with the Allies and Axis working tirelessly to get the upper hand on the other side. The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Japan, and Italy. The Allies were England, France, America, Russia, China, and Italy. Notice how Italy was said twice. Italy was an Axis power for the first four years of the war. Still, after a rebellion of the Partisans (the group that fought against Italian fascism), Italy switched from an Axis to an Ally for the last two years of the war.
Fascism: a government system led by a dictator having complete power who refuses criticism and opposing opinionsMr. Doolan is an upper school History teacher who shares much of the history of Italy, and is the main source of information in this article. Italy was a very new country, created in 1861; before then it was just a bunch of loose territories. He explains that some nationalists believed that Italy was not finished. And then, in World War I, Italy hoped to gain more land. And at the end of World War I, Italy did gain some land from Austria. So, for instance, the city of Trieste. But they wanted more land. They wanted the land that is now today, Croatia, that whole Dalmatian coast, which used to belong to Venice a long time ago. And there were other areas that they wanted in North Africa, Libya, and so on. So in the 1930s, Mussolini began to take a firmer foreign policy, and he expanded in North Africa, and he expanded into Albania and the Balkans.'
In World War II, Mussolini and Hitler found themselves eye to eye on the fact they hated communism, and that they hated Russia. Benito Mussolini was an Italian fascist dictator who killed thousands, if not millions, of people. Mussolini gave fascism its name, fascism being a system of government led by a tyrant or dictator who doesn't accept opposition. In 1939, they teamed up with Japan, and that was the start of World War II.
Soon though, Mussolini began getting tired of Germany making all the advancements. Among those were the takeovers of France, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Mr. Doolan describes that 'Mussolini thought, my god, there's gonna be nothing left for Italy.' Due to this, Italy found itself trying to claim bits of the south of France. As likely expected, the French were defeated, but not without declaring war on the British Empire. And once Hitler starts a war with Russia and the U.S., it becomes clear there is no way they can win. England and America began to see Italy as the soft 'under-belly' of the Axis, and so they landed troops in Sicily, and together with the Partisans, they fought.
The Partisans or I Partigiani in Italian, were a group of rebels who had been fighting against Mussolini since the very beginning of 1939. In the beginning, under the strict rules of Mussolini, any rebels caught would be killed, sent to prison, or sent to death camps. It was only in 1943 that they finally managed to get up and truly make a difference. Because of these strong protests and rebellions, The Fascist Grand Council, the main leader in Italy during World War II other than Mussolini, evicted Mussolini from his position of power and sent him to die in prison. He was rescued by Hitler, put back in Italy, and then killed while trying to escape Italy's newfound allyship. On October 13th, 1943, Italy officially became an Allie.
In Zurich HB there is a work of art with spirals and birds, and according to Mr. Doolan, this work of art was designed by Mario Mertz, an Italian Artist. "He fought in a partisan, anti-fascist group and was arrested, I think, in 1944-1945, and was still arrested by the fascists when the war ended." Mr. Doolan also shares about Primo Levi, an Italian chemist and writer. "Primo Levi, wrote some of the most moving memoirs ever about Auschwitz because he became a prisoner in Auschwitz. But when he was arrested, he wasn't arrested because he was Jewish. He was arrested because he was in a partisan group fighting against fascism in Italy. And he was captured by the Germans, not the Italians, the Germans in 1944. Then they discovered he was Jewish, and they sent him to Auschwitz (a concentration camp). He survived and wrote beautifully about it, but he killed himself in the apartment that he was born in, in touring in the 1980s." Some of Mr. Levi's books include 'If This Is A Man,' 'Trilogia De Auschwitz,' and 'The Truce.'
““Primo Levi wrote some of the most moving memoirs ever about Auschwitz, but he killed himself in the apartment he was born in.””
Mr. Faccio is a native Italian, born and raised in Vicenza and Dueville, northeastern Italy. Mr. Faccio is a grandson of the partisans, and he feels great shame in what fascist Italy did. He says that before World War II, 33% of male Italians with rights voted for Mussolini, making his path to dictatorship not the most challenging. In his words, people were rising up all over Italy, even going so far as to kill their fascist parents.
Until this revolution, Mussolini silenced everyone, and no one could stand against him without a death sentence, or worse. In 1943 that drastic rise in Partisan power was astonishing and clearly effective. As Mr. Faccio says, Italians finally had the will to get up and fight, calling Italy, ‘‘the victims”. To truly stand united. As Mr. Doolan says, the cost of seeing people die, of losing a devastating war, forced them to turn things around for their nation and themselves.
“The victims.”
-Mr. Faccio
Italy stayed an Allie from 1943 to the war's end in 1945. During this time, Italy gave men and helped support the Allies in the war, but the contribution Italy made on the battlefield did not necessarily change the course of the war. As well as this, with Italy no longer in alliance with Germany, Mr. Faccio also states that they were being attacked by the Germans, forcing the Italians into an even deeper hole of death with no way out.
Italy came out on the winning side of the war, and soon after joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in an agreement to protect each other and be protected. Italy has been a loyal member of NATO for over 70 years, from 1949 to the present day. Still today, though, Italy like other places in the world is still being consumed by fascism. Giorgia Meloni is the Italian prime minister, though many do not believe she deserves that title. As Vad Badham states in her article, 'I wouldn't vote for her if I were on fire, but I'm in nauseated awe of what it must take for a woman to succeed among hard-right conservatives.' More opinions such as these come from around the world, believing that Mrs. Meloni is a fascist. A reminder that fascism is still a problem today.
Italy contributed on both sides in World War II, displaying a victim and an attacker. Italy is known worldwide as only an Axis, and Mr. Doolans students are always surprised when they hear about the turn that Italy made. The Partisans fought hard, and only with the support of the people and themselves could they truly stand up and fight. The story of what happened is a hard one, representing casualties, injustice, and fascism. But it also represents resilience, determination, and the ability to make a huge change. This story is one not necessarily told by many, but now, we add one more article to the count.
