The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome

345 Pages·2003·35.151 MB·English

by  Alessandro Portelli (auth.)

THE ORDER HAs BEEN CARRIED OuT
HISTORY, MEMORY, AND MEANING
OF A NAZI MASSACRE IN ROME
ALESSANDRO PORTELLI
*
THE ORDER HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT
Copyright © Alessandro Portelli, 2003.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-1-4039-6208-9
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner what
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cal articles or reviews.
First published in 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLANTM
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan
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registered trademark in the European Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-4039-8008-3 ISBN 978-1-4039-8169-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4039-8169-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Portelli, Alessandro.
The order has been carried out : history, memory, and meaning of a Nazi massacre in
Rome I Alessandro Portelli
p. em.
Includes bibligographical references and index.
1. Ardeatine Caves Massacre, Rome, Italy, 1944. 2. World War, 1939-1945-
Atrocities-Italy-Rome. 3. World War, 1939-1945-Prisoners and prisons,
German. 4. Rome (ltaly)-History-20th century. I. Tirle.
D804.G3P67 2003
940.53'45632-dc21 2003042995
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Letra Libre, Inc.
First Palgrave Macmillan edition: November 2003
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
The Narrators
I. INTRODUCTION I
1. There Was No Request
2. The Sense of History in Rome
3. Context and Background
4. Where Stories Begin and End
5. Oral Sources
6. Creation and Use of Sources
7. The Time of Names
PART I ROME
2. PLACES AND TIMES 23
1. Beginnings
2. The Magnet
3. Building Fever
4. The Heart of the State
5. Soldiers
6. In the Shadow of St. Peter's
7. Roman Hills
8. Portico d'Ottavia
9. Monuments: Testaccio, Trionfale ...
10. Via della Pelliccia
3- TWENTY YEARS: FASCISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS 51
1. Working-Class Worlds: San Lorenzo and the Valley of Hell
2. Historic Streets: Ponte, Regola, Tor di Nona ...
3. Students
4. Concentration Camps: Gordiani, Val Melaina, Primavalle ...
5. A Street in the Center: Via Rasella
4. ACTS OF WAR 71
1. Race Laws
2. Mrica, Spain, Russia ...
3. War from the Air: San Lorenzo, July 19, 1943
4. Death and Rebirth of the Homeland: Porta San Paolo, September
8, 1943
5. Portico d'Ottavia, October 16, 1943
PART II THE FossE ARDEATINE
5. RESISTANCES 97
1. Incipit
2. Open City, Captive City
3. Let Them Know They're Not the Masters of Rome.
4. Memories ofWar
5. Long Heroism: The Military Underground Front
6. Identities, Allegiances, Memory
7. Anzio, Forte Bravetta, via Tasso ...
6. VIA RA.SELLA 133
1. That Day
2. The Germans Who Sang
3. The Sleeping Dog: Cause and Effect
4. Lists, Posters, Orders, and other Missing Texts
5. Personal Responsibility and Collective Guilt
6. Politics ofTime
7. Should We Have Turned Ourselves In?
8. What Was the Use?
7- THE MASSACRE 173
1. The Jail
2. The Road
3. The Black Hole
4. Women Who Seek
5. Burying the Dead
6. Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Consecration?
PART III MEMORY
8. A STRANGE GRIEF:
DEATH, MOURNING AND SURVIVAL IN ROME 203
1. Survivors
2. Memory in Pieces
3. The Forms of Grief
9. POLITICS OF MEMORY 231
1. Hunger and Anger
2. People of the borgate
3. Ceremonies
4. A Farewell to Arms: Resistances and Silences
5. Memory on the Right
6. The Arch ofTitus
7. Retaliation and "Multiple Murder": The Twists and Turns of Judi
cial Memory
8. Failure of Justice
9. Gaeta, Celio, Bariloche
10. Failure ofJustice, Again
IO BORN LATER 277
1. Movements
2. Fragments
3. Epilogue: La Storta
Index 319
AcKNOWLEDGMENTs
This book was made possible by the help of many people. Marina Cau, Giusep
pina Incalza, Manuela Bagnetti, Cristiana Cervelloni, Marco Morini, Alessia
Guglielmi, Sara Antonelli, Lucia Antonelli, Ulrike Viccaro, Romina Cometti,
Giuliano Di Cerbo, and Sara Manafra either donated their time and labor to
help me transcribe tapes, or accepted substandard payment for it. The Associa
tion of the Families of the Martyrs ofltaly's Liberation (ANFIM), the Rome In
stitute for Italian History from Fascism to the Resistance (IRSIFAR), and the
Rome Center for Jewish Culture all helped me without interference. Many oth
ers (Emma Fiorentino Alatri, Luciano Chiolli, Piero De Gennaro, Massimo
Taborri, and the Montesacro Culture Club) helped me find contacts and
arrange interviews; Flavio Govoni granted permission to quote from the poems
of his grandfather Corrado Govoni. I also wish to mention persons from the
other side (Dr. Giachini, Erich Priebke's lawyer; and the leader of Alleanza
Nazionale, Gianfranco Fini), who if nothing more trusted my intellectual hon
esty. Deborah Gershenowitz and Linda Shopes carefully edited my manuscript
and suggested necessary changes and improvements; Bruce Jackson was gener
ous with suggestions and ideas. The final form of the manuscript owes much to
them all. Years of friendship and conversations with Ronald Grele and Luisa
Passerini contributed greatly to my approach. Mary Marshall Clark, director of
the Columbia Oral History Office, made it all possible in more than one way.
For editorial reasons, this text is significantly shorter than the original Italian
version. I refer readers who are interested in Rome's modern history and Italian
politics and culture (and in much more detailed background and bibliographic
references) to that text or to the Spanish translation to be published by Fundo
de Cultura Economica in Buenos Aires in 2003.
I am proud that none of this work was sponsored or supported in any way by
any institution or business. It is a sign that some things can be done if we really
want them to be.
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THE NARRATORS
This book is made of many voices. The narrators are its co-authors. This list in
cludes the basic data about each of them, listed in the following order:
First name, last name (double last names are listed under the last), year of
birth in parentheses (date of death is added if applicable), profession; political
qualifications (if any); relationship to the events at the Fosse Ardeatine and the
Resistance; and place and date of the interview(s). Unless otherwise indicated,
all interviews were recorded by the author in Rome. Place names are included
only if they refer to a historically relevant neighborhood in the city (e.g., Val
Melaina) or if the interview was recorded in a place other than Rome, in which
case the province is indicated in parentheses: e.g., Genzano (Rome).
Relatives of the men killed at the Fosse Ardeatine are italicized; former parti
sans are balded.
All the original tapes and transcripts are kept in the "Franco Coggiola
Archive" of the Circolo Gianni Bosio in Rome and can be consulted by request.
Elisabetta Agnini (1932), lawyer; niece of Ferdinanda Agnini, killed at the
Fosse Ardeatine; February 2, 1998.
Silvana Ajo Cagli (1927), Jewish bookstore owner; February 6, 1998.
Bruno Alfonsi (1942), carpenter; Giustiniana, July 10, 1998.
Roberto Bacchiocchi (1976), computer technician; Alleanza Nazionale local,
piazza Bologna, February 13, 1998.
Alberto Baldazzi (1923), office worker; nephew of Cencio Baldazzi, founder of
the Arditi del Popolo; partisan in the Partito d'Azione, friend and comrade of
many partisans killed at the Fosse Ardeatine; Trionfale, May 5, 1998.
Pasquale Balsamo (1924), journalist, partisan in the central GAP, participant in
the action at via Rasella; May 26, 1998.
Franco Bartolini (1920), varnisher; member of central GAP and Bandiera Rossa;
former official of the National Crafts Council; Garbatella, May 14 and 25, 1998.
Simone Benedetti (1975), vocational school graduate; conscientious objector;
Torbellamonaca, May 5, 1998.
Rosario Bentivegna (1922), physician; partisan in the central GAP, participant in
the action of via Rasella; February 6 and May 11, 1998.
THE ORDER HAS BEEN CARRIED OUT
Enrico Bertocci (1982), high school student; July 28, 1997.
Antonia Bianchi [pseudonym] (1976), English literature student; Novemberl3,
1997.
Leonardo Bocale (ca. 1930), wine farmer; Genzano (Rome), January 26, 1975.
Giuseppe Bolgia (1931), office worker; his mother was killed in the air raid of
July 19, 1943; his father Michele Bolgia was killed at the Fosse Ardeatine;
March 13, 1998.
Francesco Bonini (1976), sociology student; April13, 1998.
Gaetano Bordoni (n.d.), barber; interviewed by Alfredo Martini, San Lorenzo,
April 8, 1976.
Simone Bova (1982), high school student; September 12, 1997.
Antonello Branca (1936-2002), filmmaker; July 31, 1997.
Daniela Bruno (1982), high school student; February 17, 1998.
Lucio Bruscoli (1926), contractor; partisan; November 6, 1997.
Massimo C. [last name witheld on request] (1982), high school student; April
28, 1998.
Virginia Calanca (1925), confectioner; Trastevere, May 15, 1998.
Angelo Capecci (1922), city employee; brother of Mario and Alfredo Capecci,
killed at Forte Bravetta and the Fosse Ardeatine; Isola Farnese, September 6,
1998.
Gianfranco Capozio (1938), professor of Economic History; nephew ofOttavio
Capozio and Domenico Polli, killed at the Fosse Ardeatine; January 16,
1998.
Goffredo Cappelletti (1930), construction worker; nephew of Alberto Giac
chini and Giovanni Senesi, killed at the Fosse Ardeatine; November 18.1997.
Stefano Cappelli (1981), high school student; April6, 1998.
Carla Capponi, (1919-2000), Communist Party official, member of the central
GAP, participant in the action of via Rasella; May 28, 1997 and August 14,
1998.
Lucan Carpette (1928), painter; Testaccio, March 18, 1998.
Carlo Castellani (1928), employee of the Ministry of the Interior; son of Luigi
Castellani, killed at La Storta; March 6, 1998.
Rosa Castra (1967), physician; Torbellamonaca Center for Social Integration,
May 5, 1998.
Luigi Catemario (1967), estate administrator; descendent of the Tittoni family,
owners of Palazzo Tittoni in via Rasella; via Rasella, October 7, 1998.
Daniela Centi (1953), high school teacher; October 11, 1997.
Mauro Centi (1945), manager; October 11, 1997.
Nicola Centi (1978), engineering student; October 11, 1997.
Fabrizio Ceravolo (1982), high school student, February 17, 1998.