Much like the relationship between the head cheerleader and the starting quarterback in High School it's complicated and simple all at the same time.

One of the first things to keep in mind is the unreliability of first hand accounts, along with the efforts that a people will make after the fact to focus on a memory that plays themselves in a better light. Simon Kuper describes the difficulty this plays into the memory of history when he stated he found at the Dutch Institute for War Documentation in Amsterdam that there were six and a half shelves of books on the Dutch Resistance, and just half a shelf on Dutch Collaboration. The conclusion he had presented to him rings well for Italy and the view that they want to have on the war, "All countries have myths about having been good, and they always turn out to be lies."¹

The story of resistance of the Italian people is not one that began heavily under the thrall of Fascism as they were a heavy minority that had been pushed significantly underground in the face of a nominally popular Fascist government⁶ . Instead, the story of resistance is the story against the German occupation, which is when Italy did in fact enter into a full blown civil war.² To get to when the switch was flipped, we need to go back through what got us there.

A good of starting point as any is when Italy and Germany signed the Pact of Steel in May 1939 which effectively gave Hitler an blank check for Italian support if a war broke out. Mussolini did not want to be dragged into Germany's wars as even he knew how woefully unprepared his military would be in such a case^2, and in fact was trying to present himself as a grand mediator between Poland and Germany³ so as to save face in the face of all the blustering he had done up to this point. Between September 1939 and May 1940 il Duce would constantly change his mind between appearing to be the grand "nonbelligerent" ("neutral" was an unfascist word and not manly), to stating that his and the Italian people's honor demanded they march with Germany, to warning Holland and Belgium of German attack, to demanding mobilization of the Italian army, to writing to Hitler personally that peace was the sensible option, to finally declaring war so that he wouldn't be late enough to share in the spoils and glory.² Plus, there was the fear that Hitler would punish Italy for the way that Mussolini had attempted to stand in the way of the Austrian Anschluss.⁴

Italy's misadventures in the war are well documented and were completely hamstrung by Mussolini's inability to ever make up his damn mind about what to do.⁴ Italians - regardless of pro- or anti- fascist sensibilities - fought loyally for their country but the war was quickly unpopular, with the public not in support of the cause.¹ Mussolini himself had begun telling his ministers that he foresaw that the future held a potential conflict between Italy and Germany which is why he held 15 divisions in reserve on the Italian border. As Smith says, "this was crazy talk." By this point Italy found itself as more or less an occupied power under Germany's nominal control with many of it's workers have to be shipped to Germany to replace those sent to Germany's front lines. They were not treated well. At all.² Reports in July 1941 had already started to filter in to Mussolini that antifascism was starting to root in, and strikes at factories soon started spreading, and the Party itself began to devour itself as discontentment suffered the nation.² This is where you first start seeing signs of a 'civil war' brewing in Italy as the lower classes began actively resisting. With news reaching of death, imprisonment, and defeat abroad - and especially of the fact that the Allies had bombed Rome² - the King eventually stepped in with the Fascist Grand Council to arrest Mussolini, and dissolve the Fascist party.⁵

It is important for what comes next to understand that Mussolini losing power and being arrested by the Carabinieri was heavily popular, and there literally was rejoicing in the streets when his arrest was announced over the radio.⁶ It’s also important to note that very quickly the new government and King fled south to Brindisi, leaving without giving orders to the Army. The Germans quickly swept in, occupying all the way down to Naples - where an insurrection of the people were the only thing that allowed the Allies to gain a toehold.² It is here you see the curiosity of memory take hold, as when the new Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies they essentially were admitting defeat.

It would be very strange if France celebrated the defeat at Sedan in 1870 or if in the USA they did the same for Pearl Harbour. Yet this is what happens in Italy with the 8 September. —Giovanni Belardelli,

Indeed, more than one monument rejoices that this is when “THE PEOPLE AND THE ARMY JOINED TOGETHER TO BEGIN THE LIBERATION STRUGGLE.” This is where the Italian memory of brave resistance in the face of Fascism takes hold, as the people were raped, priceless artifacts obliterated⁵ in Naples and Rome, and the Italian army more or less disarmed and evacuated to Germany for forced labor^2. The Germans deliberately started a Malaria epidemic in the Lazio region⁵ as Partisan Brigades began to fight alongside the Allies for their country^2. The resistance against fascism was strong, but it was open resistance against the German brand, and not of the Italian one.

We are once again brought to the quote I brought at the beginning. Italy after the war concentrated heavily on it’s resistance from the years of 1943-1945 in which scores of civilians, and military died resisting the German occupation as the Allies fought their way North.⁵ In many communities the names of the resistance fighters were added to the monuments from the first World War as a way of countering the memory of the Fascist martyrs that had been created after the end of the First World War - to show that this conflict between the left and the Fascists was on a continuum.⁵ What none of this does, however, is explain the years in-between in which Italy provided Germany with roughly 11% of its arms^4, or actively resisted until the situation with Mussolini had become untenable.

The truth, unfortunately, is complicated.

1. Kuper, Simon. Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe during the Second World War.
2. Smith, Denis Mack. Modern Italy: A Political History.
3. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - May 6, 1939
4. Sadkovich, James J. "Understanding Defeat: Reappraising Italy's Role in World War II." Journal of Contemporary History
5. Foot, John. Italy's Divided Memory.
6. Whittam, John. Fascist Italy.