Italy has hundreds of memorials commemorating the nation’s struggle for liberation during World War Two. Italians have paid particular attention to memorializing those who lost their lives as resistance fighters and this project focuses on comparing Italian resistance fighters’ memorials to the memorials created by the allied nations in Italy. and the central question that is the focus of this project is What memorials are out there to commemorate fallen Italian resistance fighters of World War Two and why do these sites matter the most in historical memory? Aline Sierp writes, “The way a nation selects what should be publicly remembered or forgotten, the way the past is critically reflected upon, and the way interpretations of those past experiences are transmitted from one generation to the next, can tell a lot about the social and political framework that structures contemporary society.”[1]
This project has collected data on allied and Italian monument locations, the dates of the monument’s creation, its origin, whether the monument is allied or Italian, and which organization is taking care of the monument. This data was collected so that it shows the varied legacy and historical memories the Italian people have concerning the liberation and resistance movements throughout Italy, and to understand the cultural and historical significance these monuments play in contemporary Italian society. This project was also compiled to understand the importance of the monument to the local Italian population and tourists who visit them.
In order to understand the central question of the location of each of these memorials we first must map out the location of each memorial and display its location via Carto and that is what this project has done. In order to understand precisely what geographic locations and the corresponding events the Italians and the allied nations have chosen to memorialize data was gathered that reflected the location of each memorial as well as a description of the memorial. This data was found in multiple sources, however, a comprehensive list can be found in traveler’s guidebooks, and memorial organizations’ websites, and was mapped utilizing Carto.
The allied data set comes from Anne Leslie Saunders’s A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy[2]. Saunders has compiled a comprehensive guidebook with two hundred memorials in total dedicated to various allied and Italian resistance engagements with the Nazis. Saunders begins each chapter with an overview of the battle in each area with respect to allied advances, Italian and German fortifications, and counter-offensives. Saunders then inserts longitude and latitude coordinates along with context for each specific memorial site. She then reviews the significance of the memorial to the people of that location and then identifies it as a massacre site, a battlefield, a cemetery, or a statue. Saunders then describes the overall battle movements through each memorial site, whether the memorial is dedicated to any specific allied nation, whether the site is dedicated to any American unit, or whether the site is dedicated to Italian Resistance members.
This particular book was chosen as it focuses on the allied nation’s monuments strictly within Italy and it utilizes information from such organizations as the United Kingdom’s Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). The CWGC was set up to manage the WWI and WWII graves, cemeteries, and memorials of the Commonwealth forces. The book has broken down each nation’s cemeteries and listed each respectively in their own chapters, creating a notable distinction between nations and the precise location of their memorials within Italy. For example, United States cemeteries can be found in chapters 6 and 9, while Poland’s cemeteries can be found in chapters 5, 14, and 18.
The data that Professor Saunders has collected has proven to be invaluable as she has indicated which country has created what memorial, and its precise longitude and latitude coordinates, as well as a brief description of the battle that occurred at each memorial site and lastly she has translated any inscriptions on these memorials from Italian to English. This data can be used to illustrate allied intentions with war memorials so that a study can be conducted on the allied war effort and what the various battle sites, individuals, military units, and grave sites memorial commissions felt was important to honor.
The second set of data that was collected for this project comes from the National Association of Partisans in Italy (ANPI)[3]. The ANPI has collected location data for all of the memorials dedicated to the Italian partisan and resistance fighters through its school education committee. The ANPI has compiled an interactive google map as well as various educator cards that describe each memorial, its physical location, and a brief description of the resistance action that had been carried out in this area. Though the map is comprehensive with respect to the resistance memorials for the Italians, it doesn’t display the allied war memorial effort making it a unique data set that only shows Italian memorials to the resistance within Italy. This distinction indicates the significance of memorials to Italians compared to the allied memorial effort as a whole.
The use of Carto in this research project helps to visually represent data that clearly marks the Italian monuments and the allied monuments throughout Italy that would not be as clear on a physical map. Carto also displays that data in an interactive way to raise awareness of space and place and opens the investigation into if these memorials have seen a change in continuity over time. For example, the data revealed via Carto that Italian memorials to the resistance are predominantly in the northern half of Italy, while simultaneously showing that the allied memorials are prevalent in both the extreme Northern and extreme Southern regions indicating that a concentrated effort to remember only Italian resistance fighters didn’t occur until the fall of Rome, the data also indicates that the allied war effort was largely unaided by the Italian resistance as the allies made their way through southern Italy. The data also reveals that no central control of the resistance existed within Italy and the allies may have had a large hand in forming resistance parties in Italy after the liberation of Rome.
Carto mapping of these memorial sites not only reveals the important role geography may play in the formation of the resistance, but it also helps to shape the cultural legacy these memorials have had on the Italian people as well as reveals the impact these memorials may have had on thousands of tourists who visit them every year. Mapping in Carto helps us to understand place and space’s role in building memorials better. Carto mapping also assists in the exploration of much broader implications with respect to the cultural legacy of memorials between the allied efforts and the efforts of the Italian resistance and reveals how those legacies are remembered both by the allied nations and the Italian people. This data also points to larger issues such as the Italian’s lack of response to the allied invasion of Sicily and Southern Italy, and the allies’ intentions with the formation of the resistance after the liberation of Rome, however, more research will be needed in order to address these specific issues.
[1] Sierp, Aline. “Remembering to forget? Memory and democracy in Italy and Germany.” (2009).
[2] Saunders, Anne L. A Travel Guide to World War II Sites in Italy. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. South Carolina: Travel Guide Press, 2016, 10-153.
[3] Liparoto, Andrea. Places of Memory and Resistance. Last modified May 20, 2020. https://www.anpi.it/luoghi-di-memoria/.
