Hiding history
The Allies, the Resistance and the others in Occupied Italy 1943–1945
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8956000 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roger Absalom (Sheffield Hallam University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 111-131 |
| Publication date | 1995-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Historical Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0018246x00016307 |
| OpenAlex | W2168955385 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 4 |
Of the almost 80,000 prisoners-of-war held by Italy at the time of the Armistice with the Allies of 8 September 1943, more than half succeeded in escaping and almost 18,000 were not recaptured, largely due to the help offered spontaneously by Italian civilians. The records of the Allied Screening Commission preserved in Washington, and other official papers available in England, South Africa and Australia, complemented by oral history fieldwork among former escapers and their Italian helpers, reveal an Anglo-Italian epic of anti-heroism, whose protagonists nevertheless displayed great courage, ingenuity, perseverance and humanity . Exploration of this neglected but critical dimension of the secret history of the years of occupation and resistance between 1943 and 1945 throws new light upon the characteristics and the long-term potential of a submerged nation of peasants, charcoal-burners and shepherds. The article is an attempt to historicise their expression of an often overlooked but universal peasant culture of survival, far deeper at the time than political commitment, but not without ultimate political importance
Ancient history · Art · Courage · Destiny (ISS module · Economic history · EPIC · Genealogy · Humanity · Ingenuity · Literature · Peasant · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis
| Citations per year | 0.38 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Highly cited | No |