Foibe killings
Encyclopedia
The Foibe killings or Foibe massacres refers to the killings that took place mainly in Istria
during and shortly after World War II
from 1943 to 1949, perpetrated mainly by Yugoslav Partisans. The name derives from a local geological feature, a type of deep karst
sinkhole
called a foiba
. The term includes by extension killings in other subterranean formations, such as the Basovizza "foiba", which is not a true foiba but a mine shaft.
In Italy
the term foibe has, for some authors and scholars, taken on a symbolic meaning; for them it refers in a broader sense to all the disappearances or killings of Italian people in the territories occupied by Yugoslav forces. According to Raoul Pupo, "It is well known that the majority of the victims didn't end their lives in a Karst cave, but met their deaths on the road to deportation, as well as in jails or in Yugoslav concentration camps". The terror
spread by the disappearances and the killings eventually contributed to an atmosphere sufficient to cause the majority of the Italians of Istria
, Rijeka
and Zadar
to flee to other parts of Italy or the Free Territory of Trieste
.
Other authors have asserted that "[t]he post-war pursuit of the 'truth' of the foibe as a means of transcending Fascist/Anti-Fascist oppositions and promoting popular patriotism has not been the preserve of right-wing or neo-Fascist groups. Evocations of the 'Slav other' and of the terrors of the foibe made by state institutions, academics, amateur historians, journalists and the memorial landscape of everyday life were the backdrop to the post-war renegotiation of Italian national identity.
The estimated number of people killed is disputed and varies from hundreds to thousands.
took back the area from the Partisans, when around 70 local people were thrown into a foiba by the Germans after the bombing of a cinema.
Many of the bodies found in the Basovizza pit, and in the foibe of Corgnale, Grgar
, Plomin
, Komen
, Socerb
, Val Rosandra
, Cassorana, Labin
, Tinjan
, Cerenizza, Heki and others were ethnic Italians, but, according to Katia Pizzi, "despite evidence that Fascist soldiers had also used foibe as open-air cemeteries for opponents of the regime, only their equivalent use on the part of Yugoslav partisans appeared to arouse general censure, enriched as it was with the most gruesome details".
The number of those who died in foibe during and after the war is still unknown, difficult to establish and a matter of much controversy. Estimates range from hundreds to twenty thousand. According to Katia Pizzi: "In 1943 and 1945, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Italians, both partisans and civilians, were imprisoned and subsequently thrown alive by Yugoslav partisans into various chasms in the Karst region and the hinterland of Trieste and Gorizia". According to data gathered by a mixed Slovene-Italian historical commission established in 1993, "the violence was further manifested in hundreds of summary executions - victims were mostly thrown (still alive) into the Karst chasms (foibe) - and in the deportation of a great number of soldiers and civilians, who either wasted away or were killed during the deportation". Some historians like Raoul Pupo or Roberto Spazzali estimated the total number of victims at about 5,000, but this is again contested by many.
The episodes of 1945 occurred partly under conditions of guerrilla warfare
by Croatian and Slovenian Partisans against the Germans
, the Italian Social Republic
and their Slavic collaborators (the Chetniks
, the Ustaše
and Domobranci) and partly after the territory had been secured by Yugoslav army formations.
It was never possible to extract all the corpses from the foibe, some of which are deeper than several hundred meters. Until a few years ago it had only been possible to extract just a small number of bodies, less than six hundred, while other sources are attempting to compile lists of locations and possible victim numbers.
Since the early Middle Ages
, Latin and South Slavic
communities in Istria
and Dalmatia
lived peacefully side by side. The population was divided into urban-coastal communities (mainly Romance speakers
) and rural communities (mainly Slavic speakers
), with small minorities of Morlachs
and Istro-Romanians
. Sociologically, the population was divided into Latin middle-upper classes (bourgeoisie and aristocracy in coastal areas and in the towns) and Slavic lower classes (peasants and shepherds inland). Some contemporary Croat studies suggest that Dalmatia's towns were settled almost exclusively by Slavic populations since A.D. 1000 and ethnic Italians emigrated there after Venetian domination.
After the Napoleonic age
(1800–1815), nationalism
spread among the populations of Istria and Dalmatia, with each ethnic group starting to strive for the unification of their lands with the respective fatherland. To counter Italian irredentism, which was seen as a threat to the Habsburg Empire, the government decided to "encourage an influx of Slavic populations into the coastal region". Also, German-speaking population, coming from inner parts of the Empire and mainly working in the government bureaucracy, moved to Venetia increasing the German community of Trieste to 5%.
After World War I
, the whole of Istria was annexed by Italy, while Dalmatia (except Zadar) was annexed by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
. Each state began a policy of cultural homogenisation, a common practice in Europe at the time (see—for example—Germans
in Alsace-Lorraine
or in the Sudetes, Ukrainians
and Lithuanians
in eastern Poland
, Magyars in Transylvania
and Banat
etc.). The remnants of the Italian community in Dalmatia (which had started a slow but steady emigration to Istria and Venice
during the 19th Century) left their cities toward Zadar and the Italian mainland. Slavic communities in Istria, Trieste and the Gorizia countryside were subjected to a policy of Italianization after the end of the war.
The Italianization of the Slavic population worsened during the Fascist era, and was "exacerbated by a blatant policy of erasure of Slavic identity" and by "fascist terrorism not hampered by the authorities".
In 1927, the Italian Fascist Minister for Public Works Giuseppe Cobolli Gigli
wrote, with the pseudonym Giulio Italico, in the party magazine Gerarchia
, that "The Istrian muse named as foibe those places suitable for burial of enemies of the national [Italian] characteristics of Istria".
Previously, in 1919, in the book "Trieste, la fedele di Roma", the future minister had written a ditty in Venetian
: "A Pola xe l'Arena / la Foiba xe a Pisin / che i buta zo in quel fondo / chi ga certo morbin" ("In Pula there is the Arena, in Pazin the Foiba, into that abyss is thrown, whoever has some itching" [meaning 'bad thoughts']).
According to Galliano Fogar and Giovanni Miccoli there would be "the need to put the episodes in 1943 and 1945 within [the context of] a longer history of abuse and violence, which began with Fascism and with its policy of oppression of the minority Slovenes and Croats and continued with the Italian aggression on Yugoslavia, which culminated with the horrors of the Nazi repression against the Partisan movement".
became an independent country in 1991.
In 1993 a study titled Pola Istria Fiume 1943-1945 by Gaetano La Perna provided a detailed list of the victims of Yugoslav occupation (in September–October 1943 and from 1944 to the very end of the Italian presence in its former provinces) in the area. La Perna gave a list of 6,335 names (2,493 military, 3,842 civilians). The author considered this list "not complete". The study has, however, been the subject of criticism, in that its "list of over 6,000 dead includes not just those who disappeared in the foibe or Yugoslav concentration camps but also legitimate wartime casualties, executions after due process of Fascist officials, Germans or German collaborators. Finally, many Slovenes or Croats are listed as Italians because they happened to be Italian citizens; the fact that they were from the South Slav nations persecuted by the Italian Fascists does not seem to bother the author".
A 2002 joint report by the Rome "Society of Fiuman studies" (Società di Studi Fiumani) and the Zagreb "Croatian Institute of History" (Hrvatski institut za povijest) concluded that from Rijeka
and the surrounding area "no less than 500 persons of Italian nationality lost their lives between 3 May 1945 and 31 December 1947. To these we should add an unknown number of 'missing' (not less than a hundred) relegated into anonymity due to missing inventory in the Municipal Registries together with the relevant number of victims having (...) Croatian nationality (who were often, at least between 1940 and 1943, Italian citizenship) determined after the end of war by the Yugoslav communist regime."
In March 2006, the border municipality of Nova Gorica
in Slovenia
released a list of names of 1,048 citizens of Gorizia
(Nova Gorica's Italian half) who disappeared in May 1945 after being arrested by the Partisan 9th Corps. According to the Slovene government, "the list contains the names of persons arrested in May 1945 and whose destiny cannot be determined with certainty or whose death cannot be confirmed".
aimed at eliminating potential enemies of communist Yugoslav rule, which would have included members of German and Italian fascist units, Italian officers and civil servants
, parts of the Italian elite
who opposed both communism and fascism (including the leadership of Italian anti-fascist partisan organizations), Slovenian and Croatian anti-communists
, collaborators and radical nationalists
.
Others see the main motive for the killings as retribution for the years of Italian repression, forced Italianization
, suppression of Slavic sentiments and killings performed by Italian authorities during the war, not just in the concentration camps (such as Rab
and Gonars
), but also in reprisal
s often undertaken by the fascists.
However, others point out Josip Broz Tito
's political aim of adding the Istrian territories as far as Trieste
and the city itself to the new Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The ethnic map of the area could potentially be a decisive factor in a treaty of peace with Italy
and for this reason, according to some Italian historians, the reduction of the ethnic Italian population was held desirable. However, the Istrian exodus
, which reduced the Italian population of Istria and Dalmatia, started before the killings had spread.
Pamela Ballinger in her book History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans wrote
The report by the mixed Italian-Slovenian commission describes the circumstances of the 1945 killings as:
Another reason for the neglect of the foibe can be found in the high degree of ideology
historically present in the public debate in Italy. Many Istrians concealed their origins for fear of being identified by other communist Italians, who tended to believe that Italian Istrians who left after the war likely co-operated with the Fascists, since they were abandoning a "Socialist heaven".
Moreover, when the Cold War
broke out, in order to maintain good relations with Tito, the foibe were a dangerous topic to broach.
So, the Italian government tacitly "exchanged" the impunity of the Italians accused by Yugoslavia for the renunciation to investigate the foibe killings. Italy never extradited or prosecuted some 1,200 Italian Army officers, government officials or former Fascist Party members accused of war crimes by Yugoslavia, Ethiopia
, Greece
and other occupied countries and remitted to the United Nations War Crimes Commission
. On the other side, Belgrade didn't insist too much in requesting the prosecution of alleged Italian war criminals in order to avoid investigations on the foibe and responsibility on their part.
Thus, both Italian war crimes
and Yugoslav war and post-war mass killings were forgotten in order to maintain a "good neighbour" policy.
. Others assert that the number of victims was too small for this to be true, and that the killings were mostly restricted to fascists, both military
and civilian, who might have committed war crime
s during World War II in Yugoslavia.
Silvio Berlusconi
's coalition government brought the issue back into open discussion: the Italian Parliament
(with the support of the vast majority of the represented parties) made February 10 National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe
, first celebrated in 2005 with exhibitions and observances throughout Italy (especially in Trieste
). The occasion is held in memory of innocents killed and forced to leave their homes, with little support from their home country. In Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
's words: Time has come for thoughtful remembrance to take the place of bitter resentment. Moreover, for the first time, leaders from the Italian Left, such as Walter Veltroni
, visited the Basovizza foiba and admitted the culpability of the Left in covering up the subject for decades. However, the conciliatory moves by Ciampi and Veltroni were not endorsed by all Italian political groups.
Nowadays, a large part of the Italian Left acknowledges the nature of the foibe killings, as attested by some declarations of Luigi Malabarba, Senator
for the Communist Refoundation Party
, during the parliamentary debate on the institution of the National Memorial Day: "In 1945 there was a ruthless policy of exterminating opponents. Here, one must again recall Stalinism
to understand what Tito's well-organized troops did. (...) Yugoslav Communism had deeply assimilated a return to nationalism
that was inherent to the idea of 'Socialism in One Country
'. (...) The war, which had begun as anti-fascist, became anti-German and anti-Italian."
However, Malabarba and his party maintained that discussion of the massacres was being manipulated by the right-wing parties and that the new Memorial day was part of a general attempt to criminalize anti-fascism and Italian Resistance
.
Italian president Giorgio Napolitano
took an official speech during celebration of the "Memorial Day of Foibe Massacres and Istrian-Dalmatian exodus" in which he stated:
The Croatian President Stipe Mesić immediately responded in writing, stating that:
The incident was resolved in a few days after diplomatic contacts between the two presidents at the Italian foreign ministry. On February 14, the Office of the President of Croatia
issued a press statement:
Report of the Italian-Slovene commission of historians (in three languages)
Slovene-Italian Relations 1880-1956 Report 2000 Relazioni Italo-Slovene 1880-1956 Relazione 2000 Slovensko-italijanski odnosi 1880-1956 Poročilo 2000 Operazione foibe a Trieste by Claudia Cernigoi Le foibe Il punto sulle foibe e sulle deportazioni nelle regioni orientali (1943-45), by Gian Luigi Falabrino Site connected to Lega Nazionale, claiming 16,500 victims of "slavo-communist" terror. The truth about the foibe by Marco Ottanelli. The article claims that crimes on the Yugoslav side were negligible compared to war crimes by the Nazis and Fascists before and during the war.
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
during and shortly after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
from 1943 to 1949, perpetrated mainly by Yugoslav Partisans. The name derives from a local geological feature, a type of deep karst
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
sinkhole
Sinkhole
A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes — the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes for example in sandstone...
called a foiba
Foiba
Foiba is a type of deep natural sinkhole, doline, sink and is a collapsed portion of bedrock above a void. Sinks may be a sheer vertical opening into a cave, or a shallow depression of many acres which are common in the Kras region, a karstic plateau region shared by Italy, Slovenia and...
. The term includes by extension killings in other subterranean formations, such as the Basovizza "foiba", which is not a true foiba but a mine shaft.
In Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
the term foibe has, for some authors and scholars, taken on a symbolic meaning; for them it refers in a broader sense to all the disappearances or killings of Italian people in the territories occupied by Yugoslav forces. According to Raoul Pupo, "It is well known that the majority of the victims didn't end their lives in a Karst cave, but met their deaths on the road to deportation, as well as in jails or in Yugoslav concentration camps". The terror
Terror
Terror may refer to:*Fear, an emotional response to threats and danger*Terror, a political strategy of the asymmetrical use of threats and violence against enemies using means that fall outside the routine forms of political struggle operating within some current regime*Terrorism, the fact of...
spread by the disappearances and the killings eventually contributed to an atmosphere sufficient to cause the majority of the Italians of Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
, Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
and Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
to flee to other parts of Italy or the Free Territory of Trieste
Free Territory of Trieste
The Free Territory of Trieste was to be a city-state situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II and provisionally administered by an appointed military governor commanding the peacekeeping United...
.
Other authors have asserted that "[t]he post-war pursuit of the 'truth' of the foibe as a means of transcending Fascist/Anti-Fascist oppositions and promoting popular patriotism has not been the preserve of right-wing or neo-Fascist groups. Evocations of the 'Slav other' and of the terrors of the foibe made by state institutions, academics, amateur historians, journalists and the memorial landscape of everyday life were the backdrop to the post-war renegotiation of Italian national identity.
The estimated number of people killed is disputed and varies from hundreds to thousands.
Events
The first (very disputed) claims of people being thrown into foibe date back to 1943, after the WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
took back the area from the Partisans, when around 70 local people were thrown into a foiba by the Germans after the bombing of a cinema.
Many of the bodies found in the Basovizza pit, and in the foibe of Corgnale, Grgar
Grgar
Grgar is a village in western Slovenia in the municipality of Nova Gorica. It is located under Mount Sveta Gora, above the Soča Valley and beneath the Banjšice Plateau....
, Plomin
Plomin
Plomin is a village in the Croatian part of Istria, situated approximately 11 km north of Labin, on an 80 meters high hill. It is a popular destination for tourists traveling through Istria by road....
, Komen
Komen
Komen is a settlement and a municipality in Slovenia. It is located on the Kras plateau in the Slovenian Littoral.-History:In the Middle Ages, it was first part of the Duchy of Friuli and in the 13th century it was included in the County of Gorizia. Komen was first mentioned in a document from 1247...
, Socerb
Socerb
Socerb is a village in the Koper Municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.-Overview:It lies on the border with Italy and is dominated by the ruins of Socerb Castle built on a rocky cliff above the village....
, Val Rosandra
Val Rosandra
Val Rosandra is a valley centered on the river with the same name in the municipality of Dolina in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, between the city of Trieste and the border with Slovenia. It is also included into a natural park, mostly set around the river Rosandra and the...
, Cassorana, Labin
Labin
Labin is a town in Istria, Croatia, with a town population of 6,884 and 11,703 in the greater municipality ....
, Tinjan
Tinjan
Tinjan is a village and municipality in Istria, Croatia. The population is 1,800 , 400 pf whom live in the eponymous village. It is 50 km north of Pula and 10 km southwest of Pazin, in the Draga valley. The Coat of Arms of Tinjan is azure on a base vert a tower argent behind walls of the...
, Cerenizza, Heki and others were ethnic Italians, but, according to Katia Pizzi, "despite evidence that Fascist soldiers had also used foibe as open-air cemeteries for opponents of the regime, only their equivalent use on the part of Yugoslav partisans appeared to arouse general censure, enriched as it was with the most gruesome details".
The number of those who died in foibe during and after the war is still unknown, difficult to establish and a matter of much controversy. Estimates range from hundreds to twenty thousand. According to Katia Pizzi: "In 1943 and 1945, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Italians, both partisans and civilians, were imprisoned and subsequently thrown alive by Yugoslav partisans into various chasms in the Karst region and the hinterland of Trieste and Gorizia". According to data gathered by a mixed Slovene-Italian historical commission established in 1993, "the violence was further manifested in hundreds of summary executions - victims were mostly thrown (still alive) into the Karst chasms (foibe) - and in the deportation of a great number of soldiers and civilians, who either wasted away or were killed during the deportation". Some historians like Raoul Pupo or Roberto Spazzali estimated the total number of victims at about 5,000, but this is again contested by many.
The episodes of 1945 occurred partly under conditions of guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
by Croatian and Slovenian Partisans against the Germans
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, the Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
and their Slavic collaborators (the Chetniks
Chetniks
Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
, the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
and Domobranci) and partly after the territory had been secured by Yugoslav army formations.
It was never possible to extract all the corpses from the foibe, some of which are deeper than several hundred meters. Until a few years ago it had only been possible to extract just a small number of bodies, less than six hundred, while other sources are attempting to compile lists of locations and possible victim numbers.
Background
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Latin and South Slavic
South Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
communities in Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
and Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
lived peacefully side by side. The population was divided into urban-coastal communities (mainly Romance speakers
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
) and rural communities (mainly Slavic speakers
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
), with small minorities of Morlachs
Morlachs
Morlachs were a population of Vlachs. In another version their name comes from the slavic terms of "morski-Vlasi" or Sea Vlachs...
and Istro-Romanians
Istro-Romanians
Istro-Romanians / Istrorumeni are an ethnic group living in northeastern Istria, currently spanning over a small area of Croatia and a...
. Sociologically, the population was divided into Latin middle-upper classes (bourgeoisie and aristocracy in coastal areas and in the towns) and Slavic lower classes (peasants and shepherds inland). Some contemporary Croat studies suggest that Dalmatia's towns were settled almost exclusively by Slavic populations since A.D. 1000 and ethnic Italians emigrated there after Venetian domination.
After the Napoleonic age
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
(1800–1815), nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
spread among the populations of Istria and Dalmatia, with each ethnic group starting to strive for the unification of their lands with the respective fatherland. To counter Italian irredentism, which was seen as a threat to the Habsburg Empire, the government decided to "encourage an influx of Slavic populations into the coastal region". Also, German-speaking population, coming from inner parts of the Empire and mainly working in the government bureaucracy, moved to Venetia increasing the German community of Trieste to 5%.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the whole of Istria was annexed by Italy, while Dalmatia (except Zadar) was annexed by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. Each state began a policy of cultural homogenisation, a common practice in Europe at the time (see—for example—Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
in Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
or in the Sudetes, Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and Lithuanians
Lithuanians
Lithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
in eastern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Magyars in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
and Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
etc.). The remnants of the Italian community in Dalmatia (which had started a slow but steady emigration to Istria and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
during the 19th Century) left their cities toward Zadar and the Italian mainland. Slavic communities in Istria, Trieste and the Gorizia countryside were subjected to a policy of Italianization after the end of the war.
The Italianization of the Slavic population worsened during the Fascist era, and was "exacerbated by a blatant policy of erasure of Slavic identity" and by "fascist terrorism not hampered by the authorities".
In 1927, the Italian Fascist Minister for Public Works Giuseppe Cobolli Gigli
Giuseppe Cobolli Gigli
Giusepppe Cobolli Gigli was an Italian politician, member of Benito Mussolini's fascist government from 1935 to 1939 as minister of Public Works.- The dispute about the origins :...
wrote, with the pseudonym Giulio Italico, in the party magazine Gerarchia
Gerarchia
Gerarchia was a magazine/journal founded in January 1922 by Benito Mussolini.Mussolini was listed on the magazine's masthead as its editor-in-chief. However, the magazine's actual editor, from its founding, was Margherita Sarfatti...
, that "The Istrian muse named as foibe those places suitable for burial of enemies of the national [Italian] characteristics of Istria".
Previously, in 1919, in the book "Trieste, la fedele di Roma", the future minister had written a ditty in Venetian
Venetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
: "A Pola xe l'Arena / la Foiba xe a Pisin / che i buta zo in quel fondo / chi ga certo morbin" ("In Pula there is the Arena, in Pazin the Foiba, into that abyss is thrown, whoever has some itching" [meaning 'bad thoughts']).
According to Galliano Fogar and Giovanni Miccoli there would be "the need to put the episodes in 1943 and 1945 within [the context of] a longer history of abuse and violence, which began with Fascism and with its policy of oppression of the minority Slovenes and Croats and continued with the Italian aggression on Yugoslavia, which culminated with the horrors of the Nazi repression against the Partisan movement".
Investigations
No investigation of the crimes had been initiated either by Italy, Yugoslavia or any international bodies in the post-war period until after SloveniaSlovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
became an independent country in 1991.
In 1993 a study titled Pola Istria Fiume 1943-1945 by Gaetano La Perna provided a detailed list of the victims of Yugoslav occupation (in September–October 1943 and from 1944 to the very end of the Italian presence in its former provinces) in the area. La Perna gave a list of 6,335 names (2,493 military, 3,842 civilians). The author considered this list "not complete". The study has, however, been the subject of criticism, in that its "list of over 6,000 dead includes not just those who disappeared in the foibe or Yugoslav concentration camps but also legitimate wartime casualties, executions after due process of Fascist officials, Germans or German collaborators. Finally, many Slovenes or Croats are listed as Italians because they happened to be Italian citizens; the fact that they were from the South Slav nations persecuted by the Italian Fascists does not seem to bother the author".
A 2002 joint report by the Rome "Society of Fiuman studies" (Società di Studi Fiumani) and the Zagreb "Croatian Institute of History" (Hrvatski institut za povijest) concluded that from Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
and the surrounding area "no less than 500 persons of Italian nationality lost their lives between 3 May 1945 and 31 December 1947. To these we should add an unknown number of 'missing' (not less than a hundred) relegated into anonymity due to missing inventory in the Municipal Registries together with the relevant number of victims having (...) Croatian nationality (who were often, at least between 1940 and 1943, Italian citizenship) determined after the end of war by the Yugoslav communist regime."
In March 2006, the border municipality of Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica
Nova Gorica ; 21,082 ; 31,000 ) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy...
in Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
released a list of names of 1,048 citizens of Gorizia
Gorizia
Gorizia is a town and comune in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and it is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin...
(Nova Gorica's Italian half) who disappeared in May 1945 after being arrested by the Partisan 9th Corps. According to the Slovene government, "the list contains the names of persons arrested in May 1945 and whose destiny cannot be determined with certainty or whose death cannot be confirmed".
Alleged motivations
It has been alleged that the killings were part of a purgePurge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
aimed at eliminating potential enemies of communist Yugoslav rule, which would have included members of German and Italian fascist units, Italian officers and civil servants
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, parts of the Italian elite
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
who opposed both communism and fascism (including the leadership of Italian anti-fascist partisan organizations), Slovenian and Croatian anti-communists
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
, collaborators and radical nationalists
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
.
Others see the main motive for the killings as retribution for the years of Italian repression, forced Italianization
Italianization
Italianization or Italianisation is a term used to describe a process of cultural assimilation in which ethnically non or partially Italian people or territory become Italian. The process can be voluntary or forced...
, suppression of Slavic sentiments and killings performed by Italian authorities during the war, not just in the concentration camps (such as Rab
Rab concentration camp
The Rab concentration camp was an Italian concentration and internment camp on the Adriatic island of Rab, now part of the Republic of Croatia, during World War II. The camp was located at...
and Gonars
Gonars concentration camp
On February 23, 1942 the Italian fascist regime established a concentration camp in Gonars, a town with approx. 4,600 inhabitants near Palmanova in the Province of Udine in northeastern Italy.Most of the prisoners were from present day Slovenia and Croatia...
), but also in reprisal
Reprisal
In international law, a reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Reprisals in the laws of war are extremely limited, as they commonly breached the rights of civilians, an action outlawed by the Geneva...
s often undertaken by the fascists.
However, others point out Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's political aim of adding the Istrian territories as far as Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
and the city itself to the new Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The ethnic map of the area could potentially be a decisive factor in a treaty of peace with Italy
Treaty of peace with Italy (1947)
The Treaty of Peace with Italy was a treaty signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, between Italy and the victorious powers of World War II, formally ending the hostilities...
and for this reason, according to some Italian historians, the reduction of the ethnic Italian population was held desirable. However, the Istrian exodus
Istrian exodus
The expression Istrian exodus or Istrian-Dalmatian exodus is used to indicate the departure of ethnic Italians from Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia , after World War II. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia , today they are parts of the Republics of...
, which reduced the Italian population of Istria and Dalmatia, started before the killings had spread.
Pamela Ballinger in her book History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans wrote
The report by the mixed Italian-Slovenian commission describes the circumstances of the 1945 killings as:
Post-War silence
The foibe have been a neglected subject in mainstream political debate in Italy, Yugoslavia and former-Yugoslav nations, only recently garnering attention with the publication of several books and historical studies. It is thought that after World War II, while Yugoslav politicians rejected any alleged crime, Italian politicians wanted to direct the country's attention toward the future and away from the idea that Italy was, in fact, a defeated nation.Another reason for the neglect of the foibe can be found in the high degree of ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
historically present in the public debate in Italy. Many Istrians concealed their origins for fear of being identified by other communist Italians, who tended to believe that Italian Istrians who left after the war likely co-operated with the Fascists, since they were abandoning a "Socialist heaven".
Moreover, when the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
broke out, in order to maintain good relations with Tito, the foibe were a dangerous topic to broach.
So, the Italian government tacitly "exchanged" the impunity of the Italians accused by Yugoslavia for the renunciation to investigate the foibe killings. Italy never extradited or prosecuted some 1,200 Italian Army officers, government officials or former Fascist Party members accused of war crimes by Yugoslavia, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and other occupied countries and remitted to the United Nations War Crimes Commission
United Nations War Crimes Commission
The United Nations War Crimes Commission was a commission of the United Nations that investigated allegations of war crimes committed by the Nazi Germany and its allies in World War II.The Commission began its work at the behest of the United States and the other Allied nations in 1943, prior to...
. On the other side, Belgrade didn't insist too much in requesting the prosecution of alleged Italian war criminals in order to avoid investigations on the foibe and responsibility on their part.
Thus, both Italian war crimes
Italian war crimes
Italian war crimes are a well documented but poorly publicized aspect of the history of Italy during the 20th century.-War crimes:During the first half of the 20th century, Italy was involved in several colonial wars, notably against the then only independent African states, Ethiopia , and in World...
and Yugoslav war and post-war mass killings were forgotten in order to maintain a "good neighbour" policy.
Re-emergence of the issue
For several Italian historians these killings were the beginning of organized ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
. Others assert that the number of victims was too small for this to be true, and that the killings were mostly restricted to fascists, both military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
and civilian, who might have committed war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s during World War II in Yugoslavia.
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
's coalition government brought the issue back into open discussion: the Italian Parliament
Parliament of Italy
The Parliament of Italy is the national parliament of Italy. It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members . The Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members is the lower house. The Senate of the Republic is the upper house and has 315 members .Since 2005, a party list electoral law is being...
(with the support of the vast majority of the represented parties) made February 10 National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe
National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe
National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe, or Giorno del ricordo in Italian language, is an Italian celebration for the memory of the victims of the Foibe and the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus.-Law's motivation:...
, first celebrated in 2005 with exhibitions and observances throughout Italy (especially in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
). The occasion is held in memory of innocents killed and forced to leave their homes, with little support from their home country. In Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
's words: Time has come for thoughtful remembrance to take the place of bitter resentment. Moreover, for the first time, leaders from the Italian Left, such as Walter Veltroni
Walter Veltroni
Walter Veltroni, Knight Grand Cross, is an Italian writer, journalist and politician, who served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the centre-left opposition, until his resignation on 17 February 2009. He served as Mayor of Rome from 2001 to 2008.-Biography:Walter Veltroni was...
, visited the Basovizza foiba and admitted the culpability of the Left in covering up the subject for decades. However, the conciliatory moves by Ciampi and Veltroni were not endorsed by all Italian political groups.
Nowadays, a large part of the Italian Left acknowledges the nature of the foibe killings, as attested by some declarations of Luigi Malabarba, Senator
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
for the Communist Refoundation Party
Communist Refoundation Party
The Communist Refoundation Party is a communist Italian political party. Its current secretary is Paolo Ferrero....
, during the parliamentary debate on the institution of the National Memorial Day: "In 1945 there was a ruthless policy of exterminating opponents. Here, one must again recall Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
to understand what Tito's well-organized troops did. (...) Yugoslav Communism had deeply assimilated a return to nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
that was inherent to the idea of 'Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin...
'. (...) The war, which had begun as anti-fascist, became anti-German and anti-Italian."
However, Malabarba and his party maintained that discussion of the massacres was being manipulated by the right-wing parties and that the new Memorial day was part of a general attempt to criminalize anti-fascism and Italian Resistance
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
.
Italian president Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano is an Italian politician who has been the 11th President of Italy since 2006. A long-time member of the Italian Communist Party and later the Democrats of the Left, he served as President of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994 and as Minister of the Interior from 1996 to...
took an official speech during celebration of the "Memorial Day of Foibe Massacres and Istrian-Dalmatian exodus" in which he stated:
The Croatian President Stipe Mesić immediately responded in writing, stating that:
The incident was resolved in a few days after diplomatic contacts between the two presidents at the Italian foreign ministry. On February 14, the Office of the President of Croatia
Office of the President of Croatia
The Office of the President of the Republic consists of the support staff of the President of Croatia, as well as various advisors to the president. As of 2008, the office employed 170 people. The Office of the President was created by a presidential decree by Franjo Tuđman in January 1991. The...
issued a press statement:
See also
- List of massacres in Yugoslavia
- Istrian exodusIstrian exodusThe expression Istrian exodus or Istrian-Dalmatian exodus is used to indicate the departure of ethnic Italians from Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia , after World War II. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia , today they are parts of the Republics of...
- Yugoslavia during the Second World War
- Il Cuore nel PozzoIl Cuore nel PozzoIl Cuore nel Pozzo is a TV movie, produced by state broadcaster RAI, that focuses on the escape of a group of children from Tito's partisans in the aftermath of World War II, as they start an ethnic cleansing of all Italians from Istria and the Julian March...
- Carso
- Norma CossettoNorma CossettoNorma Cossetto was an Italian victim of foibe massacres and she is renowned personage because she was decorated with Gold medal for civilian bravery in memory.-Biography:...
- Francesco BonifacioFrancesco BonifacioFrancesco Giovanni Bonifacio was an Italian Catholic priest, killed by the Yugoslav communists in Grisignana ; he was beatified in Trieste on .-Early life:...
Further reading
History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans by Pamela BallingerIn Trieste, Investigation of Brutal Era Is BlockedReport of the Italian-Slovene commission of historians (in three languages)
Slovene-Italian Relations 1880-1956 Report 2000 Relazioni Italo-Slovene 1880-1956 Relazione 2000 Slovensko-italijanski odnosi 1880-1956 Poročilo 2000 Operazione foibe a Trieste by Claudia Cernigoi Le foibe Il punto sulle foibe e sulle deportazioni nelle regioni orientali (1943-45), by Gian Luigi Falabrino Site connected to Lega Nazionale, claiming 16,500 victims of "slavo-communist" terror. The truth about the foibe by Marco Ottanelli. The article claims that crimes on the Yugoslav side were negligible compared to war crimes by the Nazis and Fascists before and during the war.