The Jewish Brigade Group and Italy: A Political and Historiographical Quarrel

Abstract

In recent years, the use and abuse of the past for political ends has emerged as one of history's new frontiers. 2 As historian Nicola Gallerano notes, this occurs when a historiographical thread endeavors to promote a polemical reading of the past, with the aim of advancing a political agenda. 3 This article examines how tendentious or partial interpretations of the past impact on society. It does this by analyzing the emergence, in Italy, of the controversy surrounding the history of the Jewish Brigade Group (JBG). This was a five-thousandstrong British military unit stationed in Italy during World War II. The role played by JBG soldiers in the liberation of the country, largely forgotten by mainstream Italian historiography and by the general public until the late 1990s, was once again put in the spotlight in the early 2000s. This had dramatic repercussions on one of the most sacred Italian civic observances: the 25 April commemoration, which celebrates the liberation from Fascism in 1945, and the subsequent return to democracy. The rediscovery of the JBG's history exacerbated tensions between the Italian Jewish Community and pro-* I would like to offer my special thanks to the following scholars for their valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and the writing of this article: