Alessandra Kersevan

Alessandra Kersevan (born December 18th 1950) is an historian, author and editor living and working in Udine.^[1] She researches Italian modern history, including the Italian resistance movement and Italian war crimes. She is the editor of a group called "Resistenza storica" at "Kappa Vu edizioni", an Italian publisher.

Research

Her research that has been confirmed by the documents found in British archives by the British historian Effie Pedaliu and by the Italian historians Costantino Di Sante^[2] and Davide Conti,^[3] pointed out that the memory of the existence of the Italian concentration camps and Italian war crimes in general has been repressed due to the Cold War.^[4] In the collective memory of the Italian public and media this has led to historical revisionism, in particular concerning post-war foibe massacres.^[5] Yugoslavia, Greece and Ethiopia requested extradition of 1,200 Italian war criminals who however never saw anything like Nurnberg trial, because the British government with the beginning of cold war saw in Pietro Badoglio a guarantee of an anti-communist post-war Italy.^[4][6]

In the 1950s, two Italian film-makers were jailed^[7] for depicting the Italian invasion of Greece. Kersevan attributes this to historic revisionism.^[8] She compares historic revisionism in Italy to the situation in France where she notes historic mythology is deconstructed. She gives the French people's understanding of the Vichy period as an example.

In 2003, Italian media reported that Silvio Berlusconi had said, "Benito Mussolini only used to send people on vacation".^[9] This gave weight and illustrated the thesis made by Kersevan.

The censorship and the revisionistic accusations of "negationism"

Italian right-wing politicians and refugees associations have asked for censorship against Kersevan and her staff, and a former Minister of the Republic could safely address her on the 1st Channell of the State TV in February 2012 as contiguous to the Soviet KGB when she contested a photo to be attributed to the slaughering of Italians whereas it was, actually, a group of Italian soldiers gunning Slovene civilian hostages on 31 July 1942^[10] in the Slovenian village Dane during occupation by the Fascist Italy, at the time a common event in many other villages in Province of Ljubljana ordered by the Mario Roatta in his "Circolare 3C".^[11]

The 2012 diplomatic protest by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Slovenia

In February 2012, an Italian TV talk show host, Bruno Vespa televised a photograph depicting Italian troops killing Slovene civilians suggesting the situation was reversed. Kersevan, a guest on the show objected but Vespa did not apologise. A protest by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Slovenia followed.^[12][13]

Published works

• 1995 Porzûs. Dialoghi sopra un processo da rifare, Kappavu, Udine, 215 pp, ISBN 9788889808 about Porzûs massacre
• 2003 Un campo di concentramento fascista. Gonars 1942-1943, Comune di Gonars/Kappavu, Udine, 389 pp, ISBN 9788889808^[14] about Gonars concentration camp
• 2008 Lager italiani : Pulizia etnica e campi di concentramento Fascisti per civili Jugoslavi 1941-1943, Nutrimenti edizioni, Rome, 288 pp, ISBN 8888389946^[1]

Editorial and co-editor contributions

• 2008 Foibe - Revisionismo di stato e amnesie della repubblica^[15]

See also

• Foibe killings

References