Im Namen der Toten

Neofaschismus in Italien: Krieg, Täterschaft und Trauma in transgenerationaler Perspektive

Abstract

This article focuses on post-war fascism in Italy from a transgenerational perspective. It raises the question of the long-term effects of ‘historical’ scars and distortions caused by war, the perpetration of violence and trauma in family and society. The lack of reflection on the perpetuation of such scars, I argue, can contribute to subcultures establishing and developing social and political niches from which they interact with the majority society. A look at the consequences of experiences of war and the perpetration, repression and transmission of trauma and war experiences from a transgenerational perspective shows that analysing the anchoring of political culture in family spaces can provide painful insights into the ‘scarred’ culture of memory and different strategies of the political instrumentalisation of the past. Such a perspective on post-war fascism uncovers how deeply fractures or scars can be anchored in a society, how they are passed down generations and how they become permanent as a result. The transgenerational perspective is key to understanding the culture of remembrance and the neo-fascist scene in contemporary Italy, which has been consistently strong since 1945 as a consequence of the structural scarring of society over generations.