Italian Partisans Association ANPI on
Thursday called for the 2024 Army Calendar to be withdrawn from
circulation on grounds it puts the Fascist regime in power in
Italy before the 1943 Armistice on the same level as the
post-war antifascist and democratic Republic.
"We take note that there is a pro-fascist minority that wants to
rewrite the history of Italy," ANPI President Gianfranco
Pagliarulo told ANSA of the calendar titled "For Italy always...
before and after September 8, 1943".
On this day US General Dwight Eisenhower announced the surrender
of Italy to the Allies and General Pietro Badoglio and the
Italian royal family fled to southern Italy to set up an
anti-Fascist government as Germany reacted with Operation Axis
and the Allies with Operation Avalanche.
Mussolini had fallen from power and his fascist government
collapsed the previous July.
"It is unacceptable," continued Pagliarulo, adding that the
calendar "conceals a double political operation".
"On the one hand, it wants to show an institutional continuity
when in fact there was a radical break between the fascist
regime and the anti-Fascist Republic," he explained.
"Of course no one is forgetting the soldiers, on the contrary.
No one is forgetting that they were also sent into disarray on
September 8 when the King went to Brindisi. However, soldiers
are one thing and the institution of the Army is another," said
the ANPI chief.
"We must not forget the war criminal generals who were never
tried, or, if tried, were never convicted, or, if convicted,
never went to jail.
"On the other hand, an equation is being draw between the new
Italian army and the army of Salò," added Pagliarulo, referring
to the army of the Italian Social Republic led by Mussolini in
northern Italy from 1943 to 1945 that fought on the side of Nazi
Germany in the final years of the war.
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