Sacrificial Memory and Political Legitimacy in Postwar Italy: Reliving and Remembering World War II

This article examines the formative role of the World War II experience in shaping politically relevant memories in postwar Italy. Rather than considering the past a legacy or a heritage—something abstract, malleable and susceptible to serving political interests—the focus here is on the meaning-giving power of memories and symbols in the historical evolution. The birth of Italian democracy after the war was preceded by disruptive events that could have divided the nation. This article illustrates how contested and fragmented interpretations of critical events were structured by and through the dimension of cultural memory, which sustained social and political imaginations, eventually shaping characters and outcomes of the Italian political transformation.