Abstract

Inside the earth sciences community, the wide limestone plateau between Slovenia and Italy, named Kras in Slovenian and Carso in Italian, is known to have given the name to the "karst landscapes". As a consequence, it is also referred as the Classical Karst. Some other areas encompassed between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia belong to this type of territory. Dolinas, caverns, ponds, sinkholes and abysses are the main characteristic features of such landscapes. The aforementioned areas had been the "conflict theaters" of a number of II World War episodes, which the current hegemonic Italian historiography refereed, as a whole, to the so called "foibe tragedy".Usually the term "foiba" (pl. foibe, in Italian) is used to indicate deep natural sinkhole or doline. It may also refer to a chasm of a river at the place where it goes underground. Nevertheless, especially in Italy, "foiba" is commonly associated with the mass killings perpetrated by local and Yugoslav partisans, during and shortly after the II World War, against Italians and other real or perceived enemies of the incoming Tito communists. According to the Italian Minister of the Interior "thousands of soldiers and civilians, many of them still alive, were thrown into [the foibe]. The wave of blind violence and summary executions, which involved partisans (Italian anti-fascist partisan organizations), Germans, fascists and Tito's army, lasted until 1947" (www.interno.it). After the end of the Paris Conference, which resulted in the Peace Treaties signed on 10 February 1947, thousands of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia residents became victims of a forced migration from their regions of settlement. However, during the Cold War and until the disintegration of Yugoslavia and Soviet Empire, the question of the "foibe tragedy" sinking into oblivion. To start from the '90, the history writing process of the above mentioned facts have been constantly accompanied by a political quarrel. At the same time, the Italian Government, by means of adequate laws, has designed the foibe of Basovizza and Monrupino as national monuments. Finally, to keep memory of foibe and of the post-1947 exiles, in 2005 the Italian Republic set aside a memorial day called "Giorno del Ricordo", a civil celebration held on 10th February every year.By the point of view of the military history studies, it seems to be necessary to question about the "reasons" which could have determined the mass killing. Ethnic hatred and war revenges appear to be plausible causes, although Yugoslav army would have not had any "war usefulness" by such massacres. Moreover, in term of partisan "guerrilla economy", capture, deportation and killing by means of throw into abysses of many hundred of people could be unreal. Perhaps, just to clear such hurdle, some Italian scholars invoke an "ancient use" of the foibe to human killing by Slavonic populations. However, the approval of such disputable hypothesis could lever, for instance, on the ancestral fear

Autore Pugliese

• Delle Rose Marco

Tutti gli autori

• Delle Rose M.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Epitome

Anno di pubblicazione

2011

ISSN

1972-1552

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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