A Successful Strategy: The Failure to Punish Italian War Criminals and the Creation of a Self-absolving Memory

This article explores the campaign by Italian military and civilian authorities following the 8 September 1943 armistice to whitewash the war crimes committed by Italian units from 1940 to 1943 in occupied Europe. This campaign followed a two-pronged strategy: first, the transformation of the Italians from perpetrators to victims by distinguishing the Italians from their former German allies and highlighting war crimes against them; and second, the use of fictitious trials to whitewash the records of military commanders. This concerted effort was finally sanctioned by the Western Allies in the increasingly confrontational climate of the Cold War to bolster one of their main partners, whom they needed to contain the spread of communism.