Judiciary Oblivion and the Sins of Memory

Abstract

There were, therefore, very few trials actually held of those in charge of the German system of occupation. Apart from those of Mackensen, Maltzer, Kesselring, and Simon, conducted by the Judiciary of the Allied Military Government, the only other trials held subsequently were those of lower-ranking officers—including that of Herbert Kappler for the massacre of the Ardeatine Caves, which provoked extraordinary tension in public opinion—conducted by the Italian Military authorities. Hence, not only was there no “Italian Nuremberg,” or major trial of the “mechanism of terror,” but the individual trials themselves proved to be very few in number. In order to resolve this new issue it is once again necessary to go back in time, specifically to 1946, and retrace some decisive aspects of this question to the indirect consequences of the outcome of the international trials of the supreme authorities of the Third Reich held at Nuremberg. It is equally important to go back to the evolution of the situation in Italy and the clash between the Allies and the Italian Government over who had the right to try the Italian military guilty of crimes in the territories occupied by the troops of the Royal Army and governed by the regime’s authorities prior to July 25, 1943.