Between 1940 and 1945 Italy experienced all the trials of total war. Subsequently, Italian historiography has focused on reconstructing the causes of civilian losses during the conflict. Much less attention has been paid to official recognition of, and assistance to, the members of the civil population who survived the conflict. This article will show how the inadequate legislative preparations made by the Fascist regime for total war had an adverse impact on requests for assistance from survivors. It will also reveal how the continuity between Fascism and the early Republican years as regards welfare and legislation continued to hamper victims’ access to support and assistance. Finally, it explores how personal judicial battles conducted by individual victims shifted the paradigm of legislation and opened the way for a broader recognition of victims’ rights by the state.
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Fabio De Ninno (2021) studied this question.