Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T04:57:14.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Experts in truth?’: the politics of retribution in Italy and the role of historians1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

Paolo Pezzino
Paolo Pezzino*
Affiliation:
University of Pisa, Italy
*
∗ Email: paolo.pezzino@libero.it
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There have been many reflections on the relations between the judge and the historian which have concentrated on the differences between these two figures: but what happens in cases where an historian collaborates openly with a judge as an expert consultant? What happens when an investigative office, or a court, asks an historian to reconstruct an event which is subject to a judicial procedure, or when he or she has to pronounce the ‘last word’ on an event or a document? Or, in another possible scenario, what happens when a community asks an historian to pronounce on what happened in the past, in order to ascertain which, between two contesting memories of the representation of an event, is the one which corresponds to what ‘really happened’? In these cases historians are sought out to establish the truth–their professional skills as ‘truth experts’ are called upon. And there is an extraordinary faith that the truth will be discovered. The author reflects on these issues, using as a starting point his own personal experiences as a consultant in some recent Italian war-crimes trials.

Keywords

judge and historianstrialswar crimestransitional justice
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , August 2010 , pp. 349 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Battini, M., and Pezzino, P.. 1997. Guerra ai civili. Occupazione tedesca e politica del massacro. Toscana 1944. Venice: Marsilio.Google Scholar
Bew, P. 2007. The Bloody Sunday tribunal and the role of the historian. In Contemporary history on trial, ed. Jones, H., Östberg, K. and Randeraad, N., 62–80. Manchester–New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. 1949. Strange defeat: A statement of evidence written in 1940. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Italian edition 1995 [1990]. La strana disfatta. Testimonianza del 1940. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. 1979 [1954]. The historian's craft. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Italian edition 1969 [1949]. Apologia della storia o mestiere di storico. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Browning, C.R. 2001 [1992]. Ordinary men: Reserve police battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland. London: Penguin. Italian translation 1995. Uomini comuni. Polizia tedesca e ‘soluzione finale’ in Polonia. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Cattaruzza, M. 2005. La Storiografia della Shoah. In Storia della Shoah. La crisi dell'Europa, lo sterminio degli ebrei e la memoria del XX secolo, ed. Cattaruzza, M., Flores, M., Levis Sullam, S. and Traverso, E., vol. II, La memoria del XX secolo , 81–123. Turin: UTET.Google Scholar
Cesarani, D. 2006 [2004]. Adolf Eichmann. Anatomia di un criminale. Milan: Mondadori.Google Scholar
Deák, I. 2005. Storia e giustizia: Norimberga e dopo. In Storia della Shoah. La crisi dell'Europa, lo sterminio degli ebrei e la memoria del XX secolo, ed. Cattaruzza, M., Flores, M., Levis Sullam, S. and Traverso, E., vol. II, La memoria del XX secolo , 357–85. Turin: UTET.Google Scholar
Esprit . 1992. Histoire et justice, Débat entre Serge Klarsfeld et Henry Rousso. Esprit 181, special issue entitled Que faire de Vichy? : 36–37.Google Scholar
Esprit . 1994. Special issue entitled Les equivoques de la responsabilité: 206.Google Scholar
Fulvetti, G., and Pelini, F. eds. 2006. La politica del massacro. Per un atlante delle stragi naziste in Toscana. Naples: l'ancora del mediterraneo.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, C. 1984. Prove e possibilità. In Davis, Natalie Zemon, Il ritorno di Martin Guerre. Un caso di doppia identità nella Francia del Cinquecento. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, C. 1991. Il giudice e lo storico. Considerazioni in margine al processo Sofri. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Jones, H., Östberg, K., and Randeraad, N.. 2007a. Introduction. In Contemporary history on trial: Europe since 1989 and the role of the expert historian, 1–11. Manchester–New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, H., Östberg, K., and Randeraad, N., eds. 2007b. Contemporary history on trial: Europe since 1989 and the role of the expert historian. Manchester–New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Karlsson, K.-G. 2007. Public uses of history in contemporary Europe. In Contemporary history on trial, ed. Jones, H., Östberg, K. and Randeraad, N., 27–45. Manchester–New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Maier, C. 1995. Fare giustizia, fare storia: epurazioni politiche e narrative nazionali dopo il 1945 e il 1989. Passato e Presente 34, January–April: 23–32.Google Scholar
Mandler, P. 2007. The responsibility of the historian. In Contemporary history on trial, ed. Jones, H., Östberg, K. and Randeraad, N., 12–26. Manchester–New York: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Marquard, O., and Melloni, A.. 2008. La storia che giudica, la storia che assolve. Rome–Bari: Laterza.Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1980 [1947]. Humanisme et terreur. Essai sur le problème communiste. Paris: Gallimard. Italian edition 1978 [1947]. Umanismo e terrore. Milan: SUGARCo.Google Scholar
Momigliano, A. 1984. Sui fondamenti della storia antica. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Momigliano, A. 1985 [1982]. La storia in una età di ideologie. Tra storia e storicismo. Pisa: Nistri–Lischi.Google Scholar
Moretti, M. 1998. La discussione sulla ‘responsabilità’ dello storico. Alcuni appunti storiografici. Passato e Presente 44, 1998: 95–111.Google Scholar
Parolechiave 1995. La letteratura e le cose. Conversazione tra Francesco Orlando e Claudio Pavone. Parolechiave 9: 49.Google Scholar
Pavone, C. 1996. Note sulla Resistenza armata, le rappresaglie naziste e alcune attuali confusioni. In Priebke e il massacro delle Ardeatine, 39–50. Roma: L'Unità/IRSIFAR.Google Scholar
Pezzino, P. 2001a. Sui mancati processi in Italia ai criminali di guerra tedeschi. Storia e Memoria 10, no. 1: 9–72.Google Scholar
Pezzino, P. 2001b. Storie di guerra civile. L'eccidio di Niccioleta. Bologna: il Mulino.Google Scholar
Pezzino, P. 2007a [1997]. Anatomia di un massacro. 2nd ed. with new postface. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Pezzino, P. 2007b. The German military occupation of Italy and the ‘war against civilians’. Modern Italy 12, no. 2: 173–88.Google Scholar
Pezzino, P. 2008. Sant'Anna di Stazzema. Storia di una strage. Bologna: il Mulino.Google Scholar
Rusconi, G.E. 1987. Germania: un passato che non passa. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Stengers, J. 1994. L'historien face à ses responsabilités. Cahiers de l'ecole des Sciences philosophiques et religieuses 15: 19–50.Google Scholar
Teitel, R.G. 2000. Transitional justice. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todorov, T. 1992 [1991]. Di fronte all'estremo. Milan: Garzanti.Google Scholar
Todorov, T. 1995a [1991]. Le morali della storia. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar
Todorov, T. 1995b. Una tragedia vissuta. Scene di guerra civile. Milan: Garzanti.Google Scholar
Weinrich, H. 1999 [1997]. Lete. Arte e critica dell'oblio. Bologna: il Mulino.Google Scholar
Yerushalmi, Y.H. 1990 [1988]. Riflessioni sull'oblio. In Usi dell'oblio. Parma: Pratiche Editrice.Google Scholar
Zertal, I. 2007 [2002]. Israele e la Shoah. La nazione e il culto della tragedia. Turin: Einaudi.Google Scholar