(image source: Openedition)
Genere, giustizia, guerra (eds. Fabrice Virgili, Paolo Fonzo, Fabien Lostec, Cecilia Nubola & Toni Rovatti)
Introduction (Fabrice Virgili, Paolo Fonzi, Fabien Lostec, Cecilia Nubola et Toni Rovatti)
Ree, vittime: donne greche nei documenti dei tribunali militari italiani nella Grecia occupata (1941-1943) (Paolo Fonzi)
DOI 10.4000/15hok
Abstract:
During the Second World War the Italian army established military tribunals in occupied Greece. As these tribunals prosecuted not only Italian soldiers but also Greek civilians for offences against the Italian military authorities, women often figure in their records. This article examines some of the instances in which women were involved in the trials as perpetrators or victims. Based on these sources the article aims to answer two main questions. The first is to what extent occupation unleashed major shifts in gender relations, challenging given patriarchal structures and thus providing the ground for new forms of female social behaviour. The second is how the Italian military authorities dealt with these new forms of social behaviour. A purely manly organism, the Italian military tribunals premised their judgments upon a conception of «paternalist protection» towards women, a protection exercised only towards certain subjects. Those women who challenged the social taxonomies of the judges were systematically denied such a protection. Therefore the records reveal the «common sense», to use Ann Stoler’s category, of the occupation authorities.
Recels de couverture et paroles de ménagère devant le tribunal militaire (Sardaigne 1943-1944) (Fabrici Virgili)
DOI 10.4000/15hol
Abstract:
An analysis of the testimony given by 28 women questioned before the Military Tribunal of the 7th Army Corps sitting in Sassari (Sardinia) during the period 1943-1944 sheds light on women’s voices in the face of military justice. These case files, which concern several cases of theft and receiving stolen goods, provide insight into the ambivalent relationships that developed between young men, soldiers and non-islanders on the one hand, and Sardinian women, housewives and women of their mothers’ age on the other, with both parties confronted by an institution that had no intention of allowing its blankets and other textile goods to be stolen. This article explores the gendered boundary between civilian and military life, combining material culture and military justice based on previously unpublished archives. It highlights the often lesser-known and more ambivalent margins of the conflict, whether geopolitical (Sardinia), social (a few housewives) or military (a few textile goods).
Les collaboratrices face à une justice militaire d’exception Le cas des cours martiales de la République en France à la Libération (Fabien Lostec)
DOI 10.4000/15hom
Abstract:
This article brings together two realities of the purge in France that are still little known: on the one hand, women tried for acts of collaboration and, on the other, the courts martial of the Republic. In a number of French regions, the Republic’s courts martial were the first legal purge tribunals. They handed down their judgements in September 1944, in a climate of great tension marked by the explosion of sentiment characteristic of the Liberation. Studying these tribunals not only sheds light on the judicial archipelago of purges, it also provides an opportunity to offer a social and gendered history of collaboration and purges. To be precise, two questions will be examined in turn, based on a previously unpublished corpus of around 1,000 judgements and around a hundred procedural files from the 38 courts martial of the Republic that France had at the time. The first question is that of the place of women in the courts, which requires us to reflect not only on the severity of their judgements but also on the notion of “épuration sauvage”, used by some to describe the activity of these courts martial. The second question is that of the acts of which the women were accused, which, although they were at the crossroads of legality and morality, could not be summed up simply as sentimental collaboration. In the face of these accusations, the accused are also given the floor to examine their arguments in their defence, which are largely based on gender stereotypes.
Parlare tacere tradire Collaborazioniste e partigiane nei processi del secondo dopoguerra (Cecilia Nubola)
DOI 10.4000/15hon
Abstract:
Starting with the sentences of the Special Tribunals established after WWII in Italy and the examination of a certain number of significant case studies, this paper/essay investigates some aspects of the activities and choices made by women and girls during the civil war (1943-1945). The investigation focusses on the lives of women who–in order to survive the war–had betrayed and denounced people on either side, siding–as they found it necessary–with the RSI or the Resistance. The testimonies given during the trials make it possible to shed new light on the female contribution to the «Civil Resistance» and to recognize its role and importance. The aim is to overcome the dichotomy between women as either «victims» or «heroines» and to highlight their awareness and acceptance of the risks, the choices, as well as the ideal and political motivations that supported their partisan struggles, which were often not recognized in the post-war period.
Segnare la colpa Donne e dovere di testimonianza sulle violenze di guerra nei processi del lungo dopoguerra italiano (1944-2013) (Toni Rovatti)
DOI 10.4000/15hoo
Abstract:
This essay explores the role of women in Italian trials for war crimes and collaboration spanning the “long period” from 1944 to 2013, focusing on their participation as victims, accusers, and observers. Drawing on judicial records and trial reporting, the study underscores the vital contribution of women to the reconstruction of historical truth within transitional justice frameworks—contexts often marked by forms of summary justice. Between 1944 and 1950, women played a central role in grassroots denunciations and demands for accountability. In the later trials from the 1990s onward, female testimonies became increasingly centered on memory and moral reparation, frequently voiced by the daughters and granddaughters of victims. The essay concludes by addressing persistent gender asymmetries within the judiciary and the ongoing tension between recognition and the stereotyping of women’s voices in judicial settings.
Read these articles and the rest of the journal in open access on openedition.
.jpg/250px-Stadtbild_K%C3%B6ln_(50MP).jpg)
