Rejecting the military to serve the Nazis. Italian conscientious objectors in Gaeta’s jail from 1948 to 1972

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the Italian conscientious objectors imprisoned in the military jail of Gaeta from 1948 to 1972, who shared the prison with the two ex-Nazi officials Herbert Kappler and Walter Reder, responsible for the most pitiless massacres that occurred in Italy during WWII. The study is based on interviews with and diaries and memoirs by conscientious objectors who were in jail for rejecting the military and knew Kappler and Reder. While existing studies on the topic centre on legal and normative aspects of conscientious objection, this analysis concerns the personal experience of the objectors in jail and investigates the relationships between the prisoners and the two war criminals. The interviewees have revealed the many privileges reserved to Kappler and Reder, adding to what had already been reported by journalistic investigations and political parliamentary interrogations. They have also stated that many of them were pushed to become the orderlies of Kappler and Reder. They carried goods to the apartments of the two ex-Nazis, set the room for Kappler’s wedding and call them ‘Colonel’ and ‘Major, not to worsen their conditions in jail.

In conclusion, the article demonstrates that in Gaeta in those years a paradoxical scenario existed: the objectors were deprived of their pacifist identities and inserted into a military structure governed by the military law; the two war criminals, conversely, were allowed to save their Nazi identity by wearing their uniforms, being called ‘Major’ and ‘Colonel’ and continuing to give orders. Symbolically, the official version saying that democratic Italy was constructed on the defeat of Fascism was thus totally upended.

RIASSUNTO

Questo articolo analizza quello che accadde agli obiettori di coscienza italiani detenuti nel carcere di Gaeta dal 1948 al 1972. Questi giovani condivisero la prigionia con i due ex ufficiali nazisti Herbert Kappler e Walter Reder, responsabili dei più efferati massacri avvenuti in Italia durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. L’articolo si basa su interviste, diari e testimonianze degli obiettori di coscienza che si trovarono nel carcere, colpevoli di aver rifiutato il servizio militare e che ebbero modo di conoscere Kappler e Reder. Mentre altre analisi già pubblicate vertono su aspetti legali e normativi dell’obiezione di coscienza, questo articolo riguarda l’esperienza personale degli obiettori in carcere, e analizza i rapporti tra questi giovani e i due criminali nazisti. Gli intervistati hanno rivelato che Kappler e Reder godevano di molti privilegi, aggiungendo particolari molto interessanti a ciò che era già stato pubblicato in inchieste giornalistiche e interrogazioni parlamentari. Gli ex obiettori intervistati hanno anche dichiarato di essere più volte stati costretti a fare da attendenti a Kappler e Reder. Gli obiettori che svolgevano queste mansioni portavano corrispondenza, cibo e oggetti vari negli appartamenti dei due ex nazisti, misero in ordine la stanza destinata al matrimonio di Kappler all’interno del carcere ed erano soliti chiamare i due tedeschi rispettivamente ‘Colonnello’ e ‘Maggiore’, per non peggiorare la loro condizione in carcere. In conclusione, l’articolo dimostra che il carcere di Gaeta in quegli anni fu teatro di uno scenario paradossale: gli obiettori venivano privati delle loro identità pacifiste e inseriti in una struttura dell’esercito governata dalla legge militare; ai due criminali nazisti, al contrario, venne concesso di conservare la propria identità nazista, permettendo loro di indossare la divisa, di essere chiamati ‘Maggiore’ e ‘Colonnello’ e di continuare a dare ordini. Simbolicamente, la versione ufficiale che vuole l’Italia costruita sulle ceneri del fascismo fu quindi totalmente contraddetta.

KEYWORDS:

• conscientious objection
• military service
• Italy
• Gaeta
• Herbert Kappler
• Walter Reder
• Ardeatine caves
• Marzabotto
• Nazism in Italy

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• Obiezione di coscienza
• Servizio militare
• Italia
• Gaeta
• Herbert Kappler
• Walter Reder
• Fosse Ardeatine
• Marzabotto
• Nazismo in Italia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesco Buscemi

Francesco Buscemi teaches media history at the Catholic University of Milan. He has a PhD in media pursued at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and is a member of ISCH (International Society for Cultural History). Francesco has published on propaganda and food in the twentieth century. He was awarded the Santander Grant Fund for his research on the Nazi representation of meat and has published on Nazi, Fascist, Fiume and Islamic State propaganda. Francesco is also investigating the less analysed part of Herbert Kappler's life, after the Nazi period and before his escape from an hospital in Rome, shortly before dying.