Women and violence. Victims and perpetrators during the civil war in Italy (1943-1945),

Between 1943 and 1945, Italy experienced, as is well known, the special situation of seeing the Italian Social Republic established and the birth of the Resistance in the context of total war and in the presence of the Nazi occupation. We can say that the Resistance had different characteristics, it was class war, liberation war and civil war: the latter brought with it a "more of violence," a "supplement of hatred." In this context, the life and role of women had particular characteristics: women were victims of violence, sexual and otherwise; they witnessed violence and were also active subjects in violent actions, an acted violence that particularly involved adherents of the Republic of Salò. Violence acted out by women is, arguably, one of the themes that most disrupts the gender stereotype that sees women bound to peace and men to war, women unfit for the use of weapons, women who do not know how, or do not want, to act violently. This text highlights how, albeit in smaller numbers than men, women have acted out violence, in different ways and manners. This text also analyzes the role of men perpetrators of their actions and motivations in occupation and civil war. The sources through the analysis of which we come to reconstruct an overall picture are diverse, among them the main ones are oral and written testimonies, also collected by the author, and trial sources: the documents also note the difficulty of the victims, on the one hand, to talk about the violence they suffered, especially if of a sexual nature and, on the other hand, to consider women as subjects capable of doing violence. This text has been compiled with the support of historiographical essays by various authors who have dealt with these issues.