Med zgodovinopisjem in državljansko zavestjo
Between historiography and civic consciousness

memory of fascist camps and two decades that saved it from oblivion

Summary/Abstract: After the end of World War II the story of concentration camps, set up by the Kingdom of Italy and Italian Social Republic between 1940 and 1945, almost disappeared from the collective memory of the Italian nation. The author shows in the article difficult path to the historiographic reconstruction of the fascist »concentration system« took place, the topography of the camps was established, and they were recognised by the national community. Also for this reason — in light of the institutional suppression and disregard by the official historiography — the first research projects and rediscovery of the camps ’geographic locations were mostly carried out by researchers who focused on this issue due to their favourable personal emotional inclination towards this problem. The purpose of the article is especially to discern the reasons for the long silence and outline the main historiographic and civil turning points, through which the story about the camps gradually became a part of the general sentiment of the Italians in the middle of the 1980s and in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, and was finally recognised by the academic and institutional circles as well.

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