This essay will analyze the public memory of Italy’s most prominent colonial general, Rodolfo Graziani, in light of his recent commemoration in his hometown near Rome. During Graziani’s lifetime, fascist propaganda and censorship praised him as a colonial war “hero” and omitted the countless atrocities he committed during Italy’s colonial wars in Libya and Ethiopia in the 1920s and 1930s. As the colonial campaigns proved unanimously popular in fascist Italy, Graziani’s positive reputation was only jeopardised due to his polarising role as Chief of Staff in the Republic of Salò during Italy’s Civil War between 1943 and 1945. After the war, he was tried and acquitted for Nazi collaborationism whilst his colonial crimes went completely unquestioned, sparking grave consequences for the public memory of Italian fascism and colonialism. Since his death, neofascist parties and communities have persistently rehabilitated their “heroic” remembrance of Graziani through sites of memory which resulted in a publicly funded monument in 2012. The Italian government’s continued denial of Graziani’s colonial atrocities and censorship of foreign films in recent decades demonstrate the suppression of his colonial crimes and are reflective of the lack of public awareness and mass protest to Graziani’s recent monument. Whilst Ethiopian, British and American journalists met the news with public condemnation, the Italian press barely mentioned it and the only domestic protests to the commemoration came from directly affected communities and organisations. The essay will therefore contrast Graziani’s commemoration in Italy to counter memories of Graziani in Italy and abroad in order to analye that which has been publicly commemorated, contested, ignored and suppressed in postfascist and postcolonial Italy.

本文将根据意大利最著名的殖民将军鲁道夫·格拉齐亚尼最近在罗马附近的家乡举行的纪念活动，分析公众对他的记忆。格拉齐亚尼在世期间，法西斯宣传和审查制度称赞他是殖民战争“英雄”，却忽略了他在1920年代和1930年代意大利在利比亚和埃塞俄比亚的殖民战争中犯下的无数暴行。事实证明，殖民运动在法西斯意大利受到一致欢迎，而格拉齐亚尼的良好声誉只是因为他在 1943 年至 1945 年意大利内战期间担任萨罗共和国参谋长而扮演的两极分化的角色而受到损害。战后，他因以下罪名受到审判并被无罪释放：纳粹的通敌行为，而他的殖民罪行却毫无疑问，对意大利法西斯主义和殖民主义的公众记忆造成了严重后果。自从他去世后，新法西斯政党和社区不断通过纪念场所恢复对格拉齐亚尼的“英雄”纪念，并于 2012 年建立了一座公共资助的纪念碑。近几十年来，意大利政府持续否认格拉齐亚尼的殖民暴行并对外国电影进行审查，这表明意大利政府对他的行为进行了镇压。殖民罪行，反映了公众意识的缺乏以及对格拉齐亚尼最近的纪念碑的大规模抗议。尽管埃塞俄比亚、英国和美国记者对这一消息表示公开谴责，但意大利媒体几乎没有提及此事，国内对纪念活动的唯一抗议来自直接受影响的社区和组织。