9. Persécutions, déportations et extermination dans la littérature de jeunesse

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Persecution, deportation and extermination in children’s literatureTraditionally, Italian children’s literature has rarely dealt with topics such as the Holocaust. This is partly due to the fact that Italian culture, schools and historical research took their time analyzing the relationship between Italian Fascism, the Social Republic after September 8, 1943, and the shared responsibility for Nazi Germany’s extermination policies, which were carried out through a war of destruction, camp segregation, ghettoes and elimination. Instead, what prevailed was a desire to redeem the 20 years of Italian Fascism by glorifying the resistance and the role played by partisans. This made it possible to skirt the bigger issue of most Italians’ participation in Mussolini’s regime. For a long time, Italian colonialism was viewed through a humanitarian lens. Anti-Semitism was sold as an imported product and the crimes committed by our troops in the colonies and the Balkans were hidden behind a wall of silence. Aside from some notable exceptions, today’s Italian publishers of adult and children’s literature seem to be more interested in international literary success than in introducing books that have long been missing from the universal literature on the Holocaust. Some of the authors referenced in the essay are Pinin Carpi, Italo Calvino, Primo Levi, Gianni Rodari, Marcello Argilli, Roberto Innocenti, Beatrice Solinas Donghi and Giuseppe Pederiali.