{{Short description|Italian historian (born 1950)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Alessandra Kersevan | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1950|12|18|df=yes}} | birth_place = Monfalcone, Gorizia, Italy | death_date = | death_place = | field = Contemporary history | work_institutions = Udine, Italy | alma_mater = University of Trieste | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = | prizes = | footnotes = }}
'''Alessandra Kersevan''' (born 18 December 1950) is a historian, author and editor living and working in Udine.<ref name="coraggio">{{cite web |url=http://www.nutrimenti.net/public/Kersevan_Repubblica.pdf |title=Lager d'Italia - Il coraggio che non abbiamo |author=Paolo Rumiz, Moni Ovadia |publisher=La Repubblica |date=2008-04-13 |access-date=2012-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713201914/http://nutrimenti.net/public/Kersevan_Repubblica.pdf |archive-date=2014-07-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She researches Italian modern history, including the Italian resistance movement and Italian war crimes. She is the editor of a group called ''Resistenza storica'' at Kappa Vu edizioni, an Italian publisher. Her research have caused a huge hate campaign against her from the political right environment, both institutional and extra-parliamentary.
==Research== Her research (confirmed by the documents found in British archives by the British historian Effie Pedaliu and by the Italian historians Costantino Di Sante<ref>Di Sante, Costantino (2005) [http://www.ombrecorte.it/more.asp?id=15 Italiani senza onore: I crimini in Jugoslavia e i processi negati (1941-1951)], Ombre Corte, Milano. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20060206175743/http://www.ombrecorte.it/more.asp?id=15 Archived by WebCite®])</ref> and Davide Conti<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.odradek.it/Schedelibri/criminalidiguerra.html |title=Criminali di guerra Italiani |author=Conti, Davide |publisher=Odradek Edizioni|year=2011 |access-date=2012-10-14}}</ref>) pointed out that the memory of the existence of the Italian concentration camps and Italian war crimes in general has been repressed due to the Cold War.<ref name="pedaliu">Effie G. H. Pedaliu (2004) [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4141408?uid=3739008&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=47698766073667 Britain and the 'Hand-over' of Italian War Criminals to Yugoslavia, 1945-48.] ''Journal of Contemporary History''. Vol. 39, No. 4, Special Issue: Collective Memory, pp. 503-529 (JStor.org preview)</ref> In the collective memory of the Italian public and media this has led to historical revisionism, in particular concerning post-war foibe massacres.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.senzasoste.it/anniversari/le-foibe-fra-mito-e-realta-intervista-ad-alessandra-kersevan |title=Article |publisher=Senza Soste|date=2010-02-10 |access-date=2012-03-09}}</ref> Yugoslavia, Greece and Ethiopia requested extradition of {{formatnum:1200}} Italian war criminals who however never saw anything like the Nuremberg trial, because the British government, with the beginning of Cold War, saw in Pietro Badoglio a guarantee of an anti-communist post-war Italy.<ref name="pedaliu"/><ref>Rory, Carroll (2003) [https://web.archive.org/web/20061005113751/http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/impu/itaimp1.html Italy's bloody secret. (Archived by WebCite®)], ''The Guardian'', London, UK, June 25</ref>
In the 1950s, two Italian film-makers were jailed<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20061005113751/http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/impu/itaimp1.html Rory, Carroll. Italy's bloody secret. ''The Guardian''. (Archived by WebCite®)], The Guardian, London, UK, June 25, 2003</ref> for depicting the Italian invasion of Greece. Kersevan attributes this to historic revisionism.<ref name="revisionism">Alessandra Kersevan (2008) ''Foibe - Revisionismo di stato e amnesie della repubblica''. Kappavu, Udine.</ref> She compares historic revisionism in Italy to the situation in France where she notes historic mythology is deconstructed. She gives the French people's understanding of the Vichy period as an example{{clarify|date=March 2016}}.
In 2003, Italian media reported that Silvio Berlusconi had said, "Benito Mussolini only used to send people on vacation".<ref name="IHT">[http://www.iht.com/articles/2003/10/29/camp_ed3_.php ''Survivors of war camp lament Italy's amnesia''], 2003, ''International Herald Tribune''</ref> This gave weight and illustrated the thesis made by Kersevan.
==The 2012 diplomatic protest by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Slovenia== In February 2012, Italian state TV talk show host Bruno Vespa televised a photograph from July 1942 depicting Italian troops killing civilian hostages in the Slovenian village of Dane<ref name="Italian_manipulation_2012">{{cite web|url= http://www.rtvslo.si/svet/rai-manipuliral-s-fotografijo-slovenskih-talcev/276815 |title=Italian state TV has been manipulating with the photo of Slovene hostages (Slovene: RAI manipuliral s fotografijo slovenskih talcev|publisher=RTV Slovenia |date=2012-02-14 |access-date=2012-03-09}}</ref> and claimed that it showed the opposite. Killings like these, ordered by Italian general Mario Roatta, were widespread during the Fascist occupation of Slovenia.<ref>[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rmis/2004/00000009/00000003/art00005 James H. Burgwyn: "General Roatta's war against the partisans in Yugoslavia: 1942", Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Volume 9, Number 3, September 2004, pp. 314-329(16), link by IngentaConnect]</ref> Kersevan, who was a guest on the show, objected, but Vespa did not apologise, and Maurizio Gasparri, a former Italian Minister of Communications - and once militant of the far right party Movimento Sociale Italiano - compared Kersevan to the KGB.<ref>{{cite news | last1 = Smargiassi | first1 = Michele | date = 23 March 2012 | title = Non dire falsa testimonianza | trans-title = You shall not give false testimony | url = http://smargiassi-michele.blogautore.repubblica.it/2012/03/23/non-dire-falsa-testimonianza/comment-page-1/ | newspaper = La Repubblica | language = Italian | location = Rome | access-date = 15 February 2017 }}</ref> A protest by the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Slovenia followed.<ref name="Ministry_of_foreign_RS_RTV_SLO">{{cite web|url=http://www.rtvslo.si/svet/mzz-obsoja-potvarjanje-zgodovine-italijanske-televizije/276909 |title=Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Slovenia protests against the falsification of historical facts|publisher=RTV Slovenia |date=2012-02-15 |access-date=2012-03-09}}</ref><ref>[http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-1784a3df-aa07-4bcd-a5ab-1be49cfa2899.html?refresh_ce#p=0 Talk show "Il giorno del ricordo - Porta a Porta"], emitted by the Italian state-owned TV station RAI, official website</ref>
==Published works== *1995 ''Porzûs. Dialoghi sopra un processo da rifare'', Kappavu, Udine, 215 pp, {{ISBN|9788889808}} about Porzûs massacre *2003 ''Un campo di concentramento fascista. Gonars 1942-1943'', Comune di Gonars/Kappavu, Udine, 389 pp, {{ISBN|9788889808}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/aree/Slovenia/Pulizia-etnica-all-italiana |title=Pulizia etnica all\'italiana |author=Alberto Bobbio |publisher=Famiglia Cristiana |date=2004-02-08 |access-date=2012-03-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612172749/http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/aree/Slovenia/Pulizia-etnica-all-italiana |archive-date=June 12, 2011 }} (Archived by WebCite®)</ref> about Gonars concentration camp *2008 ''Lager italiani : Pulizia etnica e campi di concentramento Fascisti per civili Jugoslavi 1941-1943'', Nutrimenti edizioni, Rome, 288 pp, {{ISBN|8888389946}}<ref name="coraggio"/>
==Editorial and co-editor contributions== *2008 ''Foibe - Revisionismo di stato e amnesie della repubblica''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kappavu.it/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=240 |title=Foibe - Revisionismo di stato e amnesie della repubblica |publisher=Kappa Vu |access-date=2012-03-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419201236/http://www.kappavu.it/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=240 |archive-date=2012-04-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==See also== *Foibe massacres *Italian war crimes
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kersevan, Alessandra}} Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Italian essayists Category:Italian women essayists