The move from words to deeds: the logic of violence against inner enemies and civilians in the Italian civil war (1943-1945)

After the arrest of Mussolini July 25, 1943, the armistice of 8 September two months later, and the German occupation of the country, the Italian Resistance movement begins to take shape around the anti-fascist parties. However, after the birth of the Social Republic of Mussolini and until April 1945, the war of national liberation joins both a civil war and a social war. The chapter, after examining the definitions of civil war given by the warring factions, will then focus on the context that generates repressive violence in Italy from 1943 to 1945, both from the point of view of victims and the perpetrators of violence. Secondly, it will compare the different ways in legitimizing discourses of violence, that is the basic cultural structures which support the fighting parts. Finally, il will analyze the concrete forms of repressive violence against the inner enemy – including civilians – with the aim of highlighting the differences in behavior between the warring sides.