Ex-POWs and political detainees participated in anti-fascist resistance movements across Italy and Yugoslavia, an often overlooked transnational history.
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The article discusses the often-overlooked transnational nature of the anti-fascist resistance during World War II, specifically focusing on Italian and Yugoslav partisans who fought outside their home countries. In Italy, many foreign fighters were former prisoners of war or political internees from Yugoslavia; these included thousands of Serb and Montenegrin POWs interned in Northern Italy, as well as civilian internees, some of whom were active partisans. Political activists from border regions also joined local partisan bands. These Yugoslav participants significantly contributed to the resistance movement in Central Italy, leading to events like the Partisan Republic of Norcia and Cascia. Furthermore, Yugoslav partisans trained extensively in Puglia during 1944 before returning to fight their own liberation war. Conversely, Italians in Yugoslavia were motivated by various factors after the Axis invasion; while some initially cooperated with Italian forces, many chose to join local Yugoslav partisan movements, forming units like the Garibaldi Division. The text concludes that these transnational resistance experiences are largely forgotten: Italy tends to frame the Resistance as a purely national struggle, while post-Yugoslav states lack an interest in remembering a unified resistance against the former Yugoslavia. Istria is noted as a region where this memory is better preserved due to its unique historical context.
