“With Fire and Sword. Italian occupation of Yugoslavia 1941–1943” – Virtual exhibition
On April 6, 2021, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Italian-German attack on Yugoslavia, Ferruccio Parri National Institute (formerly the National Institute for the History of the Liberation Movement in Italy), the Regional Institute for the History of Resistance and Contemporary Age in Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Trieste have inaugurated the virtual exhibition „With Fire and Sword. The Italian occupation of Yugoslavia 1941-1943” (A ferro e fuoco. L’occupazione italiana della Jugoslavia 1941-1943).
The exhibition was designed in cooperation with the Slovene National Library and Studies, the Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia, Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past, and Apis Institute. It was created in collaboration with Divulgando Srl, under the auspices of the House of Representatives and with the support of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
“With Fire and Sword” consists of ten sections and fifty-four panels, through which are displayed two hundred photographs, twenty-five testimonies, and eighty-one interviews with time-witnesses. Short accompanying texts are introducing the viewer to this collection of archival materials and eyewitnesses’ stories.
The exhibition looks through some of the darkest pages of Italian recent history, which are still today largely unknown and mostly forgotten. Recognizing how the Italian soldiers in the annexed or occupied territories were not simply bystanders but were the initiators of numerous violence and crimes, this exhibition wants to make a step in the direction of acknowledging and taking responsibility, as well as towards the building of common European citizenship.
The exhibition has been opened on Tuesday, April 6, at 5 pm.
Virtual exhibition is available at the website:www.occupazioneitalianajugoslavia41-43.it
