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• Hungarian POWs in Padula during the First World War

  Bálint Takács

  Views:

  302

  The prisoner of war camp of Padula, Italy, operated during World War One in a large Carthusian Monastery and barracks, has been the topic of several Italian, Czech and Slovakian studies, as it was one of the greatest Italian camps and served as the centre for the creation of the Czechoslovak Legion. However, thousands of its detainees were Hungarian, whose life has barely been discussed. This paper aims to present the life of Hungarian POWs held in Padula. With the help of sources pertaining to them, such as letters and memoirs, it is possible to deeply examine four aspects: religion, health, complaints and employment. Another aim of the study is to make a list of the Hungarian prisoners.
  
  

• Monicelli and the memory of the Great War

  125-139

  Giovanni De Leva

  Views:

  635

  In my essay, I examine Mario Monicelli’s La Grande Guerra, in order to verify if its comic and anti-heroic perspective really leads to a new concept of WWI. I first retrace the director’s previous filmography, where the characters, genres and patterns which will recur in La Grande Guerra originally take shape. I then reconstruct the movie’s genesis, focusing on the sources the screenwriters refer to: not only WWI movies and memories, such as Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and Lussu’s Un anno sull’Altipiano, but also, quite unexpectedly, La vita militare by De Amicis.

  On this basis, I analyse the representation of the war, in its figurative and narrative elements. In many senses, it’s a war seen from the ground, and indeed the scenography and script take inspiration from the soldiers’ pictures of the front and their military songs. In this realistic context, Monicelli develops the plot of two cowardly privates, from a poor, undisciplined background, who ultimately identify with their nation enough to sacrifice themselves for their compatriots.

  The purpose of highlighting the unacknowledged war contribution of the mass, however, is somehow contradicted by the army’s image. The comic and anti-heroic aspects, indeed, concern only the low-ranked soldiers, while the Command is represented in a sentimental way. In this respect, Monicelli confirms a rhetoric coming from De Amicis, and later inherited by Fascism: the army as an image of a model society, where North and South, rich and poor, educated and illiterate unite, and where everyone deserves his hierarchical rank.

• Friulians in the Hungarian industry: a focus on the city of Debrecen

  124-145

  Barbara Blaskó

  Views:

  229

  Emigration played a significant role in the history of the north Italian Friuli for centuries. Since the Middle Age, Friulian emigration was characterized mainly by the movement of itinerant vendors (the so-called cramârs) to the German territories. However, the most noteworthy Friulian migration movement dates back to the fifty years preceding the First World War, when the growing labor market caused by the European industrial development required workers in enormous quantities. During these decades, the AustroHungarian Empire became the main destination of the movement, but the primacy of Austria was surpassed by Hungary in the years between 1892 and 1894. The mass migration in the area (occurring until the outbreak of the First World War) caused lasting changes in the Hungarian industry. The historical sources demonstrate that the presence of the Friulians was significant especially in some sectors, such as construction industry and meat processing. The Friulian companies active in the meat industry during this period had a profound effect on the diffusion and success of a new product: the salami. It should be emphasized that alongside Budapest and Szeged, home of the famous Pick salami, Debrecen also had a pivotal role in this process with its two factories of the Boschetti and Vidoni family and their migrant workers.

• Hungarian prisoners of war in L'Aquila (1915-1919)

  183-197

  Bálint Takács

  Views:

  320

  The aim of this paper is to present the life of Hungarian prisoners of war in the internment camps of L’Aquila, a city situated in the central part of Italy, during and after the Great War. The POWs were first detained in the caserma Castello (Castle barracks), which is a 16^th-century fortress where units of the Italian Army were stationing as well at that time. This made it possible for the POWs to lead a relatively idyllic life, whose various aspects are examined in the paper, such as nutrition, accommodation, clothing, correspondence, religious life, daily routine and employment. The sources used include archival documents, two memoirs of ex-POWs and newspaper articles. The comfortable life of the POWs was dimmed by the lack of their families and the Homeland, the idleness and certain infectious diseases. From the summer of 1916, the prisoners were employed in agricultural and industrial works outside the prison camp and were hence transferred from the fortress to barracks and unused churches. It is unknown when the last Hungarian POW left L’Aquila, and yet one of them is proven to have been there still in July 1919.