Visualizing second world war violence through an Atlas of Nazi–Fascist Repression

Author(s):  
Giovanni Pietro Vitali

Abstract In Italy’s complex political past, the memory of resistance against nationalism has always been at the centre of political clashes between the right and the left. Considering that the memory of the Second World War (WWII) is still alive in Italian society, an analysis of the violence perpetrated by the Fascists and Nazis on Italian territory in this period is a way to discuss the historical responsibilities of both. This article aims to oppose this instrumental use of history. The aim of this work is to show how violence was exerted against Italian civilians during WWII through a spatial and statistical inquiry. I created an Atlas of Nazi–Fascist Repression combining three different databases into a unique dataset.

1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 353-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Grugel ◽  
Monica Quijada

In December 1938 an alliance of the Radical, Communist and Socialist parties took office in Chile, the first Popular Front to come to power in Latin America. A few months later, in Spain, the Nationalist forces under Generalísimo Franco occupied Madrid, bringing an end to the civil war. Shortly after, a serious diplomatic conflict developed between Spain and Chile, in which most of Latin America gradually became embroiled. It concerned the fate of 17 Spanish republicans who had sought asylum in the Chilean embassy in the last days of the seige of Madrid, and culminated in July 1940 when the Nationalist government broke off relations with Chile. Initially, the issue at the heart of the episode was the right to political asylum and the established practice of Latin American diplomatic legations of offering protection to individuals seeking asylum (asilados). The causes of the conflict, however, became increasingly obscured as time went on. The principles at stake became confused by mutual Spanish– Chilean distrust, the Nationalists' ideological crusade both within Spain and outside and the Chilean government's deep hostility to the Franco regime, which it saw as a manifestation of fascism. The ideological gulf widened with the onset of the Second World War. This article concentrates primarily, although not exclusively, on the first part of the dispute, April 1939–January 1940. In this period asylum, which is our main interest, was uppermost in Spanish–Chilean diplomatic correspondence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (22_suppl) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Gerard Hastings

We have discovered the elixir of life. For the first time in human existence we now know how we can avoid disease, make our lives healthier and more fulfilled, and even fend off the grim reaper himself (at least for a while). We may not have joined the immortals – many traps and snares continue to prey on us – but we are beginning to learn some of their secrets. Why then are we failing to grasp these heady opportunities? WHO data show that nine out of ten of we Europeans are dying of lifestyle diseases; that is diseases caused by our own choices – self-inflicted diseases. Despite the all too familiar consequences for our bodies, we continue to smoke the tobacco, swallow the junk food and binge on the alcohol that is killing us. Yes, there are systemic drivers at work – commercial marketing, corporate power, inequalities, addiction – but we don’t have to collaborate. No one holds a gun to our heads and commands us to eat burgers or get drunk and incapable. This paper argues that public health progress – and human progress more widely – depends on us solving the conundrum of this self-inflicted harm. The urgency of this task increases when we consider our irresponsible consumption behaviour more widely, and that it is not just harming our own health but everyone else’s too. Most egregiously anthropomorphic climate change is being caused by the free choices we in the wealthy global north make to drive SUVs, go on intercontinental holidays and accumulate a foolish excess of stuff. It need not be so. Historical experience and two millennia of thinking show we are capable of better. We have moral agency and we can make the right choice even when it is the difficult one. Indeed, it is this capacity and desire ‘ to follow after wisdom and virtue’, to rebel against injustice and malignancy, that makes us human and cements our collective identity. In the last century this realisation was focused by the terrible events of the Second World War and resulted in the formation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Importantly these rights do not just protect us from oppression but enshrine in international law our entitlement to be an active participant in the process of progressive social change.


Author(s):  
Marisa Kerbizi ◽  
Edlira Tonuzi Macaj

Ideology as a form of ideas and as a practical tool with determinative purposes in certain circumstances may become very influential and risky, too. Albanian literature, as one of the East Bloc countries where communism was installed as a political system after the Second World War, severely suffered the ideology consequences in art. The purpose of this research is to focus on some problems related to the limitations, restrictions, deviation, regression created by ideology in literature. Concrete case studies will complete the theoretical frame through the analytical, historical, aesthetical, and interpretative approach. The hypothesis sustains the idea that the political ideology of the Albanian dictatorial system has found many ways to damage the most representative authors and their artistic works of Albanian literature. The ideology claimed “the compulsory educational system” by interfering in the school textbooks, by excluding several authors from those textbooks, by denying their inclusion or the right for publication, or even by eliminating them physically.


2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 166-172
Author(s):  
Boinon JP

This paper is related to the application of the land policies implemented in France in 2nd half of the 20th century, and their consequences on the economy of the agricultural sector and the operation of the farms. Starting from a framework of historical and institutional analysis, the object of this research is to analyse the economic and institutional determinants of these land policies. In France of small landowners, the existence of the right of ownership is considered as an obstacle for a fast evolution of the structures of farms which are sufficient size to implement technological progress allowing the profits of productivity. The aim of the land policy followed in France since the end of the Second World War was to encourage the development of such farms. The main measures were the statute of the tenant farming, the control of the structures and the control of the land market by the SAFER. This policy is implemented at a departmental level by the representatives of the Farmers Unions and generally supports the access to the land for young farmers or the middle-sized farmers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
NILS ARNE SØRENSEN

After the liberation in 1945, two conflicting narratives of the war experience were formulated. A consensus narrative presented the Danish nation as being united in resistance while a competing narrative, which also stressed the resistance of most Danes, depicted the collaborating Danish establishment as an enemy alongside the Germans. This latter narrative, formulated by members of the resistance movement, was marginalised after the war and the consensus narrative became dominant. The resistance narrative survived, however, and, from the 1960s, it was successfully retold by the left, both to criticise the Danish alliance with the ‘imperialist’ United States, and as an argument against Danish membership of the EC. From the 1980s, the right also used the framework of the resistance narrative in its criticism of Danish asylum legislation. Finally, liberal Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen started using it as his basic narrative of the war years (partly in order to legitimise his government's decision to join the war against Iraq in 2003). The war years have thus played a central role in Danish political culture since 1945, and in this process the role of historians has been utterly marginal.


The article is devoted to the study of transformation of the nationalist ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Abroad in the 1950s – early 1990s. The article describes how members of the radical movement, revolutionary underground armed groups carried out the actualization of ideological doctrine under the influence of activities in Western democracies. On the basis of analysis of ideological publications of members of the organization and program documents, the integration of the principles of liberal and social democracy into the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism is investigated. The content of the strategy of the peaceful revolution of the national liberation movement to create unorganized resistance in Soviet Ukraine is described. The aim of the study is to reveal the ideological foundations, worldview principles of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Abroad and to consider the transition The methodological basis of the study is the principle of historicity and systematicity, as well as comparative-historical and problem-specific methods. Results of the research. In the diaspora it was a second split in the Ukrainian national movement, which was caused by the different interpretation of evolutions that the OUN underwent during the Second World War and vision of the strategy of struggle for the restoration of state independence of Ukraine. As a result, a new structure emerged – the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Abroad (OUN(z)), which preferred moderate positions adapted to socio-political circumstance. The members of the organization took as a basis the resolution of the III Extraordinary Big Assembly OUN(b) of 1943 and developed various aspects of ideology in analytical publications. The doctrine was modernized by supplementing elements of social and political democracy and the strategy of world revolution with the support of anti-regime dynamics in Soviet society. Preserving the basic postulates of nationalism, the OUN(z) made the transition to a democratic ideology. Scientific novelty. Based on the content analysis of program documents, analytical publications of leading OUN(z) figures, the ideological concept of the organization was reconstructed, the evolution of the doctrine under the pressure of historical circumstances and the new socio-political reality was traced. Conclusions. The OUN(z) withdrew from the right-wing radical movement, but in the diaspora they tried to actualize its doctrine. The organization abandoned the principles of revolutionary orthodoxy and elements of integral nationalism, which contributed to changes in the theoretical-conceptual and program-political level and to formation of the ideology of democratic nationalism.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Czubocha

International Responsibility of the Soviet Union for its Illegal Actions against Poland between 1939 and 1945SummaryThe author of the paper comes to a conclusion that many actions concerning Poland taken by the Soviet Union during The Second World War constituted an abuse of power. The Soviet U nion invaded Poland and illegally occupied its Eastern territories until 1945. As a result of the aggression, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers and citizens were killed or persecuted.At the end of The Second W orld W ar decisions concerning Poland were taken at inter-Allied conferences w ithout Poland’s participation. The Great Powers decided to deprive Poland of its Eastern territories against the will of the Polish Government-in-exile, which was legal at that time. W hat is more, Poland was not a signatory of the Jalta and Potsdam agreements. Therefore, the decisions referring to Polish Eastern border should be invalidAs far as the problem of a new Polish government is concerned, it is necessary to stress that according to international law a change of a government in a particular state should take place w ithout any external interference. Nevertheless, the Soviet U nion decided to create a new government for Poland to replace the legal government-in-exile. As a consequence, the Provisional Government of National Unity was created., It consisted mostly of communists who were dependent on the Soviet Union. Many o f them were Soviet spies. They were able to gain power only as a result of the Soviet military intervention in Poland. The government did not represent Polish society and was created against its will. The Soviet U nion did not have the right to impose this sort of government on Poland.The problem of reconciliation between Poland and Russia is also approached in the paper. During the Second World War Polish state and its citizens suffered great losses. Neither the Soviet U nion nor Russia has ever assumed responsibility for the Soviet U nion’s illegal actions against Poland and its citizens between 1939 and 1945. In such circumstances any sort of reconciliation cannot take place. 


Author(s):  
Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen

Chapter 4 discusses international claims, that is, claims arising out of injury inflicted upon an individual by a foreign State in violation of international law. Such claims may be enforced either through diplomatic protection or by granting the injured individual himself the right to bring a case against the foreign State before an international dispute settlement body. The common idea is that claims of individuals against foreign States were solely asserted through diplomatic protection before the Second World War, whereas the right of individuals to petition international courts independently is a post-1945 phenomenon. By studying international claims practice in three historical periods (before the First World War, the interwar period, and after the Second World War), the present chapter tests this account against positive international law, and inquires whether the concept of international legal personality played a role in the contracting States’ choice of one method of dispute resolution over the other.


Author(s):  
Kerri Woods

Human rights are a key element of the post-Second World War international order. They function as both an institutional framework and as a powerful idea, and have been adopted and adapted by those seeking to address the most pressing problems of their age. The framers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) never dreamed of including environmental rights in the list of rights that are fundamental to a decent human life. By the first decades of the twenty-first century, however, it has become clear that environmental problems like climate change generate profound human rights impacts. A sustainable environment is essential to the enjoyment of all human rights, now and henceforth, but extending rights into the future raises many complex questions about the relationship between rights and risk, the right to procreate, and whether and how future people can have human rights.


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