Affile - The 2012 "Homeland" and "Honour" Monument

The 2012 "Homeland" and "Honour" Monument

On 11 August 2012 a publicly funded mausoleum and memorial park was unveiled in the town to Rodolfo Graziani, a former resident of the area and convicted war criminal. The event was met with widespread criticism in the national and international media. A campaign has since been launched to rededicate the memorial to those who died as a result of Graziani’s actions during Italy’s colonial wars in Ethiopia and Libya as well as during the short-lived Italian Socialist Republic.

A New York Times article described the monument:

“The monument, in a style reminiscent of fascist architecture, sits on the town’s highest hill, with the Italian flag flying from the top and inscriptions reading “Honor” and “Homeland.” Inside sits an austere marble bust of General Graziani, surrounded by original copies of the front pages of the newspapers from the day of his death in 1955, a plaque from a street once dedicated to him here and a list of his deeds and honors.”

The mausoleum was reported to cost Euro 127,000], paid for by taxpayers from regional funds. The town’s mayor, Ercole Viri, donated the bust from his own collection and said he hoped the sight would be as “famous and as popular as Predappio” – the burial place of Mussolini which has become a shrine for neo-Fascists. He later defended the council’s decision by stating that “Graziano was not a war criminal”

However, demonstrations against the memorial were quickly organised. On 12 September the monument was damaged and covered in graffiti, and a month later seven urinals in Bologna were rededicated to Graziani in protest. A candlelight vigil was then organised in Affile by the ANPI.

The monument has also been denounced in Ethiopia. Speaking after the 18th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, historian Bahru Zewde said: "“He is remembered for vowing to deliver Ethiopia to Mussolini “with or without the Ethiopians”. He went on to fulfill that vow with indiscriminate use of chemical weapons and the massacre of thousands of Ethiopians.Graziani was never tried for his war crimes in Africa. Had he been alive, there is no doubt that he would have been forced to face justice at the International Criminal Court. The erection with public funds of a monument for someone who has the blood of so many Africans on his hands is therefore adding insult to injury."

Elsewhere, a protest was held in London on 31 August 2012 outside the Italian Ambassador’s Residence, which was followed by a further demonstration in Washington on 5 November 2012. At the London protest, Richard Pankhurst, the noted historian and son of Sylvia Pankhurst, gave the following speech:

It is well known that, already in the 1920s Rodolfo Graziani, committed atrocities in Italian-occupied Libya, earning him the title of Hyena of Libya and Butcher of Fezzan.

He subsequently played a major role in 1935-6 as commander of the Fascist armies which invaded Ethiopia from the South. As such he was responsible for the use of Poison Gas, banned by international convention, as well as for a policy of terrorism against the so-called “native” population. He also ordered the execution without trial of Ethiopian Prisoners of War. For these and other crimes he was later to be officially listed by the Ethiopian Government as a War Criminal.

After the Fascist occupation of Addis Ababa in 1935 Graziani was appointed Italian Viceroy of Ethiopia. Two years later, following the attempt on his life on 19 February 1937, he was responsible for the infamous three-day Addis Ababa Massacre forever associated with his name.

In this Massacre innumerable innocent Ethiopian citizens including women and children, were mercilessly gunned down, beaten to death, or prevented from escaping from their homes which were then torched. In the absence of any official count, estimates of those killed varied greatly, but certainly comprised many thousands. The British Legation alone was reported to “know the names of over 2,000 Ethiopian victims”. The contemporary historian, Ian Campell, currently researching the matter, puts the figure at 10,000.

Graziani also ordered reprisals at the Monastery of Debra Libanos, where, on 20 May, all the 297 monks and 129 deacons were murdered.

Shortly after these events Graziani gave instructions that Ethiopian nobles and army officers, who had surrendered “be shot immediately. … A better opportunity could not be found to get rid of them.” If these were not crimes, what are crimes?

At the close of World War II the United Nations set up a War Crimes Commission, of which Ethiopia was a member. The Ethiopian Government officially listed Graziani, as well as Pietro Badoglio,the Fascist Commander of the Ethiopian Northern Front, as Fascist Italy’s principal War Criminals. Among other crimes, they had sanctioned the use of Poison Gas during the invasion and occupation.

The voice of Ethiopia was however ignored. The British Government wanted to see Badoglio as Prime Minister of post-war Italy, while racists in various parts of the British Empire, notably South Africa, were reluctant to see Graziani – a White Man – punished for crimes committed against Natives, or Blacks. The United Nations War Crimes Commission was therefore deliberately sabotaged – with the result that not a single Italian Fascist was ever tried for the many crimes committed in Ethiopia. He was indicted only for crimes committed in collaboration with the Germans in Italy.

And now, in 2012, the Mayor of Affile, the place where Graziani was born, is dedicating a mausoleum and park to his memory.

The honouring of Graziani, against which we protest, may conceivably have been carried out by persons who knew little of his actual role in history; however, the Vatican, whose representative attended the ceremony, should have known better, which makes these events all the more alarming.

The naming of a War Criminal as a Cultural Hero must not be allowed to pass unchallenged. Let us make no bones about it: Graziani is not simply to be numbered as one of the Fascist invaders who committed war crimes in Africa, not even as one of the principal ones: he was, without a doubt, the most criminal one. Those who, for one reason or another, condone his deeds, are all the more guilty.

Is it too much to demand that the Italian government and the Vatican disassociate themselves publicly from the Mayor of Affile’s preposterous action? —Richard Pankhurst