Women, Antifascism and Mussolini's Italy by Isabelle Richet

Author:Isabelle Richet [Richet, Isabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Italy, Military, World War II, Political Science, Political Ideologies, Fascism & Totalitarianism, Women in Politics, Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Modern, 20th Century, Social Science, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781786735256
Google: TRKEDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-09-30T22:30:36+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Death in Normandy

(Spring 1937)

The climate of political uncertainty and personal concern that dominated the last weeks of 1936 did not dissipate with the New Year. Marion spent the holidays with her children near Montreux in Switzerland expecting Carlo to return from Spain at any moment. ‘For a long time or a short time, I can't say.’1 When he finally arrived, she could assess his state of health and his state of mind, and she realized that the Spanish episode had taken its toll. His body was exhausted and his mind quite dejected.

Beyond its broader political meaning which remained unchanged, Carlo's personal and political experience in Spain had been both exhilarating and disappointing. The redemptive dimension of the direct armed engagement against the fascist enemy, the surprisingly easy contact with men from very different social backgrounds, the political experimentation of new forms of social and economic organizations had reignited his perennial optimism which had been temporarily battered by the Abyssinian crisis. On the other hand, the political bickering with the anarchists, the difficulty of playing a leadership role both at the military and political levels, the growing feeling of isolation as the Popular Front parties were forming better organized and stronger international brigades in Spain, fostered a certain pessimism about the action of organized groups. ‘I love mankind at an abstract level and man at a concrete level. But the group, the association, with rare exceptions, seems to me ever more flawed and sometimes even unbearable’, he confessed to Marion who shared his opinion. ‘Haven't I always told you so? That as soon as you look at mankind through groups, it is a sorry sight? But this observation makes the rare individuals who can withstand all the trials even more precious.’2 While such a judgment brought Carlo and Marion closer together, it was not much of a political recipe for intervention in a struggle that mobilized masses of people split up in many different parties and groups.

Carlo's phlebitis was more serious than expected and doctors recommended a hydrotherapic treatment at Bagnoles-de-l'Orne, a spa in Normandy which did not open until mid-May.3 In the meantime, Paris was bristling with activists of various persuasions, escapees from Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy, combatants from Spain eager to go back to the front, volunteers for the International Brigades waiting for their baptism of fire, not to mention fascist spies and Soviet commissars. Carlo and Marion resumed their active life of meetings, visits and endless debates with old and new acquaintances.4 There was a new closeness with the communists now that they were strongly engaged on the side of the Spanish Republicans. Marion recalled Ercoli (the communist leader Togliatti) calling their flat several times a day to talk with Carlo and she was active in the solidarity committees with Spain organized by the Popular Front parties.5 Many German antifascist intellectuals visited the Rossellis, including a young rising star of German letters in exile, Ernst Erich Noth, brought to their flat by an Italian intellectual, Giacomo Antonini, who claimed to be antifascist but was in fact an OVRA spy.

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