Anti-Fascism in European History
The increasing radicalization of political life in most countries in Europe lends special relevance to studies of the antifascist legacies on the continent. This insightful collection of essays is an in-depth review of antifascism in Slovenia, setting it in the context of related movements elsewhere in Europe. The period treated by the 19 essays comprises the interwar period, World War Two, and the post-war decades. The comparative and transnational perspectives advanced by the volume change our understanding of antifascism.
The essays deal with the right-wing but also left-wing instrumentalization of antifascism, with a particular focus on the communist and post-communist periods. The authors point out that antifascism comes in various strains, whether inspired by liberalism, social democracy, communism, monarchism, anarchism, or even Christian conservatism. The contributors bring to light several overlooked antifascist actors, campaigns, and organisations, mostly in Slovenia and the Adriatic area.
Preface
Introduction: What is Anti-Fascism? Its Values, its Strengths, its Diversities – Jože Pirjevec, Egon Pelikan, and Sabrina P. Ramet
PART ONE – ANTI-FASCISM IN FASCIST ITALY’S BORDERLANDS
Chapter 1: Hate Speech – Jože Pirjevec
Chapter 2: Comparison of Fascist and national defense discourse –Vesna Mikolič
Chapter 3: Fascism, Anti-fascism, and Ethnic Engineering in the Former Austrian Littoral – Borut Klabjan
Chapter 4: Persevering on the Ramparts of the Nation: The Anti-fascism of Educated Women, Feminists, and Activists in the Littoral in the 1920s – Marta Verginella
Chapter 5: The anti-fascism of the Slovenian and Croatian Clergy in the Julian March during the Interwar Period – A View from the Vatican – Egon Pelikan
PART TWO – THE DIVERSITY OF ANTI-FASCISM
Chapter 6: The Anti-fascism of Hans & Sophie Scholl: Intellectual Sources of the White Rose – Sabrina P. Ramet and Christine M. Hassenstab
Chapter 7: The Committee against Neofascism and Racial Prejudices: Nordic Anti-Fascist Organizing and International Solidarity in the 1960s – Pontus Järvstad
Chapter 8: Anti-fascism in the land of holy water blessed by the swastika: The case of the Slovak State -- Marek Syrný and Anton Hruboň
Chapter 9: Mussolini, Vilfan and the Slovenian minority – Gianfranco Cresciani
Chapter 10: From the Bauhaus to Buchenwald and to Berlin: Anti-fascism and Career in the Life of Franz Ehrlich – Klaus Tragbar
PART THREE – ANTI-FASCISM AS A LEGITIMATING IDEOLOGY
Chapter 11: Passing the Torch: The Challenges of Anti-fascist Memory Transmission through Youth Ritual and Commemoration in the GDR – Catherine J. Plum
Chapter 12: Memory Practices in Slovenia through the Lens of Public Opinion – Vida Rožac Darovec
Chapter 13: A Note about the Collective Memory of Anti-Fascism since World War Two and its Revision – Božo Repe
Chapter 14: A Dire Warning to All Ethnic Minorities in Europe? Fascist Repression in South Tyrol and the Formation of Swedish-Speaking Anti-fascism in Finland – Kasper Braskén
Chapter 15: Maritime Communists Against Fascism and in Defense of the USSR: Transnational Anti-fascism in a Danish Perspective, 1933-1938 – Jesper Jørgensen
Afterword: “Are you a communist? No, I am an anti-fascist” – Nigel Copsey
About the authors
For further reading
Index of Names