Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
Table of ContentsPreface 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
