Identities in Transition

The Enkidu Summer Conference 2007

June 1 - 5, 2007

Mexico City

in:

Justice Memorialized: The Allied Governments’ Free Pass to the Italian Fascist War Criminals during the Italo-Ethiopian War 1935-1936

Angela Ruocco

Department of International History and Diplomacy

University of Maryland

(Estados Unidos)

The primary goal of the paper is to illuminate the disparity of treatment directed toward Italian Fascist war criminals and the consequent memorializing of justice in the post-World War II world. In order to highlight the historical inequities, it will be shown that Italy’s Fascist regime perpetrated war crimes against Ethiopians during the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-1936. Second, it will be argued that not only did the Allied governments affirmatively reject Ethiopian war crimes claims within the United Nations War Crimes Commission, what is more, the Allies chose not to bring Italy’s alleged war criminals within the jurisdiction of the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg or Tokyo or any other war crimes tribunal for various political and legal reasons. Accordingly, a major focus of this paper will be on how the Allied Governments shaped the world’s understanding of history and memory as it pertains to the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity leading up to, during, and after World War II.

About Angela Ruocco

I am a graduate student, a Ph.D. student, in International History and Diplomacy at the University of Maryland. I am also licensed to practice law. My interests are in the intersection of diplomatic history, law and memory particularly as it relates to war crimes perpetrated by Italians in Ethiopia 1935-1936.