Emanuele Ertola is a researcher at the University of Siena, where he teaches contemporary history. His publications include In terra d’Africa. Gli italiani che colonizzarono l’impero (Laterza, 2017) and Il colonialismo degli italiani. Storia di un’ideologia (Carocci, 2022).

02.20.2024

• Emanuele Ertola

Italians Committed Terrible Crimes, Then Forgot Them

This week in 1937, Italian Fascists and colonizers began a three-day massacre in Addis Ababa, killing up to 20,000 Ethiopians. The slaughter is all but ignored in today’s Italy, where public debate remains steeped in indulgent views of colonial rule.