Primo Levi’s Resistance: Rebels and Collaborators in Occupied Italy

Luzzatto (The Body of il Duce), a professor of history at the University of Turin, counters the “newfound popularity of crudely revisionist antipartisan books about the Italian civil war of 1943–1945” with a look back at the antifascist resistance and the small role played by one of his intellectual heroes, Primo Levi. Levi was one of 450,000 resistance fighters, of whom 45,000 died. He was involved in only three brief military actions before his band was captured and he was deported to Auschwitz. Luzzatto primarily addresses the culture, actions, and mentality of the partisans, with only a quarter of the book covering the short period (fall 1943) when Levi joined a small group of fighters in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta. Luzzatto notes that in the immediate postwar period, many fascists who had murdered partisans escaped justice in later years. Luzzatto’s clear, passionately written book may disappoint readers looking to gain more insight into Levi’s intellectual and political development, but it will undoubtedly be useful for those interested in Italy’s civil war during the last years of WWII. Maps. (Jan.)