Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/m8vqrtq339
The Battle of Vodnjan of 16 January 1920 and Fascism in Istria: The Beginning
Milan Radošević
orcid.org/0000-0002-8507-9314
; Institute for Historical and Social Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Rijeka, Regional Unit in Pula
Abstract
The Battle of Vodnjan of 16 January 1920 is the first recorded armed conflict of
the carabineers, the army and the fascists with the socialists in the territory of Istria.
The consulted archival material, together with the protagonists’ testimonies collected
after World War Two, have confirmed that fascists were actively involved in this conflict.
Searching of the premises of the Social Studies Club in Vodnjan, carried out by
the public security forces, was legitimately urged by the fact that local people illegally
possessed firearms; it consequently directly caused the death of one young man from
Vodnjan, and indirectly of two more. Official statements given before the Commission
of Inquiry of the Court Martial in Trieste, the carabineers, local civil and judicial
authorities, as well as doctors’ reports on the victims, proved not to be credible. When
48 inhabitants of Vodnjan and the neighbouring villages, the majority of whom were
of socialist orientation, stood biased trial, the defence lawyers emphasised the fact that
the public security organs had used excessive force. Seventeen among them were sentenced
to years-long imprisonment, however they were granted amnesty the following
year. The documents proved that Pietro Benussi was wounded, and possibly even
murdered by members of the Italian armed forces – the carabineers and/or the army
– with fire arms. Domenico Damiani ended his life in the I gesuiti prison in Trieste.
Though the archival material does not provide us with inarguable proof thereof, the
testimonies of his contemporaries and co-defendants, as well as documents testifying
on the treatment of prisoners by prison guards, may lead us to the conclusion that
his death was marked by an act of violence. Possibly the most intriguing case is the
one of Pasquale Delcaro, who has in no documents been brought into connection with
the Battle of Vodnjan of 16 January 1920. Nevertheless, the hospital documentation
and the media appearance of Giachino, physician from the Pula hospital, offer a rather
solid confirmation of the hypothesis that Delcaro’s murder has been hushed up.
Keywords
fascism; Istria; Vodnjan; Pula; Pietro Benussi; Domenico Damiani; Pasquale Delcaro; lethargic encephalitis.
Hrčak ID:
274052
URI
Publication date:
11.3.2022.
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