Abstract

This essay focuses on the purge against Roman fascist journalists in the aftermath of the Second World War. My intent is to place the issue in the framework of the widespread studies on relationship between oblivion and memory in the processes of democratization in the 20th century. The analysis examines several defensive memoirs that fascist journalists decide to bring to the Commissions charged to judge their role in the Regime. The study provides valuable elements for grasping the professional adaptation by journalists from Liberal system to Fascism and from Fascism to Republic, through a continuous reinterpretation of their past. Their memoirs also put in light the deep meaning of their professional experience in the interwar years. It emerges an extremely rich kaleidoscope of values, mental habits and trends, characterized by a prevalent duality: on the one hand the journalists who from the past liberal system settled down in the Fascist period; on the other hand those who, younger, had professionally grew up in the Totalitarian Regime.