The vendettas against collaborators in northern Italy resulted in a certain number of victims, a figure that would be exploited by the Italian far right in the years to come. This number is probably around 15,000, while some put it at the absurd figure of 300,000. The partisans killed by fascists during the war numbered 45,000. While we can understand the widespread collaboration with despotic regimes during the war, that doesn’t mean we should condone it. Nor can we justify the brutal postwar vendettas. But it happened. But asking the European population, brutalized by years of atrocities and repression, to avoid these excesses would have been asking too much.
