Biography
Mirko Galasso (1996) is a doctoral student in Trieste, Italy. He graduated in Udine and received his master's degree in Trieste. He was an expert associate at the exhibition "Jasenovac: The Right to Forget" (2016), and gave a series of lectures on this topic in the period 2017-2019. in Serbia, Norway, Israel. In 2019, in collaboration with the IBCC Digital Archive at the University of Lincoln, he worked on the description of British and American air force material from the Second World War.
Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac: an Italian perspective on a highly controversial figure
Abstract: The paper deals with the controversial legacy of Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960), Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 to 1960, and his political role as the spiritual leader of the Croatian people from 1941 to 1945. At that time, his mandate overlapped with the catastrophic events of World War II in the Balkans and the establishment of the criminal Independent State of Croatia. Relying on primary sources, reports and opinions of Italian historians and publicists, the weight of responsibility Stepinac bore will be critically assessed - starting with accusations of complicity with the Nazi-fascist, Ustasha regime, as well as his failure to speak out when it came to the physical and spiritual destruction of the Serbian people in Croatia. These positions Stepinac maintained for a long time, until he had to realize that with the advance of the Allies, the Ustasha regime was on the verge of collapse. Special focus will be placed on the views of Italian historiography, emphasizing the ambiguity of the personality of Alojzije Stepinac. His statements, by some, are even cited as pious intentions attributed to him.
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