Friulian refugees and internees in Irpinia during the Great War. Between irredentist rhetoric and violent exile

Abstract

With the Great War, legislation on internment increases in harshness and scope. After the rout of Caporetto, the laws of 1918 gave prefects and the police powers to order internment and impose forced residence based on suspicion of espionage and threats to state security. By the end of the war, there were 800 internees in Irpinia, most of them aliens, followed by irredentists and Italian regnicoli. Their uprooting intertwined with that of over 6,000 refugees: in a poor and culturally deprived district this resulted in malnutrition, disease, death, xenophobia and social discrimination.