Digital Library Duilio Susmel

Newspaper Holdings on Fascism in Italy

The Duilio Susmel library (monographs, "grey literature" and newspapers, as well as an extensive collection of newspaper cuttings) was acquired by the German Historical Institute in 1976. The archival legacy of the Italian journalist and contemporary historian is preserved as "Fondo Duilio Susmel" at the Centro Studi e Documentazione sul Periodo Storico della Repubblica Sociale Italiana in Salò. The private Susmel library (1919–1984) should be considered one of the most important specialised library collections on the history of fascism. The holdings contain over 10,000 documentary works. Amongst these are around 1,100 booklets (or "grey literature"), 178 newspapers and weeklies, as well as some periodicals issued several times a week, from the age of fascism and in particular from between the years 1943–1945. Many of these newspapers and periodicals are difficult to find in Italian libraries, as the collections are incomplete, and some of the works in our possession are unique copies. In order to preserve them and to improve their consultation they have been digitalised and inserted into a database that, for legal reasons, is currently only accessible on the library premises, while bibliographic references of the titles are also available in our OPAC library catalogue. The Susmel Library not only offers ample material for research on fascism, but also shines a light on the historical discourse of post-World War II neo-fascist circles in Italy, and on the specific working methods of the publicist and historian Duilio Susmel.

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