Italian colonists in the Dodecanese

The Palace of the Grand Master (of the Knights of St. John) in the city of Rhodes, rebuilt by the Italians in the 1930s

Italian colonists in Dodecanese were those Italians sent in the 1930s to colonize the islands of the Dodecanese by the Fascism of Mussolini. In 1940 they were nearly 8,000, concentrated mainly in Rhodes.

History

The Kingdom of Italy occupied the Dodecanese islands during the Italian-Turkish war of 1911.

With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 the Dodecanese was formally annexed by Italy, as the Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo.

In the 1930s Mussolini embarked on a program of Italianization, hoping to make the island od Rhodes a modern transportation hub that would serve as a focal point for the spread of Italian culture in Levant.

The Fascist program did have some positive effects in its attempts to modernize the islands, resulting in the eradication of malaria, the construction of hospitals, aqueducts, a power plant to provide Rhodes' capital with electric lighting and the establishment of the Dodecanese Cadastre.

The main castle of the Knights of St. John was also rebuilt. The concrete-dominated Fascist architectural style integrated significantly with the islands' picturesque scenery (and also reminded the inhabitants of Italian rule), but has consequently been largely demolished or remodeled, apart from the famous example of the Leros town of Lakki, which remains a prime example of this architecture.

From 1923 to 1936 governor Mario Lago was able to integrate the Greek, Turkish and Ladino Jewish communities of the island of Rhodes with the Italian colonists, obtaining a so called "Golden Period" in the Italian Dodecanese with the economy and the society enjoying huge developments and harmony.

From 1936 to 1940 Cesare Maria De Vecchi acted as governor of the Italian Aegean Islands promoting the official use of the Italian language and favoring a process of italianization, interrupted by the beginning of WWII. De Vecchi even wanted to include the Italian Dodecanese in the project of Mussolini's Greater Italia.

In the 1936 Italian census of the Dodecanese islands, the total population was 129,135, of which 7,015 were Italians. Nearly 80% of the Italian colonists lived in the island of Rhodes, where there was an important Italian naval base. Aproximately 40,000 Italian soldiers and sailors were on military duty in the Dodecanese islands in 1940.

During World War II, Italy joined the Axis Powers, and used the Dodecanese as a naval staging area for its invasion of Crete in 1940. After the surrender of Italy in September 1943, the islands briefly became a battleground between the Germans and the Italians (see Battle of Leros). The Germans prevailed in the Dodecanese Campaign, and although they were driven out of mainland Greece in 1944, the Dodecanese remained occupied until the end of the war in 1945, during which time nearly the entire Jewish population of 6,000 was deported and killed. Only 1200 of these Ladino speaking Jews survived, thanks to their lucky escape to the nearby coast of Turkey with some help from the Italian colonists of Rhodes.

Disappearance of the Italian community

For the nearly 8,000 Italian colonists, after the Italian defeat in WWII, started a process of return to Italy and successive disappearance. The Dodecanese officially passed from Italy to Greece in 1947, and in that year all the Italian schools were closed. Some of the Italian colonists remained in Rhodes and were quickly assimilated. Actually only a few dozen old colonists remain, but the influence of their legacy is evident in the relative diffusion of the Italian language mainly in Rhodes and Leros.

Architectural Legacy

In the Dodecanese remains an architectural legacy [1] from the Italian colonists:

• The Grande Albergo delle Rose (now "Casinò Rodos") built by Florestano Di Fausto e Michele Platania in 1927, with a mix of Arab, Bizantine and Venetian styles.
• The Casa del Fascio of Rhodes, made in 1939 and now the City Hall with typical fascist style.
• The Catholic church S.Giovanni, built in 1925 by Rodolfo Petracco, as a reconstruction of the medioeval church of the St. John's Knights of Malta.
• The Teatro Puccini of the city of Rhodes, now called "National Theater", built in 1937 with 1,200 seats.
• The Villaggio rurale San Benedetto, now "Kolymbia village", built in 1938 as a planned village with all modern services.
• The Community of Portolago (now called "Lakki") in the island of Leros, built in 1938 in typical Italian "Deco style".

Bibliography

• Antonicelli, Franco. Trent'anni di storia italiana 1915 - 1945. Mondadori. Torino, 1961.
• Doumanis, Nicholas. Italians as "Good" Colonizers: Speaking Subalterns and the Politics of Memory in the Dodecanese, in Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller, Italian Colonialism. New York: Palgarve Macmillian. 2005. ISBN 0312236492.
• Manicone, Gino. Italiani in Egeo La Monastica. Casamari, 1989.
• Pignataro, Luca. Le Isole Italiane dell'Egeo dall'8 settembre 1943 al termine della seconda guerra mondiale in "Clio. Rivista internazionale di studi storici", 3(2001)
• Pignataro, Luca. Il tramonto del Dodecaneso italiano 1945-1950 in "Clio. Rivista internazionale di studi storici", 4(2001)

See also

• Italian Empire
• Greater Italia

External Links

• Website about the history of Italian Dodecanese (in Italian)