Current Students

Alberto Murru

The Collaboration between the Political Police of Fascist Italy and the Third Reich: The role of the political police reveals much about how fascist dictatorships functioned, and how they co-operated. However, while much has been written about the police in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, little comparative or relational work exists. Research into the entangled relationship between the Gestapo and the Italian police would thus be an original contribution to our understanding of both regimes and contribute to an emergent field of research. Therefore my main research question is: What can be learned from the collaboration between and transnational practices of the political police forces of Fascist Italy and the Third Reich? Focusing initially on a German-Italian police agreement signed in 1936 (which promoted cross-border persecution of anti-fascism, establishing systems of surveillance even outside their own jurisdictions), this project aims to examine the collaboration between the police forces in the wider context of the developing relationship between the two regimes. Specifically, investigating both German and Italian source, it will explore how the police co-operated, the extent to which fascist ideology influenced police behaviour, and the criteria established for differentiating between political crimes and ‘ordinary’ civil and criminal offences.

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/hca/history/research/students/alberto-murru/

Supervisory Team: Dr Claudia Baldoli, History, Classics and Archaeology (Newcastle), Prof. Tim Kirk, History, Classics and Archaeology (Newcastle), Dr Robert Dale, History, Classics and Archaeology (Newcastle), Dr James Koranyi, History (Durham).

Start Date: October 2017