Stefano Fabei
Ed. "The scarab"
pp. 153
The question posed by Fabei in this book is one of those that cannot be answered. But the author, a graduate in modern literature and currently a professor at the higher education institution "Giordano Bruno" of Perugia, does not like simple stories. In fact, he prefers niche historical research, which, among other things, led him to come across the controversial and little-known figure of Borg Pisani, to whom Defense Online has already dedicated two articles (more). Searching it with a search engine on the web, I realize that the sixth result directly refers to the motivation of the Gold Medal for Military Valor to the memory conferred on him in the '42, reported on the official site of the Navy. A hero then. But no, at least not for everyone. Especially for the official historiography, which unfortunately suffers from serious amnesia when it comes to the events concerning the "losers" of the last war.
Fabei, on the other hand, in the search for the answer to the question "hero or traitor", reconstructs with seriousness and objectivity the story of this unfortunate young Maltese irredentist. His dream was to live in an Italian Malta and he found a support for his ideas in the regime that governed our country at the time. And the regime "welcomed" him willingly and indulged him in the struggle for the ideal in which he believed, up to training him and sending him on a secret mission to his beloved island, "occupied" by the English. A mission ended, even before beginning, in the worst way. He was immediately captured, tried and hanged, as is done with traitors. A traitor, then. No, Borg Pisani is both a hero and a traitor, as two sides of the same coin. Unable to divide them. But reading this book another question arises powerfully: was the regime rather cynically exploiting the figure of the young hero for his own propaganda purposes? Borg Pisani, after his tragic death, became an icon of fascism and in that difficult period, the hierarchs were in desperate need of heroes. But even this question cannot be answered. Too many secrets, too much politics. Proof of this is the story, in history, of the body of the poor young man, whose bones still lie scattered in the ossuary of the cemetery of Casal Paola, in Malta.
Ultimately it is a precious book that, with intellectual precision and honesty, supported by a considerable amount of documents, even official ones, restores history to a figure that, from any point of view is considered, is fascinating, worthy of the utmost respect and also of admiration.
The story of Carmelo Borg Pisani is one of those that are not found in school books, for this reason Fabei's book is even more precious.
Ciro Metuarata
