Il vicebrigadiere Salvo D’Acquisto. Vittima del dovere, eroe della Resistenza, martire della carità

Salvo D’Acquisto, executed 22 September 1943 after having admitted (despite his innocence) to planting a bomb which had killed two German soldiers, was a twenty-three years old carabiniere from Naples. He had accused himself in order to save the other hostages captured with him in retaliation. His story has been retold many times in different forms such as biographies, films, weekly magazines, comics, and even websites. His narrative has been shaped into that of a hero and a saint, patterned accordingly to the 19th-century stereotype of the carabiniere as a “Martyr to duty”, to the Catholic model of the young soldier of Christ whilst borrowing elements from two opposing rhetorical systems, that of Fascism and of the Resistance. The resulting combination provides a multi-faceted model which formed a significant part of Italian society’s deep imaginary in the second half of the twentieth century. This process of reception has transformed the figure of this young and corageous carabiniere into a powerful yet controversial national icon.