The saying “history is written by the victors” is commonly attributed to Winston Churchill. However, its true origin is unknown. What we can say without a doubt is that the expression has been applicable to the many ups and downs of human history. Whoever emerges on top in a struggle controls the narrative.

Sometimes the losing side’s story turns into one of the war casualties: the losers are portrayed as unprepared, insurgents, the wrongdoers in every way. We forget that in times of war each side can be guilty of inflicting cruelty and both are prone to the same bloodlust.

Nowadays, however, winning and loosing have become relative terms. There are even times when history is not simply rewritten: sometimes it is entirely forgotten. Sometimes a historical event is never spoken of again because doing so is better for all involved: it is too embarrassing, too damaging to the reputations of entire countries. At other times the event is lost in the general confusion, when there is so much history being made, good and bad, that keeping track of it all is simply impossible and some falls through the cracks.

In the increasingly globalized world we live in, one in which we can no longer afford large-scale wars, the divide is no longer as black and white as victor and vanquished. Instead, we have mediators and negotiations. There are back room deals, treaties and agreements: diplomacy at work.

From the last months of the second World War, and well into the period of peace treaties that followed, this precise phenomenon occurred. Something happened, and it was swiftly forgotten: what the Italians call “Massacri delle Foibe,” the Foibe  Massacres.

The term “foiba” was attached to the massacres because of its meaning in Italian: a deep karst sinkhole. As the image above illustrates, these sinkholes were the natural weapon used to commit the massacre.

As Tito took control of the government in what was then Yugoslavia and his troops took over the country by force, these encroached on territories that had been in both Italian and Yugoslavian hands since the first World War. The future dictator and tyrant wanted to reclaim the territory he saw as rightfully Yugoslavian. In their revolutionary spirit, their bloodlust, and reflecting the heavy prejudice that many Balkan states had against Italians, the troops murdered thousands of the inhabitants of Northeastern Italy by throwing them into the many sinkholes that are characteristic of the mountainous area. Italy was in disarray because of the recent collapse of the Fascist government: troops had no one to report to, resources could not be allocated, and the victims were left to fend for themselves.

It was a tragedy in every sense of the word, yet anyone reading this piece will be surprised to hear this ever even happened.

With the second World War still in the rearview mirror, and the Cold War quickly approaching on the horizon, the context of time weighed heavily upon the two countries. Whether dealing with (or facing) another genocide was too much to bear for European morale, or governments didn’t want to exacerbate tensions in the area from the long-standing dispute over the region, or even because of sheer embarrassment, these events occurred without creating any sort of turmoil, and for a long time without consequence.

Today Italians have the “Day of Remembrance” in honor of the victims lost to the sinkholes of their landscape, yet most of the world is still unaware of these events.

So, was history once written by the victors? Absolutely. However, in more modern times, there seems to be a new phenomenon emerging. As disputes and tragedies are no longer solved via war, diplomacy takes the reins. In the case of the decision to not react to the Foibe Massacres, there were many factors in play that contributed to the Italian state’s silence: the separation between Tito and Stalin after Yugoslavia refused to become a Soviet satellite state; the problem of fascist war criminals the state did not want to be forced to deliver to Yugoslavia if they went public with the massacres; the fact that by the 1960s tensions had eased between the two countries. So the government remained mum until the 1990s, when scholarly books and tales of survivors emerged and became increasingly available to the public. With a new government in place and the memory of Fascist times behind it, Italy chose a day out of the year and dedicated it to the massacres.

History used to be written by the victors, now diplomacy steers and determines the narrative of History.

There is always a larger plan at play, a bigger picture to think about, small-scale sacrifices in the name of the greater good. The world of international relations is no longer one of straightforward ‘attack and defend.’ It is a game of chess. One move can be deceptive; three moves can decide the fate of the entire game. It is easy to sit in our safe, millennial bubble looking back on the mistakes of the past, in this case judging the hypocrisy that comes with diplomacy: the constant compromises between humanitarian issues and the long-term needs of a country.  I could continue this piece and lament, “the Italian government sold out its own people to avoid dealing with an infuriated Yugoslavia!” However, kicking and screaming won’t change the events of the past, nor will it prevent anything like this from happening again.

Instead, we must strive to remember. Once something is uncovered, we should not waste time on blaming those from a time that is past. Rather, it must be our priority to preserve those memories, no matter how belatedly we find them.