The «Santa Milizia». Nurses narrate the Great War

Abstract

Thanks to three contributions from nurses serving in the Italian Red Cross, this essay provides the opportunity to reflect on women’s memoirs arisen from World War I. In three different locations and instances, in which Red Cross nurses performed their assistance service it is possible to draw a picture of their state of mind and of their convictions. Their reactions developed in a conflict that resulted more challenging and long lasting than expected, a conflict that tested rooted beliefs and that produced a vivid memory, which is still the subject of historical analysis.