ABSTRACT This article examines the analogical use of Holocaust memory within Italian mass Catholic culture during the Indochinese refugee crisis (1978-1980), at the beginning of John Paul II’s pontificate. The study aims to reconstruct the origins and functioning of the parallels established between the Jewish genocide and the exodus of the boat people, analyzing how the Italian Catholic press reworked the traumas of the past to interpret the present. The theoretical framework adopted is Michael Rothberg’s concept of the “multidirectional memory.” The research investigates the use of symbols associated with Nazi extermination camps, reinterpreted through the lens of Christian tradition. It identifies three levels of comparison: the analogy between the persecuting regime and Nazism, the parallel between refugees and Jews, and the comparison between the silence of Western powers in the past and in the present. Through the analysis of covers, cartoons, photomontages, and articles authored, the analysis demonstrates that these rhetorical and visual strategies were not driven solely by humanitarian or apolitical aims. Rather, they enabled Italian Catholics to reinterpret their relationship with the past in redemptive and identity-building terms, overcoming historical guilt and reinforcing the “myth of the good Italian.” At the same time, the mobilization against indifference and the rhetoric of “never again” functioned as effective instruments of self-legitimation, aimed at reaffirming the role of the Church as a moral and spiritual guide.
issue 29 / n.1 (2026)
