tough ones too, and to be united in shouldering all responsibilities. What disturbs us as an obscure element in the Priebke case is that it makes us aware that we are still a long way from taking this decision. That goes for young people and old alike, and not just Italians. Everyone has washed his hands of the problem: we have laws, let’s leave this wretch to the courts.

Naturally today we might say that, after the Rome verdict, this joint capacity to define the intolerable is even farther off. But it was too far away even before the trial. And this is what continues to torment us—the (unconfessed) realization that we are jointly responsible.

So let’s not ask ourselves for whom the bell tolls.

1 A reference to the leader of Italy’s Northern League, Umberto Bossi, who claims that the league «ce l’ha duro» (literally, has a hard cock).

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1 A former chairman of RAI TV, Italy’s national network, whose position was decidedly conservative.

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2 The powerful information and entertainment conglomerate owned by Silvio Berlusconi, TV magnate, former prime minister, and now the leader of Italy’s centrist Forza Italia party.

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3 One of the grand old men of Italian journalism.

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1 A play on words: in Italian, sogno means «dream.»

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1 Erich Priebke is a former SS officer recently extradited from Argentina to stand trial in Italy for war crimes: reprisals that took the form of a mass execution of civilians at the Ardeatine Caves in Rome. He was absolved on a technicality: the statute of limitations.