Camilla Giantomasso DOI Code: 10.1285/i26121581n3p159 Contested memories and dark heritage: The case of the mass rape in Ciociaria CAMILLA GIANTOMASSO 30 In order to fully understand the meaning of dark heritage, it is not enough to admit the existence of a difficult past that brought death and suffering (Macdonald, 2009) and which, therefore, continues to tear apart a community. Such past must be analyzed within its own heritage process. For this to happen, the affected community must have recognized this past as an integral part of its historical and social identity. This, of course, is not an easy task since the population is not always willing to relive a negative memory, which has caused pain and suffering. This is even more evident for the contested memories, those linked to controversial pasts, in which traumas of social and political nature have occurred, and for which there is still no collective work through grief (Gribaudi, 2020; Jedlowski, 1989). Grief becomes a sign of acceptance and reintegration of the wound in the social contest and, without it, such “pasts will not pass” (Rusconi, 1987) and the many memories that gravitate around them will remain homeless, confined to the abyss of oblivion. Traces of these pasts, however, remain in the affected territories, through both storytelling and what the French historian Nora (1984) has defined as lieux de mémoire, i.e. 30 La Sapienza University, Rome (Italy)