Ghosts of Ortona

More than twenty years ago, I conducted fieldwork with veterans and civilian survivors of the Battle of Ortona in Italy.

As a young anthropologist, I set out to document people’s recollections of the battle. I soon found myself stuck with questions I couldn’t answer — discrepancies, silences, and emotions I didn’t yet know how to interpret.

Written decades later, Ghosts of Ortona returns to those early conversations, tracing the battle’s long aftermath and the questions that lingered years after the interviews ended. Grounded in extended interviews and archival research, it explores the psychological and moral dimensions of survival, the hidden costs of violence, and how we make sense of war.