The A. analyses the development of the Italian legislation concerning the victims of WWII from the relevant prewar provisions to the broadening of public care during the conflict and in the immediate postwar years - a quite interesting key to gain a deeper insight into the growth of State intervention in the field of public health and social security over the first half of the past century, since the Great War gave a decisive impulse to the active presence of the State at this level, as a number of studies have convincingly demonstrated. Also in the Italian case, the issue of war victims led to a frantic governmental action (up to some forty measures in the sole period 1915-1918), paired with a harsh political dispute between the supporters of State intervention in the social sphere and the defenders of the traditional principles of liberal society.
Keywords: Military pensions, welfare state, war victims, ONIG, ANMIG