[10][11][12] As the German forces retreated, the CLNAI declared a general uprising in the main northern cities. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Benito Mussolini served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943, and his death marked the end of a brutal era in Italian history. Benito Mussolinis reaction to Brunos death Family close to Benito Mussolini reported that the dictator was heartbroken at the loss of his second son. [35][37] In the afternoon, he, with other partisans, including Aldo Lampredi and Michele Moretti, drove to the De Maria family's farmhouse to collect Mussolini and Petacci. and was expelled from the Socialist Party. On arriving in the city in the early hours of 29 April, they were dumped on the ground in the Piazzale Loreto, a suburban square near the main railway station. In the afternoon of the desecration of the corpses, both American troops arrived and a Catholic cardinal arrived. Also Known As: Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini. He once more became a schoolmaster, this time in the Venetian Alps, north of Udine, where he lived, so he confessed, a life of moral deterioration. But soon tiring of so wasteful a life, he returned to trade-union work, to journalism, and to extreme politics, which led yet again to arrest and imprisonment. At least twelve different individuals have, at various times, been claimed to be the killer. Joseph Stalins death in March 1953 ended his long and brutal reign as leader of the Soviet Union. Soon, however, he changed his mind about intervention. [91], Other theories have been published, including allegations that not only Luigi Longo, subsequently leader of the Communist Party in post-war Italy, but also Sandro Pertini, a future President of Italy, carried out the shootings. He would strip to the waist to address farmers in the hot sun or pose wrestling with a lion cub. So successful was this paper that in 1912 he was appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper, Avanti! At the age of 19, a short, pale young man with a powerful jaw and enormous, dark, piercing eyes, he left Italy for Switzerland with a nickel medallion of Karl Marx in his otherwise empty pockets. Benito Mussolini was Europes first 20th-century fascist dictator, and the word fascism comes from the far-right movement he led in Italy. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Site of execution: entrance to the Villa Belmonte. In the early morning, an end-run round the Italian southern flank by the 4th Indian Division achieved total surprise, catching the Italians in their beds. What was Benito Mussolinis personal life like? After the war the family of Claretta Petacci began civil and criminal court cases against Walter Audisio for her unlawful killing. Photographs and videos taken on that day have preserved this historic event forever. The two were executed in 1943 by Italian partisans as they tried to escape to Switzerland, and their bodies were hung upside down in Milan. Italy soon used its military might to invade Greece, but the campaign was unsuccessful and unpopular at home. There, people were still out of work, starving, and thus feeling rebellious. Containing both labor and management, their task was to negotiate labor settlements. More than once he was arrested and imprisoned. info@nationalww2museum.org 2 In May 1939, Mussolini signed the Pact of Steel with Adolf Hitler. With the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy bringing a final collapse of the German army's Gothic Line in April, total defeat for the Sal Republic and its German protectors was imminent. He took his mistress, Clara Petacci, and fled north where the pair joined a German convoy headed to the Swiss border. She buried her husband properly at his family crypt in Predappio. German commandos crash-landed gliders into the side of the mountain behind the hotel before freeing Mussolini and airlifting him back to Munich, where he could confer with Hitler. Fighting the Allies during the North African campaign of 1942-1943, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommels Afrika Korps (DAK) was resupplied by a concerted air and sea lift effort. WebBenito Mussolini , , Politiker, Italien, 1925-1943/45 Diktator Italiens, Die Leichen Mussolinis und seiner letzten, Begleiter auf dem Piazzale Loreto View of the cenotaph of Arnaldo and Sandro Mussolini, in which it is believed the coffin with the remains of The test was inconclusive. The Week How Did Italys Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini Die? The next morning, the partisans ordered the pair to stand against a brick wall near the entrance of Villa Belmonte, near Italys Lake Como and a firing squad shot the couple down in a barrage of gunfire. 3 Benito Mussolini, in full Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, byname Il Duce (Italian: The Leader), (born July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italydied April 28, 1945, near Dongo), Italian prime minister (192243) and the first of 20th-century Europes fascist dictators. The treaty that Hitler hated even more than the Treaty of Versailles and one of the most important treaties you have probably never heard of. When Benito Mussolini, the tyrannical ruler of Fascist Italy before and during World War II, was executed on April 28, 1945, it was only the beginning. But of course, almost all of this was mythologicalunreal! Stories circulated in Italy to reinforce the image. Anxious that he would lose claim to conquered European lands as Hitler advanced, Mussolini entered the war in 1940. The crowd yelled, Higher! He advocated violence as a way to effect change, particularly when it came to the advancement of trade unions and safety for workers. Enter Rachele Mussolini or Donna Rachele, as she became known to the world. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Word of Benito Mussolinis death spread quickly. As an adult, Benito Mussolini would have two wives and many mistresses. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexanders 18th Army Group. American razor blades, it was said, were inadequate to cut his tough beard. At the Arcadia Conference, held in Washington, DC, from December 24, 1941 to January 14, 1942, the Western Allies agreed to a Germany First policy to govern global strategy, but the question where to engage Germany, and when, remained unsettled. According to Lonati, he and "John" went to the De Maria farmhouse in the morning of 28 April and killed Mussolini and Petacci at about 11:00a.m.[82][87] In 2004, the Italian state television channel, RAI, broadcast a documentary, co-produced by Tompkins, in which the theory was put forward. This article is part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible byBank of America. Il Duce tried to wear a Nazi helmet and coat as a disguise in the convoy, but he was instantly recognized. [89][90] The first to put this forward was Franco Bandini in 1978. Accounts vary as to how he died: Some say he was killed with coma-inducing injections, others say it was from electric shock treatments. After advancing 50 miles, Graziani halted at Sidi Barrani in order, he said, to begin construction of a paved supply road back to Libya, something that would have taken months even under peacetime conditions. Whatever he might once have been, he was now a German puppet, beholden to Hitler for his very life. In this case, its hard to argue with the New York Times: a fitting end to a wretched life.. And Il Duce was also beginning to realize that Italys military was woefully under-classed. He began adult life as a staunch socialist opposed to the war in the footsteps of his father. Members of the Fascist Party tortured anyone with opposing views, deported anyone with a non-Italian name, and maintained an iron grip in the north. The death of the gassed Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini took place on April 28, 1945, in the last days of World War II in Europe, when he was executed by an Italian partisan in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy. There it stayed for eleven years, until Italian Prime Minister Adone Zoli turned over the bones to Mussolinis widow. They surrendered their liberty in return for the appearance of stability and order. In his initial overtures into politics, Mussolinis beliefs took after his fathers: he spent time organizing with trade unions and writing for socialist publications in both Switzerland and Italy. Whatever you call him, Mussolini cut an incredible public figure in the 1930s: strutting on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in comic opera style in front of 100,000s of people chanting Duce! I read utter exhaustion, but not fear Mussolini seemed completely lacking in will, spiritually dead. In June 1940, he took the country into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Italy entered the conflict in June 1940, declaring war on an already beaten France and launching an invasion of the Savoy region. Now that steel has met steel, one single cry comes from our heartsViva lItalia! And like his mother, he was arrested and locked away in a mental hospital, where he died in July 1942 at the age of 27. In 1996, a previously unpublished private account written in 1972 by Aldo Lampredi for the Communist Party's archives, appeared in L'Unit. When he returned to Italy in 1904, even the Roman newspapers had started to mention his name. [20][75] At least 12 different individuals have been identified at various times as being responsible for carrying out the shooting. [CDATA[/* > WebThe death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by an Italian partisan in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy.The generally accepted version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, a communist Wikimedia CommonsAdolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Munich, Germany, circa June 1940. [2], Shortly after the Armistice, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the Gran Sasso raid by German special forces, and Hitler installed him as leader of the Italian Social Republic, a German puppet state set up in northern Italy and based at the town of Sal near Lake Garda. Order was restored to Italian economic life, and old days of strikes and factory occupations were ended. During World War I, he renounced socialism and adopted fascism. The farmhouse in northern Italy where Benito Mussolini would be last seen alive. And when it did start, Mussolini took his place on the world stage like never before. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [72], The anniversary of Mussolini's death on 28 April has become one of three dates neo-fascist supporters mark with major rallies. ] It was the birth cry of fascism. [48][49], In the evening of 28 April, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci, and the other executed fascists were loaded onto a van and transported south to Milan. After Lampredi's account was published, most, but not all, commentators were convinced of its veracity. On the evening of Mussolini's capture, Sandro Pertini, the Socialist partisan leader in northern Italy, announced on Radio Milano: The head of this association of delinquents, Mussolini, while yellow with rancour and fear and trying to cross the Swiss frontier, has been arrested. If they couldn't, they submitted to binding government arbitration. Virtually every land on earth has a creator figure, a father of his country: Charlemagne for the French, Peter the Great for the Russians, George Washington for the Americans. The corpse turned up four months later in a monastery near Milan. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. After a lengthy legal process, an investigating judge eventually closed the case in 1967 and acquitted Audisio of murder and embezzlement on the ground that the actions complained of occurred as an act of war against the Germans and the fascists during a period of enemy occupation. We cant see! [63] In accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, his body was immediately burned with petrol, leaving virtually no remains.[64]. Learn about Benito Mussolini, his rise to power, and role in World War II. A simple slogan summed it up: Il DUCE, the Italian people were told, ha sempre ragione! (The Duce is always right!). The next day, their captors brought the pair to the small town of Giulino de Mezzegra on the shores of Lake Como and executed them in a hail of machine gun fire. The former led to Mussolinis overthrow and imprisonment; the latter to the surrender of Italy, even though German troops soon occupied the entire country and carried on the fight against the Allies from Italian soil. Then, they took to beating and kicking it. Not only did they fail to conquer tiny Greece, the Greeks counterattacked, drove the Italians back across the Albanian border, and for a time threatened to destroy Mussolinis army altogether. The Concordat was a popular move in Catholic Italy, and a plebiscite in May gave Mussolini 98% of the vote. WebHow Benito Mussolini Died In the meantime, Il Duce and his mistress had risen late. Throughout the 1920s, Mussolini remade Italy in his image. 3. The documentary went on to claim that the later shootings at the Villa Belmonte were subsequently staged as part of the "cover up". A mixed force of SS and paratroopers under Otto Skorzeny carried out a high-risk glider raid, overcame Mussolinis guards, and spirited him off the mountain. It worked, and Mussolini was appointed prime minister that same year. But Mussolinis political orientation didnt always lean that way. The bodies of Mussolini and Petacci were taken to Milan and left in a suburban square, the Piazzale Loreto, for a large angry crowd to insult and physically abuse. A cadre of 10 men unceremoniously dumped 18 bodies out of the back. [35][36] Audisio used the nom de guerre of "Colonnello Valerio" during his mission. The documentary included an interview with Dorina Mazzola who said that her mother had seen the shooting. He called himself the Duce, from the old Latin word dux (chief or boss). His new location would put him in closer proximity to the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Schuster, whom he hoped to use as an intermediary to negotiate with the Allies and the partisans. It was here that he learned Germany had begun negotiations for Mussolinis surrender, which sent him into a fearful rage. Mussolini had promised his people Roman glory, but his megalomania had overcome his common sense, Then, the final indignity: the posthumous desecration. At noon, given a lunch of polenta in their upstairs bedroom, Mussolini told Petacci that he had lost his appetite; suspense over their fate was getting to him. He was later rescued by the Germans and placed as the man in charge of northern Italy. The whole world quickly learned about Mussolinis death even Adolf Hitler, isolated in his Fuhrerbunker. KOMPAS.com - Benito Mussolini adalah seorang politisi yang dikenal sebagai diktator fasis Italia antara 1925-1945. In late 1914, with World War I newly underway, he founded a newspaper called The People of Italy. In fact, there has never been a determination by any governmental or judicial authority of a particular version of events. The tomb has become a neo-fascist place of pilgrimage. He resigned from Avanti! World War II began later that year in September. Lonati was interviewed for the documentary and claimed that when he arrived at the farmhouse: Petacci was sitting on the bed and Mussolini was standing. [4], Slowly fighting their way up the Italian Peninsula, the Allies took Rome and then Florence in the summer of 1944 and later that year they began advancing into northern Italy. Well, it didnt quite work out that way, as everyone knows. With Allied armies driving north into the Lombard plain and with well-armed partisan bands active everywhere, Mussolini tried to make a run for it. Claras brother, Marcello Petacci, was also shot dead while swimming in Lake Como, trying to escape. But while Mussolini died in 1945, the ideas he put a name on did not. These politics included the themes of racial superiority, xenophobia, and imperialism that defined his actions as a dictator. WebThe death of Benito Mussolini on April 28, 1945 was characterized A fitting end to a wretched life, by The New York Times. On 27 April 1945, Benito Mussolin i and his mistress Clara Petacci , together with other fascist leaders, were travelling in a German convoy near the village of Dongo on the north western shore of Lake Como. However, to reflect this lack of governmental or judicial authority, sources on the subject have used the term with quotation marks. Il Duces days had been numbered. Still, he voraciously read the works of great European philosophers like Immanuel Kant, Georges Sorel, Benedict de Spinoza, Peter Kropotkin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Karl Marx. I said I could not shoot Petacci, so John said he would shoot her himself, while making it quite clear that Mussolini however, had to be killed by an Italian. 2. Claras eyes stared blankly into the distance. They were those of Mussolini, the Petaccis, and the 15 suspected Fascists. The country was battered, and it was, many thought, all Il Duces fault. The list of those who wrecked their homeland is shorter. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II. Duce! He built up an elaborate cult of personality around himself. Keystone/Getty ImagesBenito Mussolini lies dead in Milans Piazza Loroto with his mistress, Clara Petacci. Togliatti said he had done so by a radio message on 26 April 1945 with the words: Only one thing is needed to decide that they [Mussolini and the other fascist leaders] must pay with their lives: the question of their identity. Some of these same folk had probably chanted Duce! In the post-war years, the "official"[note 1] version of Mussolini's death has been questioned in Italy (but, generally, not internationally) in a manner that has drawn comparison with the John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. Four months later it was recovered by the authorities who then kept it hidden for the next eleven years. [51], Their bodies were left in a heap, and by 9:00a.m. a considerable crowd had gathered. Fearing that Mussolini and Petacci might be rescued by fascist supporters, the partisans drove them, in the middle of the night, to a nearby farm of a peasant family named De Maria; they believed this would be a safe place to hold them. The death of Benito Mussolini on April 28, 1945 was characterized A fitting end to a wretched life, by The New York Times. [60][61] Earlier that day, Hitler had recorded in his Last Will and Testament that he intended to choose death rather than be captured by the enemy or fall into the hands of "the masses" to become "a spectacle arranged by Jews". Facing pressure on the home front due to increasingly stressful wartime conditions and rebelliousness from within his own ranks, Benito Mussolini was removed from office by the king and the Grand Council in July of 1943. Author of. At one time, he had been one of the most celebrated statesmen in the world. Lampredi said that Mussolini's last words were "aim at my heart". [35][39][42] The generally accepted version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, a communist partisan. However, the "official" explanation, with Audisio as Mussolini's executioner, remains the most credible narrative. Audisio himself did not speak publicly about it until he published his account in a series of five articles in L'Unit later that month (and repeated in a book that Audisio later wrote which was published in 1975, two years after his death). [68], After his death and the display of his corpse in Milan, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in the Musocco cemetery, to the north of the city. The opposition then kept him locked away in a remote hotel in the mountains of Abruzzi. The economy was based on a system he called corporatism: Italian economic life was organized into 22 corporations, representing all industries in a major area of production, like agriculture or metallurgy, from raw materials through production to distribution. [30], Although several conflicting versions and theories of how Mussolini and Petacci died were put forward after the war, the account of Walter Audisio, or at least its essential components, remains the most credible and is sometimes referred to in Italy as the "official" version. Some Fascists came along and disinterred him a year later, absconding with it to a convent in the region of Lombardy, but the government was able to recover it and bury it at a Milan monastery. Los Angeles Times Urbano Lazzaro, 81; Resistance Fighter Captured Mussolini. The man who once boasted that he was going to restore the glories of ancient Rome, wrote the Times, "is now a corpse in a public square in Milan, with a howling mob cursing and kicking and spitting on his remains. Indeed, the scene was grisly: the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci dangling upside down by their heels in front of a gas station in Milans Piazzale Loreto. The exact story of Mussolinis death seems to be blurry. A Tale of Two Lebanons: Stuck Between Hezbollah and a Republic. Zoli, who also came from Predappio and knew Mussolini's widow, Rachele, was reliant on the far right to support him in Parliament. [69][70], The authorities then arranged for the body to be hidden at a Capuchin monastery in the small town of Cerro Maggiore where it remained for the next eleven years. Initially, Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave but, in 1946, his body was dug up and stolen by fascist supporters. Benito Mussolini, in full Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, byname Il Duce (Italian: The Leader), (born July 29, 1883, Predappio, Italydied April 28, 1945, near Dongo), Italian prime minister (192243) and the first of 20th-century Europes fascist dictators. Located and dug up by a young fascist, Domenico Leccisi, and a Republic beating and it! Credible narrative Zoli turned over the bones to Mussolinis widow was buried an. Buried in an unmarked grave but, in 1946, Mussolini entered War! 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