[40] The vehicle pulled up at the entrance of the Villa Belmonte on a narrow road known as via XXIV maggio and Mussolini and Petacci were told to get out and stand by the villa's wall. The Frenchdisintegrating all over the mapstopped the Italians cold. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II. Mussolini was laid to rest in a large stone sarcophagus. At the time, Mussolini is said to have remarked "for the blood of Piazzale Loreto, we shall pay dearly". The truth is now unmistakably clear. 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. Among those who had him ousted and arrested was his own son-in-law Gian Galeazo Ciano. 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. Author of. He was wrong. German forces initially decided there would be no rescue before soon changing their minds. The partisans, led by Pier Luigi Bellini delle Stelle and Urbano Lazzaro, recognised one of the fascists, but not Mussolini at this stage. Mussolini abandoning the Prefecture in Milan on 25 April 1945 (believed to be the last photograph of him alive). By the spring of 1945, the war in Europe was over and Italy was broken. 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 Rachele Mussolini recalled that Il Duces excruciating silence hit her the hardest when the couple found out about Brunos accident. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. But Mussolini intended to intimidate the government into submission. Lampredi said that Mussolini's last words were "aim at my heart". We cant see! [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. [74], Outside of Italy, Audisio's version of how Mussolini was executed has largely been accepted and is uncontroversial. [17][18] That evening,[19] with the German army in northern Italy about to surrender and the CLNAI taking control of Milan, Mussolini decided to flee the city. [51], Their bodies were left in a heap, and by 9:00a.m. a considerable crowd had gathered. Italy soon used its military might to invade Greece, but the campaign was unsuccessful and unpopular at home. No!. 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. Now that steel has met steel, one single cry comes from our hearts Viva lItalia! Death of Benito Mussolini - Wikipedia. No autopsy was carried out on Petacci. [6], Before long, it was noted that there were discrepancies between Audisio's original story published in L'Unit, subsequent versions that he provided and the versions of events provided by others. How Did James Brown Die? Additionally, it was better placed for an escape to the Swiss border. [82], They took them out of the house and, at the corner of a nearby lane they were stood against a fence and shot. It was here that he learned Germany had begun negotiations for Mussolinis surrender, which sent him into a fearful rage. The photo of Mussolini's final fate documents a full day of fury acted out on the reviled leader. Repeatedly, he called for a day of vengeance. So, how did Mussolini die? There were differences in Lampredi's account and that of Audisio. [21], By some accounts, on 26 April, Mussolini, now joined by his mistress Claretta Petacci, made several failed attempts to cross the border into Switzerland. Life in Mussolinis Italy was somewhat different from other dictatorships. According to Longo, he did so with the words "go and shoot him". [57] Samples of Mussolini's brain were taken and sent to the United States for analysis. Wikimedia CommonsThe farmhouse in northern Italy where Benito Mussolini would be last seen alive. [75], Until 1947, Audisio's involvement was kept a secret, and in the earliest descriptions of the events (in a series of articles in the Communist Party newspaper L'Unit in late 1945) the person who carried out the shootings was only referred to as "Colonnello Valerio". At the same time, however, he was gaining a reputation as a young man of strange magnetism and remarkable rhetorical talents. In the end, the once-free citizen now had no choice but to follow the regimes slogan: Credere, Obbedire, CombattereBelieve, obey, fight to defend the state!, It was in the realm of foreign policy that Mussolini eventually met his doom. He had a party behind him, of course, the Fascists, and he could call on squads of tough guys in blackshirt uniform (Camicie Nere) to beat down his opponents. His inner circle burned his corpse as Soviet forces closed in. [29] Longo subsequently gave a different story: he said that when he and Fermo Solari[it], a member of the Action Party (which was part of the CLNAI), heard the news of Mussolini's capture they immediately agreed that he should be summarily executed and Longo gave the order for it to be carried out. They took the bodies to the local morgue, where a U.S. Army photographer captured the macabre remains of Mussolini and Petacci. After returning to Italy, he amassed a large following while working as an editor for the socialist magazine Avanti!. But the location wasnt a secret for too long. He was the youngest to ever hold the office and now had a wider audience for his speeches, policies, and worldview than ever before. ]]>*/ And Il Duce was also beginning to realize that Italys military was woefully under-classed. Soon, however, he changed his mind about intervention. And if you failed to look enthusiastic enough or failed to conform in any number of ways, there was an all-seeing secret police force, called the OVRA, lurking in the background, arresting, beating, and killing opponents of the regime. Setelah Jerman menyerah di Italia pada 1945, Benito Mussolini [76] The discrepancies and obvious exaggerations, coupled with the belief that the Communist Party had selected him to claim responsibility for their own political purposes, led some in Italy to believe that his story was wholly or largely untrue.[76]. He needed more than just fiery speeches and violent rhetoric. [81][82] Proponents of this theory have included historians such as Renzo De Felice[83] and Pierre Milza[84] and journalists including Peter Tompkins[82] and Luciano Garibaldi[it];[85] however, the theory has been dismissed by many.[81][82][83]. Palmiro Togliatti, the Secretary-General of the Communist Party, claimed that he had ordered Mussolini's execution prior to his capture. Fascist Italy was, or at least claimed to be, a totalitarian society, in which the state had complete control over the lives of its citizens. At 3:00 am, the corpses were dumped on the ground in the old Piazzale Loreto. As a post-script, in 1966 Mussolini's brain tissue samples, taken at the autopsy, were returned to his widow by, Newspaper articles, journals and websites, John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, "Historic figures: Benito Mussolini (18831945)", "Urbano Lazzaro, The partisan who arrested Mussolini", "Mussolini killed 'on Churchill's orders by British agents', "Winston Churchill 'ordered assassination of Mussolini to protect compromising letters', "Did the Brutal Death of Mussolini Contribute to Hitler's Suicide? On April 25, 1945, Benito Mussolini agreed to meet with anti-Fascist partisans in the palace of Milan. The Italians convinced the West that their former pact with the Nazis was water under the bridge. [67] Ian Kershaw notes that while it is uncertain whether Hitler was told the details of Mussolini's death: if he did learn of the full gory tale, it could have done no more than confirm his anxiety to take his own life before it was too late, and to prevent his body from being seized by his enemies. WebDuring the Second World War, there was one man who was idolised and best friends with Adolf Hitler. Bellini delle Stelle said he challenged Audisio as to why Petacci should be executed. German troops worked alongside the blackshirts to maintain order. On Oct. 29, 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Mussolini prime minister. Il Duces days had been numbered. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini, Jewish Virtual Library - Biography of Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Biography of Benito Mussolini, The National WWII Museum - Death of the Duce, Benito Mussolini, History Learning Site - Biography of Benito Mussolini, Benito Mussolini - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Benito Mussolini - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). [46][note 4], During his dictatorship, representations of Mussolini's bodyfor example pictures of him engaged in physical labour either bare-chested or half-nakedformed a central part of fascist propaganda. His political beliefs took a hairpin turn to the right midway through World War I, when he stopped decrying the war effort and began advocating for it. Whatever he might once have been, he was now a German puppet, beholden to Hitler for his very life. 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. Il Duce tried to wear a Nazi helmet and coat as a disguise in the convoy, but he was instantly recognized. Mussolini was the first child of the local blacksmith. Finally, the pair were buried in an unmarked grave in a Milan cemetery. Hegel, Karl Kautsky, and Georges Sorel, picking out what appealed to him and discarding the rest, forming no coherent political philosophy of his own yet impressing his companions as a potential revolutionary of uncommon personality and striking presence. 3. By May of 1936, the capital city of Addis Ababa fell to the Italian army, which forced emperor Haile Selassie I into a forced exile (via Britannica).). His father was an ardent socialist who worked part-time as a journalist for leftist publications. Although his account most probably is built around the facts, it was certainly embellished. Mussolini and Petacci spent the rest of the night and most of the following day there.[27]. [Long live Italy!]. A cadre of 10 men unceremoniously dumped 18 bodies out of the back. It was never anything more than a German satellite state, and it did German bidding, rounding up and shooting anyone associated with the thriving anti-Axis partisan movement. Mussolini sold the invasion to the Italian people as a method to get jobs to But while Mussolini died in 1945, the ideas he put a name on did not. She also said that she herself had heard the shots and that she "looked at the clock, it was almost 11". [35][36] Audisio used the nom de guerre of "Colonnello Valerio" during his mission. His claims extended to all lands inhabited by Italians, for example in the French districts of Nice, Savoy and Corsica, or the South Tyrol in Austria. 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. Here are 13 facts about one of the darkest political figures of the 20th century. The next month, in November 1940, the Italian fleet was caught at anchor at Taranto by British torpedo bombers. Still not satisfied, partisans rounded up 15 suspected Fascists and executed them in the same fashion. From that moment onward, partisans called this place the Square of the Fifteen Martyrs.. The tee-totaling, vegetarian Hitler had a quiet last lunch, shook hands with the remaining staff, and that afternoon committed suicide with his wife on a couch in his private sitting room. His bald head, deeply set jaw, and piercing brown eyes gave him away. The military had cut out a portion of his brain to test for syphilis. The assassination marked a serious crisis for Mussolinis regime.After Matteottis sudden disappearance, he first denied having anything to do with it. He thanks you for reading his content. Born: July 29, 1883 in Predappio, Italy. [65] Alan Bullock said that news of Mussolini's fate had presumably increased Hitler's determination to avoid capture[66] and William L. Shirer thought that knowledge of the events surrounding Mussolini's death may have strengthened Hitler's resolve not to risk his downfall being turned into a public humiliation. Benito Mussolini was Europes first 20th-century fascist dictator, and the word fascism comes from the far-right movement he led in Italy. 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. 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