how did benito mussolini die

The opposition then kept him locked away in a remote hotel in the mountains of Abruzzi. [35][36] On arrival in Dongo, they met Pier Luigi Bellini delle Stelle, who was the local partisan commander, to arrange for Mussolini to be handed over to them. It worked, and Mussolini was appointed prime minister that same year. If they couldn't, they submitted to binding government arbitration. 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. 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).). These groups began waging campaigns of terrorism and intimidation against Italys leftist institutions at his behest. Mussolinis own Milan newspaper office was barricaded with huge rolls of newsprint paper and barbed wire and guarded by a curious mix of Fascists, police, and Army troops. A woman stepping forward and pumping five bullets into his bodyfor my five dead sons, she said. What was Benito Mussolinis personal life like? [50][51] The choice of location was deliberate. The death of Benito Mussolini on April 28, 1945 was characterized A fitting end to a wretched life, by The New York Times. The Duce, it was said, could recite cantos of Dante from memory. By the spring of 1945, the war in Europe was over and Italy was broken. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They took the bodies to the local morgue, where a U.S. Army photographer captured the macabre remains of Mussolini and Petacci. WebIn all, a dozen people died, but after the march the Fascists inflated that death toll to a whopping and false 3,000 to make their struggle appear all the more heroic. Corrections? On 27 April 1945, a group of local communist partisans attacked the convoy in which Mussolini and Petacci were travelling, near the village of Dongo on the north western shore of Lake Como and forced it to halt. Fascists rounded up 15 suspected anti-Fascist partisans, or people loyal to the new Italy, in Milans Piazzale Loreto. He was placed in charge of a newly established Italian Social Republic in the north (sometimes, for the small town on Lake Garda that was its seat of government, called the Republic of Sal). [35][36] Audisio used the nom de guerre of "Colonnello Valerio" during his mission. Because the teachers at the village school could not control him, he was sent to board with the strict Salesian order at Faenza, where he proved himself more troublesome than ever, stabbing a fellow pupil with a penknife and attacking one of the Salesians who had attempted to beat him. It was here that he learned Germany had begun negotiations for Mussolinis surrender, which sent him into a fearful rage. It was very barbarous. With German SS soldiers looking on, Mussolinis men opened fire and killed them. [13][20] At 8p.m. he headed north toward Lake Como. He thanks you for reading his content. Los Angeles Times Urbano Lazzaro, 81; Resistance Fighter Captured Mussolini. German forces initially decided there would be no rescue before soon changing their minds. 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. The whole world quickly learned about Mussolinis death even Adolf Hitler, isolated in his Fuhrerbunker. [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. The event usually attracts supporters in the thousands and includes speeches, songs and people giving the fascist salute. Undoubtedly, however, the German military was bigger, better equipped, and had better leaders. 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. 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. He and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were captured on 27 April by local partisans near the village of Dongo on Lake Como. [81][88] Commenting on the RAI television documentary in 2004, Christopher Woods, researcher for the official history of the SOE, dismissed these claims saying that "it's just love of conspiracy-making". And to understand why Mussolinis death and its aftermath were so brutal, we must first understand the brutality that fueled his life and reign. A note left behind said the Fascist Party would no longer tolerate the cannibal slurs made by human dregs organized in the Communist Party.. He claimed that on 28 April he convened a "war tribunal" in Dongo comprising Lampredi, Bellini delle Stelle, Michele Moretti and Lazzaro with himself as president. [38][39] After they were picked up, they drove 20 kilometres south to the village of Giulino di Mezzegra. In February 1929 he signed a Concordat with the Vatican, the Lateran Treaty, which brought to an end the hostility between the Church and the Italian government that dated back to 1870, when the Italian state had seized the Papal States. The Italian masses greeted Mussolini's death without regret. 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. And when it did start, Mussolini took his place on the world stage like never before. On April 25, 1945, Benito Mussolini agreed to meet with anti-Fascist partisans in the palace of Milan. Upon concluding Marx was correct on revolution following the war he began to make moves to become a dictator and enact widespread change. In his 20s, he ran a series of newspapers that amounted to propaganda sheets for his increasingly extreme political views. In his own mind, Il Duce felt it should be Italy fighting the French. More than once he was arrested and imprisoned. [6] Although each of these accounts vary in detail, they are consistent on the main facts. Mussolini and Petacci were executed the following afternoon, two days before Adolf Hitler's suicide. We want this, even though we think an execution platoon is too much of an honour for this man. 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). 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. Then, in September, an Italian army of 130,000 men under Marshal Rodolfo Graziani invaded Egypt from the Italian colony of Libya. Joseph Stalins death in March 1953 ended his long and brutal reign as leader of the Soviet Union. Benito Mussolini was the fascist leader of Italy, appointed as prime minister after his march on Rome in 1922. 2. He must be handed over to a tribunal of the people so it can judge him quickly. 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. 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. [52][53] Allied forces began arriving in the city during the course of the morning and an American eyewitness described the crowd as "sinister, depraved, out of control". His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage for neo-fascists and the anniversary of his death is marked by neo-fascist rallies. In 1940, Mussolini took his country into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany but soon was met with military failure. But arresting Il Duce was no longer a viable course of action. Wikimedia CommonsThe farmhouse in northern Italy where Benito Mussolini would be last seen alive. Rachele Mussolini recalled that Il Duces excruciating silence hit her the hardest when the couple found out about Brunos accident. At 3:00 am, the corpses were dumped on the ground in the old Piazzale Loreto. One battleship was sunk and two more disabled, neutralizing the Italian surface navy for the rest of the war. Eventually, in 1957, his remains were allowed to be interred in the Mussolini family crypt in his home town of Predappio. [30] Longo asked another partisan, Aldo Lampredi[it], to go as well because, according to Lampredi, Longo thought Audisio was "impudent, too inflexible and rash". In front of the tomb is a register for visitors paying their respects to sign. 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. Faces of European History: Fact or Fiction? [62] The following day, Hitler killed himself in Berlin, shortly before the city fell to the Red Army. In late 1935, his forces invaded Ethiopia and, after a brief war ending with Italys victory, declared the country an Italian colony. Audisio replied that she had been Mussolini's adviser, had inspired his policies and was "just as responsible as he is". That still wasnt enough. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexanders 18th Army Group. Even worse, Great Britain now sent forces to Greece to oppose him. ]]>*/ Benito Mussolini was born to a poor family in Predappio, a town in northeastern Italy. One version of the subsequent report indicated that he had been shot with nine bullets, while another version specified seven bullets. After writing in a wide variety of socialist papers, he founded a newspaper of his own, La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle). Although his account most probably is built around the facts, it was certainly embellished. However, just because Mussolinis death was now over, doesnt mean the story was. String them up! [56], On 30 April, an autopsy was carried out on Mussolini at the Institute of Legal Medicine in Milan. 504-528-1944. The corpses were pelted with vegetables, spat at, urinated on, shot at and kicked; Mussolini's face was disfigured by beatings. 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. Claras brother, Marcello Petacci, was also shot dead while swimming in Lake Como, trying to escape. Please select which sections you would like to print: Alternate titles: Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, Il Duce, Professor of Modern Italian History, Department of Italian, University College London, London, England. and was expelled from the Socialist Party. Il Duces days had been numbered. Mussolini abandoning the Prefecture in Milan on 25 April 1945 (believed to be the last photograph of him alive). That still isnt the end of the story of Mussolinis death. A fitting end to a wretched life, the New York Times declared, and there were few, either inside or outside of Italy, who disagreed. Additionally, it was better placed for an escape to the Swiss border. 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. He was the youngest to ever hold the office and now had a wider audience for his speeches, policies, and worldview than ever before. [52][53][54] This mode of hanging had been used in northern Italy since medieval times to stress the "infamy" of the hanged. There were differences in Lampredi's account and that of Audisio. She buried her husband properly at his family crypt in Predappio. MUSSOLINI WAS EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL. [37] Other versions of the story were also published, including, in the 1960s, two books setting out the "classical" account of the story: Dongo, la fine di Mussolini by Lazzaro and Bellini delle Stelle and Le ultime 95 ore di Mussolini by Franco Bandini. 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. After Lampredi's account was published, most, but not all, commentators were convinced of its veracity. The list of those who wrecked their homeland is shorter. 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. The generally accepted version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, a communist partisan. As for Benito Mussolinis death, that story wasnt over yet. As that adventure ground to a halt, in October 1940, the Italian army invaded Greece from the Italian colony of Albania. No!. Well, it didnt quite work out that way, as everyone knows. [note 5] The tomb is decorated with fascist symbols and contains a large marble head of Mussolini. On April 28, 1945, Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland. Accounts vary as to how he died: Some say he was killed with coma-inducing injections, others say it was from electric shock treatments. She added, it was as if he had turned to stone. [20], In any event, Longo instructed a communist partisan of the General Command, Walter Audisio, to go immediately to Dongo to carry out the order. 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. The New York Times After Mussolini. She fired five shots into his head at close range; one bullet for each son she lost in Mussolinis failed war. Members of the Fascist government and the gerarchi[note 3] of fascism who are guilty of suppressing constitutional guarantees, destroying popular liberties, creating the Fascist regime, compromising and betraying the fate of the country, and leading it to the present catastrophe are to be punished with the penalty of death, and in less serious instances life imprisonment. Ivanoe Bonomi, the prime minister, later denied that this was said with his government's authority or approval. By April 1945 as Mussolini sensed the defeat of the Germans, he planned to escape to Switzerland with his mistress. They were then hung upside down from a metal girder above a service station on the square. 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. In June 1940, he took the country into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. The test was inconclusive. In it, Lampredi confirmed the key facts of Audisio's story but without the embellishments. 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. Mussolini and Petacci spent the rest of the night and most of the following day there.[27]. Mussolini was the first child of the local blacksmith. It is unclear whether his objective was to attempt to cross the Swiss border or to go to the Valtellina; if it were the latter, he left the city without the thousands of supporters gathered in Milan intended to be his escort to the last stand in the Alps. The partisans, led by Pier Luigi Bellini delle Stelle and Urbano Lazzaro, recognised one of the fascists, but not Mussolini at this stage. Throughout the 1920s, Mussolini remade Italy in his image. Now, Mussolini was in deep. According to Longo, he did so with the words "go and shoot him". This reign of terror came to a head on Aug. 13, 1944. 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. [78][79][80], There have been several claims that Britain's wartime covert operations unit, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was responsible for Mussolini's death, and that it may have even been ordered by the British prime minister, Winston Churchill. But just like that, Mussolinis violent life had come to a violent end. In 1996, a previously unpublished private account written in 1972 by Aldo Lampredi for the Communist Party's archives, appeared in L'Unit. [24][25] In all, over fifty fascist leaders and their families were found in the convoy and arrested by the partisans. [48] Eventually, in August, the body (with a leg missing) was tracked down to the Certosa di Pavia, a monastery not far from Milan. 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. He needed more than just fiery speeches and violent rhetoric. The exact story of Mussolinis death seems to be blurry. This invigorated the crowd even more. Mussolini is on it, somewhere near the top, rivaled , perhaps, only by Hitler. [89][90] The first to put this forward was Franco Bandini in 1978. Even though Hitler was surrounded by Allied troops in Berlin, Italy didnt want to take any more chances with its own destiny. But while Mussolini died in 1945, the ideas he put a name on did not. Mussolini needed a strong military to back up his dictatorship. 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