Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was the leader of the National Fascist Party of Italy and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of fascism.
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister April 6 1922
Mussolini became the 40th Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title II Duce by 1925. After 1936, his official title was “His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism, and Founder of the Empire”.
On 10 June 1940, Mussolini led Italy into World War II on the side of the Axis despite initially siding with France against Germany in the early 1930s. Believing the war would be short-lived, he declared war on France and the United Kingdom in order to gain territories in the peace treaty that would soon follow.
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler
The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one at the outset. While Hitler cited Mussolini as an influence and expressed privately great admiration for him, Mussolini had little regard for Hitler, especially after the Nazis had assassinated his friend and ally Engelbert Dollfuss, the Auto fascist Dictator of Austria in 1934.
With the assassination of Dollfuss, Mussolini attempted to distance himself from Hitler by rejecting much of the racialism and anti-Semitism espoused by the German radical. Mussolini during this period rejected biological racism, at least in the Nazi sense. He declared that the ideas of Eugenics and the racially charged concept of an Aryan nation were not possible.
Mussolini was particularly sensitive to German accusations that the Italians were a mongrelized race. He retaliated by mockingly referring to the Germans’ own lack of racial purity on several occasions. When discussing the Nazi decree that the German people must carry a passport with either Aryan or Jewish racial affiliation marked on it, in the summer of 1934, Mussolini wondered how they would designate membership in the “Germanic race”.
All Jewish passports issued to females by Berlin in World War II had the affiliation mark ‘Sara’ as the middle name confirming they were Jewish
“But which race? Does there exist a German race? Has it ever existed? Will it ever exist? Reality, myth, or hoax of the theorists?
Ah well, we respond, a Germanic race does not exist. Various movements. Curiosity. Stupor. We repeat. Does not exist. We don’t say so. Scientists say so. Hitler says so.”
When German-Jewish journalist, Emil Ludwig, asked about Mussolini’s views on race in 1933, he exclaimed:
German-Jewish journalist, Emil Ludwig
“Race! It is a feeling, not a reality: ninety-five percent, at least, is a feeling. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today. Amusingly enough, not one of those who have proclaimed the “nobility” of the Teutonic race was himself a Teuton. Gobineau was a Frenchman, Chamberlain, an Englishman; Woltmann, a Jew; Lapouge, another Frenchman.”
So, What Happened?
Chronology, 1943:
- July 25 – Mussolini’s government is overthrown and replaced by a new government headed by Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio, the new Italian government arrests Mussolini.
- September 3 – The British 8th Army lands on the mainland of Italy and establishes a base at Calabria.
- September 8 – The Allies announce the surrender of the Badoglio government; Germany responds by sending additional troops into northern and central Italy.
- September 9 – Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, requests information whether Nazi officials are safe, and wants to liberate Mussolini. The American 5th Army lands at Salerno and meets heavy German resistance.
- September 10 – The first German troops and SS men enter Rome.
- September 12 – Himmler repeats his order to free Mussolini, expressing the view that rescue of Mussolini takes priority over all other police activities. German Army excuses and objections will not be accepted.
- September 12 – Otto Skozeny’s kommando unit frees Mussolini. Mussolini leaves immediately for Vienna and then Berlin.
- September 13 – General Kesselring orders disarming of the population of Rome.
- September 15 – Mussolini has dinner with Hitler, Himmler, and Ribbentrop at Hitler’s East Prussian headquarters.
- September 16 – Germany occupies Rome with about 10,000 troops.
- September 16 – Himmler discusses the Jewish question with Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Reich Security Main Office.
- September 18 – Karl Wolff, formerly Himmler’s liaison to Hitler and now appointed Highest SS and Police Leader for Italy, arrives in Rome and begins to work with new Fascist militia.
- September 21 – Germans seize and ship off gold from Italy’s state bank to Milan.
- September 24 – German police attaché in Rome, Herbert Kappler, reports to Berlin that the Vatican had sold some Spanish, Argentinean, Mexican, and Portuguese visas to Jews trying to leave Rome on a train for Spanish diplomats.
- September 26 – Kappler starts to extract gold from Rome’s Jewish community.
- September 29 – Kappler reports that measures against Jews are creating Italian sympathy for them.
- October 6 – Kappler indicates that Wolff had sent (Reich Security Main Office official) Theodor Dannecker to Rome to seize all Italian Jews in lightning actions and forward them to Germany. Although this action could not be carried out in Naples because of unfavourable conditions, preparations for the action in Rome have been concluded.
- October 6 – Kappler receives an order to seize the 8,000 Jews in Rome, who are to be liquidated. A German diplomat suggests use of these Jews for work on fortifications in Italy as an alternative.
- October 11 – Kaltenbrunner issues a stern order to Kappler as follows:
“It is precisely the immediate and thorough eradication of the Jews in Italy which is [in] the special interest of the present internal political situation and the general security in Italy. To postpone the expulsion of the Jews… can no more be considered than the idea mentioned of calling up the Jews in Italy for what would probably be very unproductive labour under responsible direction by Italian authorities. The longer the delay, the more the Jews who are doubtless reckoning on evacuation measures have an opportunity by moving to the houses of pro-Jewish Italians of disappearing completely. [Dannecker] has been instructed in executing the RFSS [Himmler’s] orders to proceed with the evacuation of the Jews without further delay.”
- October 15 Heinrich Mueller, head of the Gestapo, talks with a German Foreign Office official about the difficulties of seizing Jews in foreign countries with limited police manpower. He indicates misgivings about Hitler’s order to roundup the Jews of Rome.
- October 16 Kappler reports to Kaltenbrunner that German forces managed to seize 1,259 Jews in Rome. The Italian police were considered unreliable in this action, and the Italian public engaged in passive resistance. Although the German police had to release the part-Jews, foreign Jews, and families in mixed marriages, they are scheduled to ship off 1002 Jews on October 18.
- October 20 Wilhelm Harster, commander of the Security Police and SD for Italy, reports that the transport of Jews from Rome numbered X70469 left Rome at 9 a.m on October 18 and is travelling by way of Vienna and Prague to Auschwitz.
Mussolini In 1942 Refused to Hand Italian Jews Over To Germany
As is evidently clear by the three top secret documents, that Mussolini played no willing part in any racist laws or delivery of Italian Jews to Germany. The evidence is that in 1942 when he was in charge and had full power, he had refused such a request of handing over Jews to Germany.
By 11th October 1943 the situation became even clearer looking at the telegrams between Berlin and Rome. The documents obtained by OPC Global News and Media Corp one only has to read them to see that it is crystal clear those giving the orders regarding the Italian Jews are in Germany and not Italy.
Mussolini had no power and the relevant period when he was in charge, he refused Himmler to surrender the Jews. It was only after Badoglio came to power that Italy accommodated the Germans.
Mussolini with his family
The role played by Mussolini is clear as is that of the Italian House of Savoia. The question of course that still requires an answer is why these documents were not released to the Italian Electorate in 1948 when the referendum was held and now that they are known what consequences must follow?
By 6th October 1943, the orders regarding the Italian Jews were coming from Berlin and not Rome. In fact, Rome had no choice whatsoever as it was by that time per se occupied by Germany and to all intent and purposes under total occupation. The top-secret letters above are clear evidence of such.
Benito Mussolini and the Italian King have been victims for many years. Victims of what? They both have been accused of racism against the Jews during the Second World War and as a consequence Mussolini was murdered by so-called Italian Patriots and the Italian King exiled until of late.
However, the documents made available show a wholly different picture. But to understand their meaning requires an accurate chronology of events.
There is a letter of report from the Chilean Ambassador, dated 28thDecember, 1942. At that time Mussolini was well in control of Italy, both politically and militarily.
Yet, when Himmler came to Rome asking to amalgamate the Italian and German police and more importantly, to surrender the Italian Jews, Mussolini said no!
At that time, in 1942, he had control of Italy and he plainly refused to surrender the Italian Jews to Germany. This is the evidence of a neutral third party: the Ambassador of Chile. He makes his report with first-hand knowledge.
Therefore, any accusations that Mussolini and/or the Italian King passed racist laws of their own free will are clearly not correct and history has assessed them in error. This document clearly shows that, in 1942, when Mussolini had full control, he refused the ‘request’ of Himmler to transport the Jews in Italy to Germany.
This significantly alters the perspective of Mussolini and the House of Savoia, but the question looms in the air: Why were these documents NOT aired in public in 1946, 1947, 1948, when Italy held its referendum?
Where Are The Mussolini Letters?
Musssolini and his mistress Clara Petacci
In February 2003, the head of the Italian National Archive was forced into confirming that letters written by Benito Mussolini to Clara Petacci between 1933 and 1945, and the official personal diary of Clara Petacci were…….MISSING! It was stated that over 100 kilometres of shelving was searched to no satisfaction.
Now, the problem with this is that the said letters contained some extremely sensitive information (most of which the British Security Services, the NSA not CIA though, and the SVR who were once known as the KGB, already had copies) that even Italian historians were not permitted to see them. They contained not just pillow talk but Mussolini’s missives to Churchill and Roosevelt. Under Italian law, those official diaries and letters should have been made public in December of 2007. But they went missing.
Why should letters and the diary of a mistress go missing just before the attack on Iraq? What was in those letters and diaries that even historians were not allowed to examine?
In the 1950s the relatives of Clara Petacci filed a lawsuit to obtain the return of the diaries. After all, they were the diary of a mistress. What harm could come of their return? The Italian Supreme Court ruled that those diaries were ‘the property of the State’. There were 637 letters and 17 diaries in total that have simply been lost… Quite incredible!
OPC Global News and Media Corp has seen some of those letters and one diary, and the publication of the same in their entirety will once and for all rehabilitate Mussolini into Italian history and expose the real relationship between Italy and Great Britain during that crucial period.
What will be found will highlight the wrong that Mussolini suffered.
Alessandro De Felice (www.alessandrodefelice.it) revealed to Giovanni Di Stefano (several years ago) the English track connected to the communist partisans responsible for the ‘assassination of Benito Mussolini as a result of the correspondence with Winston Churchill.
Watch the videos below where it is explained in more detaill:
Mussolini’s National Fascist Party was banned in the post-war Constitution of Italy, but a number of successor neo-fascist parties emerged to carry on its legacy. Historically, the strongest neo-fascist party was MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano), which was declared dissolved in 1995 and replaced by the National Alliance, which distanced itself from fascism (its leader Gianfranco Fini once declared that Fascism was “an absolute evil”).
Gianfranco Fini
Ironically, these parties were united under Silvio Berlusconi’s House of Freedom coalition and, in 2009, a broad-based group of right-wing parties, including Gianfranco Fini’s National Alliance and Alessandra Mussolini’s Azione Sociale, were merged to create The People of Freedom party – led by the former Prime Minister Berlusconi, who sadly passed away on 12 June 2023.
A Further Mystery
The gun used to kill Mussolini et al was a 1938 7.65mm sub-machine gun. All know that the communists were responsible for his death – the actual murderer was Robert Maccarone, not Walter Audisio, who took his body and others to Piazza Loreto in Milan.
What has not been made so public is that, after hanging in public view, Walter Audisio and Luigi Longo savagely brutalised the remains and kept the corpse in San Vittore Prison in Milan until 13thApril 1945, when it was recovered, owing to a revolt of prisoners in the jail.
British Military Intelligence documents show that both Audisio and Longo would enter San Vittore Jail regularly from May 1945 until April 1946 and perform acts of ‘violation’ on the corpse of Mussolini, until prisoners discovered such and caused the revolt.
Longo died in 1980 – a factor that was noted in the communications between the British Embassy in Rome and Sir Arthur Franks, then head of MI6, who, in turn, strangely sent a note to Sir Howard Smith, then head of MI5.
Luigi Longo
Sir Arthur Franks found that the death of Longo should be communicated to Admiral Turner Stanfield, then head of the CIA, who thought it important enough to notify President Carter.
Longo died on Thursday, 16th October 1980. The death of an Italian politician notified in such a manner. Admiral Stanfield thought the death so important that President Carter should be notified ‘at once’ according to a recorded intercept! Why?
Walter Audisio
Walter Audisio died seven years earlier, on 11th October 1973. Ironically, that day was also a Thursday. It is said that Audisio died of a heart attack. Again, the British Embassy in Rome notified ‘immediately and with some urgency’ Sir Maurice Oldfield, then head of MI6, who in turn notified Sir Michael Hanley at MI5. Oldfield also thought it necessary to notify President Nixon directly! Again, the death of an Italian politician was considered so important.
What the British and the Americans did not want made public was that both Longo and Audisio had violated the body of Mussolini, and since San Vittore jail was under the command of the British and US during the relevant period, and the bodies of Mussolini et al where exposed in Piazza Loreto and guarded by US Army, it was a scandal too great for both 1973 and 1980.
Murder Of Mussolini Was Filmed
On Saturday, 28th April 1945, at exactly 11.05am, at the gates of a villa near Lake Como, Benito Mussolini was murdered (executed) by ‘partisans’ as witnessed by Robert Maccarone, who used the code name of ‘Captain John’ – and worked for the British Military Security Services. There are, in fact, 19 versions of the killing.
What, however, is important is this: the whole murder (execution) was filmed and lasted for 127 seconds.
The negative is kept at The British Embassy in Rome in the ‘Vault Room’ with copies at (a) Public Records Office in Kew, England (b) Storage Vault Basement at the Central Criminal Court in London, England (c) Minister of Interior in Rome and a copy in the main vault at Banca D’Italia (d) NSA in the US after a transfer in 1994 by the CIA.
Autopsy of Mussolini
It is important for Italy and the world to understand that Mussolini was not all bad.
He ruled for many years, and Italy was held in high esteem. Now he is vilified because of the racial laws during the Second World War and the alleged discrimination against Jews.
However, the evidence is that, of about 50,000 Jews during the terrible period, the Fascist Government sent 4,500 to concentration camps and that documents revealed now show that Mussolini did his best to save the Jews from the Germans.
Concentration camps were actually devised first and foremost by the British and not the Nazis but, nevertheless, less than 10% of the Jewish population in Italy ended up in concentration camps.
It is strange thus that the current King of Italy and Mussolini should be so vilified for that very reason. For example, 8,900 Italians (non-Jews) went to concentration camps, more than the Jewish contingency. So, more Italians went to concentration camps in Poland than Jews from Italy.
Princess Mafalda of Savoia sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where she tragically died aged 41
If the Italians today held a grudge against Mussolini and the Italian Royal Family because Italians were sent to concentration camps (including Princess Mafalda of Savoia), then it is quite understandable, but one cannot mourn and remember only the Jews that were sent to concentration camps from Italy. Either all remember everyone that suffered, or everyone mourns their own dead!
Before one writes off Mussolini and the Italian Royal Family, one must remember that not only the Jews suffered, all suffered.
Tomb of Mussolini in the family crypt in the cemetery of Predappio
- What was Mussolini carrying during his final escape attempt, and what happened to it?
In the final days of the war Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland. The Duce was carrying a portfolio of documents and three suitcases packed with banknotes and 65 kilos of gold bullion, the total value estimated at the time to be around 90 million dollars. Both the documents and the gold disappeared following his capture. After the war, the communists were blamed. A trial was held in Padua with 35 defendants and almost 400 witnesses, but the men who personally knew about the affair had been killed in mysterious circumstances. Near the end of the trial, one of the Jurors committed suicide and a mistrial was declared.
- What did Churchill, visiting Rome in 1927, have to say about Mussolini?
“What a man! I have lost my heart! . . . Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world. . . . If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely from the beginning of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passion of Leninism.”
Mussolini’s wife, Rachele, said that her husband exchanged secret correspondence with Churchill, letters he was carrying with him when he fled Italy. After Benito was executed, the letters disappeared. Rachele claimed that the reason Churchill came to Lake Garda (the area of Mussolini’s final government) for his first vacation after the war, supposedly to paint, was actually to remove any trace of his contacts with Mussolini.
However, some of the correspondence has been found and shared with Giovanni Di Stefano and kept by Alessandro De Felice
©Gdistefano/Alessandro De Felice
Edited by Caroline A Bayford
Previously published 16 June 2013
NB: Some images retrieved from Google, will remove at owner’s request.