War declared

Main article: Military history of Italy during World War II

Cover of Newsweek magazine, 13 May 1940, showing Mussolini saluting navy revue from shore, with
headline "Il Duce: key man of the Mediterranean".

Cover of Newsweek magazine, 13 May 1940, headlined: "Il Duce: key man of the Mediterranean"

As World War II began, Ciano and Viscount Halifax were holding secret phone conversations. The British
wanted Italy on their side against Germany as it had been in World War I.[144] French government
opinion was more geared towards action against Italy, as they were eager to attack Italy in Libya. In
September 1939, France swung to the opposite extreme, offering to discuss issues with Italy, but as the
French were unwilling to discuss Corsica, Nice and Savoy, Mussolini did not answer.[144] Mussolini's
Under-Secretary for War Production, Carlo Favagrossa, had estimated that Italy could not be prepared
for major military operations until 1942 due to its relatively weak industrial sector compared to western
Europe.[146] In late November 1939, Adolf Hitler declared: "So long as the Duce lives, one can rest
assured that Italy will seize every opportunity to achieve its imperialistic aims."[144]

Convinced that the war would soon be over, with a German victory looking likely at that point, Mussolini
decided to enter the war on the Axis side. Accordingly, Italy declared war on Britain and France on 10
June 1940. At 6 p.m., Benito Mussolini appeared on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia to announce that
in six hours, Italy would be in a state of war with France and Britain. After a speech explaining his
motives for the decision, he concluded: "People of Italy: take up your weapons and show your tenacity,
your courage and your valor."[23] The Italians had no battle plans of any kind prepared. This caused FDR
to say that "On this tenth day of June 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of
its neighbor." Mussolini regarded the war against Britain and France as a life-or-death struggle between
opposing ideologies—fascism and the "plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the west"—describing
the war as "the struggle of the fertile and young people against the sterile people moving to the sunset;
it is the struggle between two centuries and two ideas".[147]

Italy joined the Germans in the Battle of France, by launching the Italian invasion of France just beyond
the border. Just eleven days later, France and Germany signed an armistice and on 24 June, Italy and
France signed the Franco-Italian Armistice. Included in Italian-controlled France were most of Nice and
other southeastern counties.[148] Mussolini planned to concentrate Italian forces on a major offensive
against the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East, known as the "parallel war", while expecting the
collapse of the UK in the European theatre. The Italians invaded Egypt, bombed Mandatory Palestine,
and attacked the British in their Sudan, Kenya and British Somaliland colonies (in what would become
known as the East African Campaign);[149] British Somaliland was conquered and became part of Italian
East Africa on 3 August 1940, and there were Italian advances in the Sudan and Kenya with initial
success.[150] The British government refused to accept proposals for a peace that would involve
accepting Axis victories in Europe; plans for an invasion of the UK did not proceed and the war
continued.

Path to defeat

In September 1940, the Italian Tenth Army was commanded by Marshal Rodolfo Graziani and crossed
from Italian Libya into Egypt, where British forces were located; this would become the Western Desert
Campaign. Advances were successful, but the Italians stopped at Sidi Barrani waiting for logistic supplies
to catch up. On 24 October 1940, Mussolini sent the Italian Air Corps to Belgium, where it took part in
the Blitz until January 1941.[151] In October, Mussolini also sent Italian forces into Greece, starting the
Greco-Italian War. The Royal Air Force prevented the Italian invasion and allowed the Greeks to push the
Italians back to Albania, but the Greek counter-offensive in Italian Albania ended in a stalemate.[152]

Events in Africa had changed by early 1941 as Operation Compass had forced the Italians back into Libya,
causing high losses in the Italian Army.[153] Also in the East African Campaign, an attack was mounted
against Italian forces. Despite putting up stiff resistance, they were overwhelmed at the Battle of Keren,
and the Italian defence started to crumble with a final defeat in the Battle of Gondar. When addressing
the Italian public on the events, Mussolini was open about the situation, saying "We call bread bread and
wine wine, and when the enemy wins a battle it is useless and ridiculous to seek, as the English do in
their incomparable hypocrisy, to deny or diminish it."[154] With the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and
Greece, Italy annexed Ljubljana, Dalmatia and Montenegro, and established the puppet states of Croatia
and the Hellenic State.

General Mario Robotti, Commander of the Italian XI Corps in Slovenia and Croatia, issued an order in line
with a directive received from Mussolini in June 1942: "I would not be opposed to all (sic) Slovenes being
imprisoned and replaced by Italians. In other words, we should take steps to ensure that political and
ethnic frontiers coincide".[155]

Mussolini first learned of Operation Barbarossa after the invasion of the Soviet Union had begun on 22
June 1941, and was not asked by Hitler to involve himself.[156] On 25 June 1941, he inspected the first
units at Verona, which served as his launching pad to Russia.[157] Mussolini told the Council of Ministers
of 5 July that his only worry was that Germany might defeat the Soviet Union before the Italians arrived.
[158] At a meeting with Hitler in August, Mussolini offered and Hitler accepted the commitment of
further Italian troops to fight the Soviet Union.[159] The heavy losses suffered by the Italians on the
Eastern Front, where service was extremely unpopular owing to the widespread view that this was not
Italy's fight, did much to damage Mussolini's prestige with the Italian people.[159] After the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, he declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941.[160][161] A piece of
evidence regarding Mussolini's response to the attack on Pearl Harbor comes from the diary of his
Foreign Minister Ciano:

A night telephone call from Ribbentrop. He is overjoyed about the Japanese attack on America. He is so
happy about it that I am happy with him, though I am not too sure about the final advantages of what
has happened. One thing is now certain, that America will enter the conflict and that the conflict will be
so long that she will be able to realize all her potential forces. This morning I told this to the King who
had been pleased about the event. He ended by admitting that, in the long run, I may be right. Mussolini
was happy, too. For a long time he has favored a definite clarification of relations between America and
the Axis.[162]

Italian forces had achieved some success in the regions of Italian-occupied Balkans by suppressing
partisan insurgency in Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania and in Montenegro. In 1942, Italy saw its greatest
extent, as the Italian Regia Marina had controlled most of the Mediterranean Sea. In North Africa,
together with German forces, Italian forces would drive the British forces out of Libya during the Battle
of Gazala. They subsequently pushed towards Egypt with the aim of capturing Alexandria and the Suez
Canal, but the offensive was halted at El Alamein in the summer of 1942. In October 1942, the Italian
forces were severely defeated at the Second Battle of El Alamein by the British and Commonwealth
forces and were driven out of Egypt. The British and Commonwealth forces would continue to push back
the Italians until January 1943, when Italian Libya fell to the Allies.

Following Vichy France's collapse and the Case Anton in November 1942, Italy occupied the French
territories of Corsica and Tunisia. Italian forces would use Tunisia as a base of military operations for the
Tunisian campaign. Although Mussolini was aware that Italy, whose resources were reduced by the
campaigns of the 1930s, was not ready for a long war, he opted to remain in the conflict to not abandon
the occupied territories and the fascist imperial ambitions.[163]

Dismissal and arrest

Main article: Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy

Marshal Pietro Badoglio standing in uniform

Marshal Pietro Badoglio succeeded Mussolini as Prime Minister.

By 1943, Italy's military position had become untenable. Axis forces in North Africa were defeated in the
Tunisian Campaign in early 1943. Italy suffered major setbacks on the Eastern Front and in the Allied
invasion of Sicily.[164] The Italian home front was also in bad shape as the Allied bombings were taking
their toll. Factories all over Italy were brought to a virtual standstill because raw materials were lacking.
There was a chronic shortage of food, and what food was available was being sold at nearly confiscatory
prices. Mussolini's once-ubiquitous propaganda machine lost its grip on the people; a large number of
Italians turned to Vatican Radio or Radio London for more accurate news coverage. Discontent came to a
head in March 1943 with a wave of labour strikes in the industrial north—the first large-scale strikes
since 1925.[165] Also in March, some of the major factories in Milan and Turin stopped production to
secure evacuation allowances for workers' families. The German presence in Italy had sharply turned
public opinion against Mussolini; when the Allies invaded Sicily, the majority of the public there
welcomed them as liberators.[166]

Mussolini feared that with Allied victory in North Africa, Allied armies would come across the
Mediterranean and attack Italy. In April 1943, as the Allies closed into Tunisia, Mussolini had urged Hitler
to make a separate peace with the USSR and send German troops to the west to guard against an
expected Allied invasion of Italy. The Allies landed in Sicily on 10 July 1943, and within a few days it was
obvious the Italian army was on the brink of collapse. This led Hitler to summon Mussolini to a meeting
in Feltre on 19 July 1943. By this time, Mussolini was so shaken from stress that he could no longer stand
Hitler's boasting. His mood darkened further when that same day, the Allies bombed Rome—the first
time that city had ever been the target of enemy bombing.[167] It was obvious by this time that the war
was lost, but Mussolini could not extricate himself from the German alliance.[168] By this point, some
prominent members of Mussolini's government had turned against him, including Grandi and Ciano.
Several of his colleagues were close to revolt, and Mussolini was forced to summon the Grand Council on
24 July 1943. This was the first time the body had met since the start of the war. When he announced
that the Germans were thinking of evacuating the south, Grandi launched a blistering attack on him.
[164] Grandi moved a resolution asking the king to resume his full constitutional powers—in effect, a
vote of no confidence in Mussolini. This motion carried by a 19–8 margin.[165] Mussolini showed little
visible reaction, even though this effectively authorised the king to sack him. He did, however, ask Grandi
to consider the possibility that this motion would spell the end of Fascism. The vote, although significant,
had no de jure effect, since in Italy's constitutional monarchy the prime minister was responsible only to
the king and only the king could dismiss the prime minister.[168]

Despite this sharp rebuke, Mussolini showed up for work the next day as usual. He allegedly viewed the
Grand Council as merely an advisory body and did not think the vote would have any substantive effect.
[165] That afternoon, at 17:00, he was summoned to the royal palace by Victor Emmanuel. By then,
Victor Emmanuel had already decided to sack him; the king had arranged an escort for Mussolini and
had the government building surrounded by 200 carabinieri. Mussolini was unaware of these moves by
the king and tried to tell him about the Grand Council meeting. Victor Emmanuel cut him off and
formally dismissed him from office, although guaranteeing his immunity.[165] After Mussolini left the
palace, he was arrested by the carabinieri on the king's orders without telling him that he was formally
arrested but rather under protective custody, as Victor Emmanuel III was trying to save the monarchy.
The police took Mussolini in a Red Cross ambulance car, without specifying his destination and assuring
him that they were doing it for his own safety.[169] By this time, discontent with Mussolini was so
intense that when the news of his downfall was announced on the radio, there was no resistance of any
sort. People rejoiced because they believed that the end of Mussolini also meant the end of the war.
[165] The king appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio as the prime minister.

line of German soldiers walking with Mussolini

Mussolini rescued by German troops from his prison in Campo Imperatore on 12 September 1943

In an effort to conceal his location from the Germans, Mussolini was moved around: first to Ponza, then
to La Maddalena, before being imprisoned at Campo Imperatore, a mountain resort in Abruzzo where he
was completely isolated. Badoglio kept up the appearance of loyalty to Germany, and announced that
Italy would continue fighting on the side of the Axis. However, he dissolved the Fascist Party two days
after taking over and began negotiating with the Allies. On 3 September 1943, Badoglio agreed to an
Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces. Its announcement five days later threw Italy into chaos;
German troops seized control in Operation Achse. As the Germans approached Rome, Badoglio and the
king fled with their main collaborators to Apulia, putting themselves under the protection of the Allies,
but leaving the Italian Army without orders.[170] After a period of anarchy, they formed a government in
Malta, and finally declared war on Germany on 13 October 1943. Several thousand Italian troops joined
the Allies to fight against the Germans; most others deserted or surrendered to the Germans; some
refused to switch sides and joined the Germans. The Badoglio government agreed to a political truce
with the predominantly leftist Partisans for the sake of Italy and to rid the land of the Nazis.[171]

Italian Social Republic ("Salò Republic")

Main article: Italian Social Republic

four color map of northern Italy with Italian Socialist Republic in tan, 1943

Italian Social Republic (RSI) as of 1943

German military operational zones (OZAV/OZAK) under direct German administration

Only two months after Mussolini had been dismissed and arrested, he was rescued from his prison at the
Hotel Campo Imperatore in the Gran Sasso raid on 12 September 1943 by a special Fallschirmjäger
(paratroopers) unit and Waffen-SS commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors; Otto Skorzeny was also
present.[169] The rescue saved Mussolini from being turned over to the Allies in accordance with the
armistice.[171] Hitler had made plans to arrest the king, the Crown Prince Umberto, Badoglio, and the
rest of the government and restore Mussolini to power in Rome, but the government's escape south
likely foiled those plans.[172]

Three days after his rescue in the Gran Sasso raid, Mussolini was taken to Germany for a meeting with
Hitler in Rastenburg at his East Prussian headquarters. Despite his public support, Hitler was clearly
shocked by Mussolini's dishevelled and haggard appearance as well as his unwillingness to go after the
men in Rome who overthrew him. Feeling that he had to do what he could to blunt the edges of Nazi
repression, Mussolini agreed to set up a new regime, the Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica
Sociale Italiana, RSI),[164] informally known as the Salò Republic because of its seat in the town of Salò,
where he was settled 11 days after his rescue by the Germans. His new regime was much reduced in
territory; in addition to losing the Italian lands held by the Allies and Badoglio's government, the
provinces of Bolzano, Belluno and Trento were placed under German administration in the Operational
Zone of the Alpine Foothills, while the provinces of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pola (now Pula), Fiume (now
Rijeka), and Ljubljana (Lubiana in Italian) were incorporated into the German Operational Zone of the
Adriatic Littoral.[173][174]

Mussolini climbing steps out of a bunker

Mussolini inspecting fortifications, 1944

Benito Mussolini reviewing adolescent soldiers in 1944

A rain-spattered Mussolini reviewing adolescent soldiers in northern Italy, late 1944

Additionally, German forces occupied the Dalmatian provinces of Split (Spalato) and Kotor (Cattaro),
which were subsequently annexed by the Croatian fascist regime. Italy's conquests in Greece and Albania
were also lost to Germany, with the exception of the Italian Islands of the Aegean, which remained
nominally under RSI rule.[175] Mussolini opposed any territorial reductions of the Italian state and told
his associates:

I am not here to renounce even a square meter of state territory. We will go back to war for this. And we
will rebel against anyone for this. Where the Italian flag flew, the Italian flag will return. And where it has
not been lowered, now that I am here, no one will have it lowered. I have said these things to the Führer.
[176]

For about a year and a half, Mussolini lived in Gargnano on Lake Garda in Lombardy. Although he insisted
in public that he was in full control, he knew he was a puppet ruler under the protection of his German
liberators—for all intents and purposes, the Gauleiter of Lombardy.[177] Indeed, he lived under what
amounted to house arrest by the SS, who restricted his communications and travel. He told one of his
colleagues that being sent to a concentration camp would be preferable.[168]

Yielding to pressure from Hitler and the remaining loyal fascists who formed the government of the
Republic of Salò, Mussolini helped orchestrate executions of some of the leaders who had betrayed him
at the last meeting of the Fascist Grand Council. One of those executed was his son-in-law, Galeazzo
Ciano. As head of state and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini used
much of his time to write his memoirs. Along with his autobiographical writings of 1928, these writings
would be combined and published by Da Capo Press as My Rise and Fall. In an interview in January 1945
by Madeleine Mollier, a few months before he was captured and executed, he stated flatly: "Seven years
ago, I was an interesting person. Now, I am little more than a corpse." He continued:

Yes, madam, I am finished. My star has fallen. I have no fight left in me. I work and I try, yet know that all
is but a farce... I await the end of the tragedy and—strangely detached from everything—I do not feel
any more an actor. I feel I am the last of spectators.[178]

Death

Main article: Death of Benito Mussolini

metal cross memorial in Mezzegra Benito Mussolini 28 Aprile 1945

Cross marking the place in Mezzegra where Mussolini was shot

Duration: 53 seconds.0:53Subtitles available.CC

American newsreel coverage of the death of Mussolini in 1945; execution images show persons other
than Mussolini.

On 25 April 1945, Allied troops were advancing into northern Italy, and the collapse of the Salò Republic
was imminent. Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci set out for Switzerland,[179] intending to board a
plane and escape to Spain.[180] Two days later on 27 April, they were stopped near the village of Dongo
(Lake Como) by communist partisans named Valerio and Bellini and identified by the Political Commissar
of the partisans' 52nd Garibaldi Brigade, Urbano Lazzaro. Petacci's brother posed as a Spanish consul.
[181] The assets on Mussolini's convoy at the time of his capture became known as the Dongo Treasure.
[182]

With the spread of the news of the arrest, several telegrams arrived at the command of the National
Liberation Committee for Northern Italy from the Office of Strategic Services headquarters in Siena with
the request that Mussolini be entrusted to Allied forces.[183] In fact, clause number 29 of the armistice
signed in Malta by Eisenhower and the Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio on 29 September 1943, expressly
provided that:

Benito Mussolini, his main Fascist associates and all persons suspected of having committed crimes of
war or similar crimes, whose names are on the lists that will be delivered by the United Nations and
which now or in the future are in territory controlled by the Allied Military Command or by the Italian
Government, will be immediately arrested and handed over to the United Nations forces.[184]

The next day, Mussolini and Petacci were both summarily shot, along with most of the members of their
15-man train, primarily ministers and officials of the Italian Social Republic. The shootings took place in
the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra and were conducted by a partisan leader with the nom de guerre
Colonnello Valerio. His real identity is unknown, but conventionally he is thought to have been Walter
Audisio, who always claimed to have carried out the execution, though another partisan controversially
alleged that Colonnello Valerio was Luigi Longo, subsequently a leading communist politician.[185][186]

Mussolini's corpse

On 29 April 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, Petacci, and the other executed fascists were loaded into a
van and moved south to Milan. At 3:00 a.m., the corpses were dumped on the ground in the old Piazzale
Loreto. The piazza had been renamed "Piazza Quindici Martiri" (Fifteen Martyrs' Square) in honour of
fifteen Italian partisans recently executed there.[187]

corpses hanging by feet including Mussolini next to Petacci at Piazzale Loreto, Milan, 1945

From left to right, the bodies of Bombacci, Mussolini, Petacci, Pavolini and Starace in Piazzale Loreto,
1945

After being kicked and spat upon, the bodies were hung upside down from the roof of a service
station[188][189] and stoned from below by civilians. This was done both to discourage any fascists from
continuing the fight and as an act of revenge for the hanging of partisans in the same place by Axis
authorities. The corpse of the deposed leader was subjected to ridicule and abuse. Fascist loyalist Achille
Starace was captured and sentenced to death, then taken to the Piazzale Loreto and shown the body of
Mussolini, which he saluted just before being shot. His body was strung up beside Mussolini's.

Personal life

Mussolini's first wife was Ida Dalser, whom he married in Trento in 1914. The couple had a son the
following year and named him Benito Albino Mussolini. In December 1915, Mussolini married Rachele
Guidi, who had been his mistress since 1910. Due to his upcoming political ascendency, the information
about his first marriage was suppressed, and both his first wife and son were later persecuted.[58] With
Rachele, Mussolini had two daughters, Edda and Anna Maria; and three sons: Vittorio, Bruno and
Romano. Mussolini had several mistresses, among them Margherita Sarfatti and his final companion,
Clara Petacci. Mussolini had many brief sexual encounters with female supporters, as reported by his
biographer Nicholas Farrell.[190]

Imprisonment may have been the cause of Mussolini's claustrophobia. He refused to enter the Blue
Grotto and preferred large rooms like his 18 by 12 by 12 m (60 by 40 by 40 feet) office at the Palazzo
Venezia.[14]

In addition to his native Italian, Mussolini spoke English, French, and sufficient German to dispense with
an interpreter. This was notable at the Munich Conference, as no other national leader spoke anything
other than his native language; Mussolini was described as effectively being the "chief interpreter".[191]

Religious views

Atheism and anti-clericalism

Mussolini was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother[192] and an anti-clerical father.[193] His mother
Rosa had him baptised into the Roman Catholic Church, and took her children to Mass every Sunday. His
father never attended.[192] Mussolini regarded his time at a religious boarding school as punishment,
compared the experience to hell, and "once refused to go to morning Mass and had to be dragged there
by force."[194]

Mussolini became anti-clerical like his father. As a young man, he "proclaimed himself to be an
atheist[195] and several times tried to shock an audience by calling on God to strike him dead."[193] He
believed that science had proven there was no God, and that the historical Jesus was ignorant and mad.
He considered religion a disease of the psyche, and accused Christianity of promoting resignation and
cowardice.[193] Mussolini is claimed to be superstitious, because after hearing of the curse of the
Pharaohs, he ordered the immediate removal of an Egyptian mummy that he had been gifted from the
Palazzo Chigi.[14]

Mussolini was an admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche. According to Denis Mack Smith, "In Nietzsche he found
justification for his crusade against the Christian virtues of humility, resignation, charity, and
goodness."[196] He valued Nietzsche's concept of the superman, "The supreme egoist who defied both
God and the masses, who despised egalitarianism and democracy, who believed in the weakest going to
the wall and pushing them if they did not go fast enough."[196] On his 60th birthday, Mussolini received
a gift from Hitler of a complete twenty-four volume set of the works of Nietzsche.[197]

Mussolini made vitriolic attacks against Christianity and the Catholic Church, which he accompanied with
provocative remarks about the consecrated host, and about a love affair between Christ and Mary
Magdalene. He denounced socialists who were tolerant of religion, or who had their children baptised,
and called for socialists who accepted religious marriage to be expelled from the party. He denounced
the Catholic Church for "its authoritarianism and refusal to allow freedom of thought ..." Mussolini's
newspaper, La Lotta di Classe, reportedly had an anti-Christian editorial stance.[198]

Lateran Treaty

Main article: Lateran Treaty

Despite making such attacks, Mussolini tried to win popular support by appeasing the Catholic majority
in Italy. In 1924, Mussolini saw to it that three of his children were given communion. In 1925, he had a
priest perform a religious marriage ceremony for himself and his wife Rachele, whom he had married in
a civil ceremony 10 years earlier.[199] On 11 February 1929, he signed a concordat and treaty with the
Roman Catholic Church.[200] Under the Lateran Pact, Vatican City was granted independent statehood
and placed under Church law—rather than Italian law—and the Catholic religion was recognised as
Italy's state religion.[201] The Church also regained authority over marriage, Catholicism could be taught
in all secondary schools, birth control and freemasonry were banned, and the clergy received subsidies
from the state and was exempted from taxation.[202][203] Pope Pius XI praised Mussolini, and the
official Catholic newspaper pronounced "Italy has been given back to God and God to Italy."[201]

Vatican and Italian delegations prior to signing the treaty

After this conciliation, he claimed the Church was subordinate to the State, and "referred to Catholicism
as, in origin, a minor sect that had spread beyond Palestine only because grafted onto the organization
of the Roman empire."[200] After the concordat, "he confiscated more issues of Catholic newspapers in
the next three months than in the previous seven years."[200] Mussolini reportedly came close to being
excommunicated from the Catholic Church around this time.[200]

Mussolini publicly reconciled with the Pope Pius XI in 1932, but "took care to exclude from the
newspapers any photography of himself kneeling or showing deference to the Pope."[200] He wanted to
persuade Catholics that "[f]ascism was Catholic and he himself a believer who spent some of each day in
prayer ..."[200] The Pope began referring to Mussolini as "a man sent by Providence."[198][200] Despite
Mussolini's efforts to appear pious, by order of his party, pronouns referring to him "had to be
capitalized like those referring to God ..."[204]

In 1938 Mussolini began reasserting his anti-clericalism. He would sometimes refer to himself as an
"outright disbeliever", and once told his cabinet that "Islam was perhaps a more effective religion than
Christianity" and that the "papacy was a malignant tumor in the body of Italy and must 'be rooted out
once and for all', because there was no room in Rome for both the Pope and himself."[205] He publicly
backed down from these anti-clerical statements, but continued making similar statements in private.
[citation needed][206]

After his fall from power in 1943, Mussolini began speaking "more about God and the obligations of
conscience", although "he still had little use for the priests and sacraments of the Church".[207] He also
began drawing parallels between himself and Jesus Christ.[207] Mussolini's widow, Rachele, stated that
her husband had remained "basically irreligious until the later years of his life".[208] Mussolini was given
a funeral in 1957 when his remains were placed in the family crypt.[209][210][211]

Views on antisemitism and race

Main articles: Italian Fascism and racism, Manifesto of Race, and Italian racial laws

Over the span of his career, Mussolini's views and policies regarding Jews and antisemitism were often
inconsistent, contradictory, and radically shifted depending on the situation. Most historians have
generally labeled him as a political opportunist when it came to the treatment of the Jews rather than
following a sincere belief. Mussolini considered Italian Jews to be Italians, but this belief may have been
influenced more by his anti-clericalism and the general mood of Italy at the time, which denounced the
abusive treatment of the Jews in the Roman Ghetto by the Papal States until the Unification of Italy.[212]
Although Mussolini had initially disregarded biological racism, he was a firm believer in national traits
and made several generalisations about Jews. Mussolini blamed the Russian Revolution of 1917 on
"Jewish vengeance" against Christianity with the remark "Race does not betray race ... Bolshevism is
being defended by the international plutocracy. That is the real truth." He also made an assertion that
80% of Soviet leaders were Jewish.[213] Yet, within a few weeks, he contradicted himself with the
remark "Bolshevism is not, as people believe, a Jewish phenomenon. The truth is that Bolshevism is
leading to the utter ruin of the Jews of Eastern Europe."[214]
In the early 1920s, Mussolini stated that Fascism would never raise a "Jewish Question" and in an article
he wrote he stated "Italy knows no antisemitism and we believe that it will never know it", and then
elaborated, "let us hope that Italian Jews will continue to be sensible enough so as not to give rise to
antisemitism in the only country where it has never existed."[215] In 1932, Mussolini during a
conversation with Emil Ludwig described antisemitism as a "German vice" and stated that "There was 'no
Jewish Question' in Italy and could not be one in a country with a healthy system of government."[216]
On several occasions, Mussolini spoke positively about Jews and the Zionist movement,[217] although
Fascism remained suspicious of Zionism after the Fascist Party gained power.[218] In 1934, Mussolini
supported the establishment of the Betar Naval Academy in Civitavecchia to train Zionist cadets, arguing
that a Jewish state would be in Italy's interest.[219] Until 1938 Mussolini had denied any antisemitism
within the Fascist Party.[217]

The relationship between Mussolini and Adolf Hitler was a contentious one early on. While Hitler cited
Mussolini as an influence and privately expressed great admiration for him,[220] Mussolini had little
regard for Hitler, especially after the Nazis had his friend and ally, Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrofascist
dictator of Austria, killed in 1934.

With the assassination of Dollfuss, Mussolini attempted to distance himself from Hitler by rejecting much
of the racialism (particularly Nordicism) and antisemitism espoused by the Nazis. Mussolini during this
period rejected biological racism, at least in the Nazi sense, and instead emphasised "Italianising" the
parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build.[221] He declared that the ideas of eugenics and the
racially charged concept of an Aryan nation were not possible.[221] Mussolini dismissed the idea of a
master race as "arrant nonsense, stupid and idiotic".[222]

When discussing the Nazi decree that the German people must carry a passport with either Aryan or
Jewish racial affiliation marked on it, in 1934, Mussolini wondered how they would designate
membership in the "Germanic race":

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.[223]

When German-Jewish journalist Emil Ludwig asked about his views on race in 1933, Mussolini exclaimed:
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, (Houston Stewart) Chamberlain, an Englishman; Woltmann, a Jew; Lapouge, another
Frenchman.[224][225]

In a speech given in Bari in 1934, he reiterated his attitude towards the German concept of a master
race:

Thirty centuries of history allow us to look with supreme pity on certain doctrines which are preached
beyond the Alps by the descendants of those who were illiterate when Rome had Caesar, Virgil and
Augustus.[226][227]

Though Italian Fascism varied its official positions on race from the 1920s to 1934, ideologically Italian
Fascism did not originally discriminate against the Italian-Jewish community: Mussolini recognised that a
small contingent had lived there "since the days of the Kings of Rome" and should "remain undisturbed".
[228] There were even some Jews in the National Fascist Party, such as Ettore Ovazza, who in 1935
founded the Jewish Fascist paper La Nostra Bandiera ("Our Flag").[229]

Front page of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on 11 November 1938: the fascist regime has
approved the racial laws.

By mid-1938, the enormous influence Hitler now had over Mussolini became clear with the introduction
of the Manifesto of Race. The Manifesto, which was closely modelled on the Nazi Nuremberg Laws,[82]
stripped Jews of their Italian citizenship and with it any position in the government or professions. The
racial laws declared Italians to be part of the Aryan race and forbade sexual relations and marriages
between Italians and those considered to be of an "inferior race", chiefly Jews and Africans.[230] Jews
were not permitted to own or manage companies involved in military production, or factories that
employed over one hundred people or exceeded a certain value. They could not own land over a certain
value, serve in the armed forces, employ non-Jewish domestics, or belong to the Fascist party. Their
employment in banks, insurance companies, and public schools was forbidden.[231] While many
historians have explained Mussolini's introduction of the Manifesto of Race as being purely a pragmatic
move to gain favour with Italy's new ally,[232] others have challenged that viewpoint[233] and pointed
out that Mussolini, along with other Fascist officials, had encouraged antisemitic sentiment well before
1938, such as in response to significant Jewish participation in Giustizia e Libertà, a highly prominent
anti-Fascist organisation.[234] Proponents of this viewpoint argue that Mussolini's implementation of
these laws reflected a homegrown Italian flavour of antisemitism distinct from that of Nazism,[235] one
which perceived Jews as being bound to decadence and liberalism[236] and was influenced not just by
Fascist ideology but also by the Catholic Church.[99]

Even after the introduction of the racial laws, Mussolini continued to make contradictory statements
about race.[217] Many high government officials told Jewish representatives that the antisemitism in
Fascist Italy would soon be over.[217] Antisemitism was unpopular within the Fascist party; once when a
Fascist scholar protested to Mussolini about the treatment of his Jewish friends, Mussolini is reported to
have said "I agree with you entirely. I don't believe a bit in the stupid antisemitic theory. I am carrying
out my policy entirely for political reasons."[237] Hitler was disappointed with Mussolini's perceived lack
of antisemitism,[238] as was Joseph Goebbels, who once said that "Mussolini appears to have not
recognized the Jewish question". Nazi racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg criticised Fascist Italy for its lack of
what he defined as a true concept of 'race' and 'Jewishness', while the virulently racist Julius Streicher,
writing for the unofficial Nazi propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer, dismissed Mussolini as a Jewish
puppet and lackey.[239]

Mussolini and the Italian Army in occupied regions openly opposed German efforts to deport Italian Jews
to Nazi concentration camps.[240] Italy's refusal to comply with German demands of Jewish persecution
influenced other countries.[240]

In September 1943 semi-autonomous militarised squads of Fascist fanatics sprouted up throughout the
Republic of Salò. These squads spread terror among Jews and partisans for a year and a half. In the
power vacuum that existed during the first three or four months of the occupation, the semi-
autonomous bands were virtually uncontrollable. Many were linked to individual high-ranking Fascist
politicians.[241] Italian Fascists, sometimes government employees but more often fanatic civilians or
paramilitary volunteers, hastened to curry favour with the Nazis. Informers betrayed their neighbours,
squadristi seized Jews and delivered them to the German SS, and Italian journalists seemed to compete
in the virulence of their anti-Semitic diatribes.[242]

It has been widely speculated that Mussolini adopted the Manifesto of Race in 1938 for merely tactical
reasons, to strengthen Italy's relations with Germany. Mussolini and the Italian military did not
consistently apply the laws adopted in the Manifesto of Race.[240] In December 1943, Mussolini made a
confession to journalist/politician Bruno Spampanato that seems to indicate that he regretted the
Manifesto of Race:

The Racial Manifesto could have been avoided. It dealt with the scientific abstruseness of a few teachers
and journalists, a conscientious German essay translated into bad Italian. It is far from what I have said,
written and signed on the subject. I suggest that you consult the old issues of Il Popolo d'Italia. For this
reason I am far from accepting (Alfred) Rosenberg's myth.[243]

Mussolini also reached out to the Muslims in his empire and in the predominantly Arab countries of the
Middle East. In 1937, the Muslims of Libya presented Mussolini with the "Sword of Islam" while Fascist
propaganda pronounced him as the "Protector of Islam".[244]

Despite Mussolini's ostensible disbelief in biological racism, Fascist Italy implemented numerous laws
rooted in such notions throughout its colonial empire on his orders as well as those of lower-ranking
Fascist officials.[239] Following the Second Italo-Senussi War, Mussolini directed Marshal Pietro Badoglio
to ban miscegenation in Libya, fearing that Italian settlers in the colony would degenerate into "half-
castes" if interracial relationships were permitted.[99] During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the
ensuing Italian colonisation of Ethiopia, Mussolini implemented numerous laws mandating strict racial
segregation between black Africans and Italians in Italian East Africa. These racist laws were much more
rigorous and pervasive than those in other European colonies, comparable in scope and scale to those of
South Africa during the Apartheid era. Fascist Italy's segregationism further differed from that of other
European colonies in that its impetus came not from within its colonies, as was usually the case, but
from metropolitan Italy, specifically from Mussolini himself. Though many of these laws were ignored by
local officials due to the difficulty of properly enforcing them, Mussolini frequently complained to
subordinates upon hearing of instances of them being broken and saw the need to micromanage race
relations as part of his ideological vision.[245]

Legacy

Family

Tomb of Mussolini in the family crypt, in the cemetery of Predappio, sarcophagus with death mask

Tomb of Mussolini in the family crypt, in the cemetery of Predappio

Mussolini and his wife, Rachele Mussolini, had three sons (Vittorio, Romano, and Bruno) and two
daughters, Edda (the widow of Count Ciano) and Anna Maria. Bruno was killed in an air accident on 7
August 1941.
Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Mussolini, is politically active in Italian right circles. She has been
a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Social Alternative movement, a deputy in the
Italian lower chamber and served in the Senate as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. Her
half-sister Rachele Mussolini is also active in politics through Brothers of Italy, the main Italian right-wing
party; she is the daughter of Romano and his second wife Carla Maria Puccini. Caio Giulio Cesare
Mussolini, a great-grandson of Mussolini through Vittorio, is also active in politics in Brothers of Italy.
[246]

Neo-fascism

Main article: Neo-fascism § Italy

Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war
period.[247][248][249][250][251] Although the National Fascist Party was outlawed by the postwar
Constitution of Italy, a number of successor neo-fascist parties emerged to carry on its legacy.
Historically, the largest neo-fascist party was the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano),
which disbanded in 1995 and was replaced by National Alliance, a conservative party that distanced
itself from Fascism (its founder, former foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, declared during an official visit
to Israel that Fascism was "an absolute evil").[252] National Alliance and a number of neo-fascist parties
were merged in 2009 to create the short-lived People of Freedom party led by then Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, which eventually disbanded after the defeat in the 2013 general election. In 2012, many
former members of National Alliance joined Brothers of Italy, led by current Prime Minister of Italy,
Giorgia Meloni.[253]

Public image

In February 2018, a poll conducted by the Demos & Pi research institute found that out of the total 1,014
people interviewed, 19% of voters across the Italian political spectrum had a "positive or very positive"
opinion of Mussolini, 60% saw him negatively and 21% did not have an opinion.[254]

Writings

Giovanni Hus, il Veridico (Jan Hus, True Prophet), Rome (1913). Published in America as John Hus (New
York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1929). Republished by the Italian Book Co., NY (1939) as John Hus, the
Veracious.

The Cardinal's Mistress (trans. Hiram Motherwell, New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1928).
There is an essay on "The Doctrine of Fascism" written by Benito Mussolini that appeared in the 1932
edition of the Enciclopedia Italiana.

La Mia Vita ("My Life"), Mussolini's autobiography written upon request of the American Ambassador in
Rome (Child). Mussolini, at first not interested, decided to dictate the story of his life to Arnaldo
Mussolini, his brother. The story covers the period up to 1929, includes Mussolini's personal thoughts on
Italian politics and the reasons that motivated his new revolutionary idea. It covers the march on Rome
and the beginning of the dictatorship and includes some of his most famous speeches in the Italian
Parliament (Oct 1924, Jan 1925).

Vita di Arnaldo (Life of Arnaldo), Milano, Il Popolo d'Italia, 1932.

Scritti e discorsi di Benito Mussolini (Writings and Discourses of Mussolini), 12 volumes, Milano, Hoepli,
1934–1940.

Four Speeches on the Corporate State, Laboremus, Roma, 1935, p. 38

Parlo con Bruno (Talks with Bruno), Milano, Il Popolo d'Italia, 1941.

Storia di un anno. Il tempo del bastone e della carota (History of a