Italian resistance movement
- Alto Monferrato (Sep-2 Dec)
- Alto Tortonese (Sep-Dec)
- Bobbio (7 Jul - 27 Aug)
- Cansiglio (Jul-Sep)
- Carnia (Jul-Oct)
- Friuli Orientale (30 Jun - Sep)
- Imperia (Aug-Oct)
- Langhe (Sep-Nov)
- Montefiorino (17 Jun - 1 Aug)
- Ossola (10 Sep - 23 Oct)
- Val Ceno (10 Jun - 11 Jul)
- Val d'Enza e Val Parma (Jun-Jul)
- Val Maira e Val Varaita (Jun - 21 Aug)
- Val Taro (15 Jun - 24 Jul)
- Valli di Lanzo (25 Jun - Sep)
- Valsesia (11 Jun - 10 Jul)
- Varzi (19/24 Sep - 29 Nov)
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April 25
On April 19, 1945, concurrent with the renewal of the Allied offensive, the CLN called out a general insurrection. Bologna was liberated on April 21 by Polish and Brigata Maiella troops. Parma and Reggio Emilia were liberated on April 24. Milano and Torino were liberated on April 25. Last German troops left Genoa on April 26, when General Meinhold surrendered to the CLN.
Allied troops arrived in the liberated cities in the next days.
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The toll of Nazi and Fascist retaliation
The April uprising showed to the world that not all Italians agreed with the Fascist rule. Furthermore, it proved that Italians were even prepared to fight against Fascist rule at great cost to themselves. Casualties from the uprising amounted to:
- Approximately 44,700 Italian partisans killed
- Approximately 21,200 Italian partisans wounded or disabled
- Approximately 15,000 Italian civilians killed in retaliations
- Approximately 40,000 former Italian soldiers died in concentration camps
During the war, German and Italian Fascist soldiers committed a number of other war crimes including:
- Summary Executions
- Ransacking
- Retaliations against civilians
Most of these were common practices.
Some of the most notorious events were the Ardeatine massacre, the Marzabotto massacre, and the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre. Captured partisans or civilians were often tortured. The Decima Flottiglia MAS, an Italian unit under German command, is now remembered as one of the most ruthless military corps of the war.
The Germans profited greatly from the weakness of the Fascist puppet state in Northern Italy. The Germans determined that they would annex Italian territories into the Third Reich. Two new German regions were to be established. One was the Alpenvorland and it was to comprise the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and the Province of Belluno. The other was Adriatisches Kustenland and it was to comprise Istria, Quarnero, and most of today's region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In the valley of Carnia, anti-Communist forces from the Soviet Union under the command of ataman Timofey Ivanovich Domanov were used; they were promised the establishment of a Cossack republic in Northeastern Italy, to be called Kosakenland.[3]
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Capture and execution of Mussolini
Around 27 April 1945, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by partisans while trying to escape to Switzerland. Upon the arrival of Communist partisans under "Lieutenant-Colonel Valerio" (Walter Audisio), Mussolini, Petacci, several high-ranking Fascist officials, and some other Fascist hanger-ons were taken to Dongo. On April 28 they were summarily executed. Many of the corpses, including those of Mussolini and Petacci, were later taken to Milan and hung up-side down in a square in the centre of the city, called "Piazzale Loreto". A total of fifteen Fascists were thus exhibited.
The Fascists executed in Dongo included: Benito Mussolini (Il Duce), Francesco Barracu (Undersecretary in cabinet office), Fernando Mezzasoma (Ministry of Popular Culture - Propaganda), Nicola Bombacci (A personal friend of Mussolini), Luigi Gatti (Mussolini's private secretary), Pisenti Liverani (Minister of Communications), Alessandro Pavolini (ex-Ministry of Popular Culture), Paolo Zerbino (Minister of Interior), Ruggero Romano (Minister Public Works), Paolo Porta (Head of Fascist Party in Lombardy), Alfredo Coppolo (Rector of the Bologna University), Ernesto Daquanno (Director of Stefani agency), Mario Nudi (President of Fascist Agriculture Association), Colonel Vito Casalinuovo (Mussolini's adjutant), Pietro Calistri (Air Force pilot), Idreno Utimperghe (possibly a journalist or Black Shirt leader), and Clara Petacci (Mussolini's mistress).
Achille Starace (Secretary of Fascist Party 1931-1939) was arrested and executed earlier in Milan. He was one of the fifteen Fascists exhibited in the square.
Marcello Petacci (Clara Petacci's brother) was captured with the others. But, rather than being executed in Dongo, he was shot trying to escape.
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See also
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References
- ^ [1], pp. 22-23
- ^ H-Net Review: Andrea Peto <petoand@ceu.hu> on Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943-45
- ^ repubblica partigiana della carnia
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External links
- (Italian) ANPI - Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia
- La mappa delle Repubbliche partigiane provides a source for the List of partisan governments
- ANPI Section of Rimini
- ANPI Section of Pesaro-Urbino
- (Italian) ANCFARGL - Associazione Nazionale Combattenti Forze Armate Regolari Guerra di Liberazione
- (Italian) INSMLI - Istituto Nazionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione in Italia
- (Italian) Il portale della guerra di Liberazione
- 1943-1945: Anarchist partisans in the Italian Resistance
- European Resistance Archive
- Book: War In Italy: By Richard Lamb
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