Il Duce and His Women

by Roberto Olla

  GAVRILO PRINCIP (1894–1918)

  A revolutionary from the nationalist group known as Young Bosnia, at the age of nineteen he organized, with five other subversives, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on 18th June 1914 in Sarajevo. Only he and Nedeljko Cabrinovic were arrested. He died in prison in Terezín from tuberculosis and repeated beatings.

  MASSIMO ROCCA (AKA LIBERO TANCREDI, 1884–1973)

  A journalist, politician and contributor to Avanti!, where he met Mussolini, Rocca (who used the pen name Libero Tancredi) was an interventionist during the First World War. He contributed to Il Popolo d’Italia and founded, together with Giuseppe Bottai, the magazine Critica fascista (Journal of Fascist Criticism), where he condemned the more extreme forms of Fascism and the activities of terror squads. For his radical stance following the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, he was expelled from the Fascist Party and was forced to flee to France. He restored his links with Fascism during the period of the Italian Social Republic.

  ALFREDO ROCCO (1875–1935)

  A jurist and politician, Rocco taught at the universities of Urbino, Parma and finally Rome. Elected as a deputy in 1921, he became President of the Chamber of Deputies in 1924. He was Minister for Justice between 1925 and 1932 and the author of the new penal code commissioned by the Fascist regime. He was appointed as a senator in 1934.

  PINO ROMUALDI (1913–88)

  A journalist and politician, Romualdi was among the founding members of the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement. He was born in Predappio, the same town as Mussolini. This contributed to the legend that Romualdi was one of the Duce’s illegitimate sons. After enlisting as a volunteer during the Second World War, he joined the Italian Social Republic. During this period he openly boasted about the anti-Semitic activities and deportations of Jews carried out by the Fascist regime. Sentenced to death after the end of the war, he was pardoned following the general amnesty decreed by the Justice Minister Palmiro Togliatti in 1946.

  CESARE ROSSI (1887–1967)

  A journalist who contributed to many socialist newspapers including Il Popolo d’Italia, Rossi was one of Mussolini’s closest associates. After the March on Rome he became chief press officer to the new regime. However, he became estranged from the Fascist movement after he was one of the people on whom Mussolini tried to lay responsibility for the killing of the Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti. The Duce ordered his arrest in June 1924, but he was released in December 1925, after which Rossi escaped to France. He was arrested again by the Fascist police in 1928. In 1947, during the second Matteotti trial, he was arrested but later released without charge due to lack of evidence.

  MARIA RYGIER (1885–1953)

  A writer for many socialist newspapers, Rygier was an interventionist during the First World War and contributed to Il Popolo d’Italia. Having become opposed to Fascism, she sought refuge in France in 1926.

  ANTONIO SALANDRA (1853–1931)

  Salandra was Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Rome, a conservative politician, a deputy, a member of several executives and Prime Minister from March 1914 to June 1916. In later life he became a senator.

  GAETANO SALVEMINI (1873–1957)

  A famous historian, politician, socialist and anti-Fascist. He lost his wife and his five children in the Messina earthquake in 1908. During the First World War his position was one of democratic interventionism. Elected as a deputy in 1919, he took a strong anti-Mussolini stance. After being arrested and tried, he escaped to Paris and subsequently Great Britain and the United States, where he taught at Harvard. He continued his activities in the USA, Great Britain and France over the course of the Second World War, at the end of which he returned to Italy. In 1955 he was the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Oxford.

  PRINCE AIMONE OF SAVOY-AOSTA, DUKE OF AOSTA (1900–48)

  Prince Aimone was the Duke of Spoleto and a commander in the Italian navy. He became Duke of Aosta in 1942 when his elder brother Amedeo died in a British prison camp in Kenya. The same year, he was crowned King of Croatia with the name Tomislav II. He abdicated in 1943 without ever having set foot in his kingdom. He married Irene, Princess of Greece, who bore him only one son, Amedeo, born during the war. After the end of the war he went into exile, as did the rest of the male offspring of the House of Savoy, and died suddenly in Argentina aged forty-eight.

  ELENA OF MONTENEGRO, PRINCESS OF SAVOY (1873–1952)

  Born in Montenegro, Elena became Queen of Italy when she married Victor Emmanuel III, with whom she had five children: Umberto, Yolanda, Giovanna, Mafalda and Maria Francesca. Very popular with the Italian people, she followed her husband into exile after the referendum on the abolition of the monarchy in 1946.

  GIOVANNA OF SAVOY (1907–2000)

  The third daughter of Victor Emmanuel III and Elena of Savoy, Giovanna became Queen of Bulgaria when she married King Boris III, who died in 1943, possibly the victim of a Nazi poison plot. Giovanna was forced into exile together with her children. The heir to the throne, Simeon, a child at the time, returned to Bulgaria after the fall of the Communist regime and was elected prime minister.

  MARIA JOSÉ OF SAVOY (1906–2011)

  Princess of Belgium, in 1930 Maria José married Umberto, the heir to the throne of Italy. The couple had little in common, and their marriage was not a happy one, although they had four children together. The Princess had received a cosmopolitan education, was an art lover and was openly anti-Fascist. The relationship between her and Mussolini was marked by a mutual diffidence and coldness. In particular, she supported the Partisan movement during the Second World War. Although she was in effect separated from her husband, she also went into exile after the referendum on the abolition of the monarchy. She was allowed to return to Italy only after the death of Umberto.

  UMBERTO II OF SAVOY (1904–83)

  The only son of Victor Emmanuel III and Elena of Savoy, Umberto was the Prince of Piedmont, the heir to the throne, and married Maria José, Princess of Belgium, with whom he had four children. He became king on 9th May 1946, after the abdication of his father, Victor Emmanuel III. On 2nd June of the same year, a referendum transformed Italy into a republic. Although the monarchy lost by a very narrow margin and there are still suspicions of vote-rigging, the “King of May” – as Umberto was nicknamed – accepted the result, wishing to avoid a further split in an already divided and war-ravaged country. He died alone, in exile at Cascais in Portugal, having long since been abandoned by his wife, Maria José.

  VICTOR EMMANUEL III OF SAVOY (1869–1947)

  The son of Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy (Umberto’s cousin), Victor Emmanuel was King of Italy from 1900 to 1946, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1936 to 1943 and King of Albania from 1939 to 1943. His reign spanned two world conflicts and the twenty years of Fascist rule. He remains a controversial figure to this day, having abandoned Italy after the Armistice on 8th September 1943. In an attempt to save the monarchy, on 9th May 1946 he abdicated in favour of his son Umberto. He went into exile in Alexandria with his wife Elena.

  ANGELO SBARDELLOTTO (1907–32)

  An Italian anarchist with a criminal record, Sbardellotto was arrested in 1932 and found in possession of a fake passport and a gun. Sentenced to death for having planned the assassination of the Duce, he was executed at the age of twenty-five after a forced confession and a brief trial.

  EDOARDO SCARFOGLIO (1860–1917)

  A poet, author and journalist, Scarfoglio married the writer Matilde Serao in 1885. Together, they founded Il Mattino di Napoli (still the most widely read newspaper in southern Italy). He was a friend of Gabriele D’Annunzio and a major figure in cultural and social circles in Italy towards the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.

  MIKE (MICHELE) SCHIRRU (1899–1931)

  Born in Sardinia, Schirru emigrated at a very young age to the United States, where he became a naturalized Americ
an. He was linked to the anarchist movement and took part in the struggle to support Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, anarchists accused of murdering two people during a robbery in Massachusetts in 1920. In 1931 he travelled to Rome with a plan to kill Mussolini, but he was arrested, probably after being betrayed. Condemned to death, he was executed the day after his arrest.

  ALFDREDO ILDEFONSO SCHUSTER (1880–1954)

  A Benedictine monk, Schuster was ordained as a priest in 1904. In 1918 he became Abbot of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. He was a member of the Amici Israel association, an organization established by the Catholic Church to fight anti-Semitism and racism. He became Archbishop of Milan in June 1929 and cardinal the following month. On 13th November 1938 he preached a sermon against the recently approved Fascist racial laws in the Duomo of Milan. After the demise of the Italian Social Republic, in a climate of general insurrection, he organized a meeting between Mussolini and the leaders of the Resistance in his archbishopric. When the bodies of Mussolini and other Fascists were hung by their feet at Piazzale Loreto, Schuster demanded respect for all corpses, as he had done the previous year when he had asked the Germans to remove the Partisans’ bodies from that same square. In 1952 he was appointed the first president of the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana (Italian Episcopal Conference).

  MARIO SIRONI (1885–1961)

  A painter, scenographer and architect, Sironi studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and then moved to Milan, where he joined the Futurist movement. He contributed to Il Popolo d’Italia, Mussolini’s newspaper, as an illustrator, and there befriended Margherita Sarfatti and became a member of the Novecento group. He was the major contributor to the 1932 Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution in Rome.

  OTTO SKORZENY (1908–75)

  An Austrian-born SS officer, in July 1943 Skorzeny was ordered to form a special commando unit to execute Operation Eiche, a rescue mission to liberate Mussolini, then imprisoned in a hotel at the top of the Gran Sasso mountains. After the successful completion of the mission, he was placed at the head of the Special Operations department of the Reich’s security service. He was one of the organizers of the harsh reprisals following the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on 20th July 1944. Captured in May 1945, he was tried and fully acquitted of all charges. According to some theories, Skorzeny organized the escape of many SS officers from Germany at the end of the war.

  GEORGES EUGÈNE SOREL (1847–1922)

  A civil engineer by training, Sorel moved to the fields of philosophy and sociology, becoming a theorist of revolutionary syndicalism. His most famous book is Reflections on Violence, published in 1905 in a trade-union journal, and three years later in book form. Sorel was a fierce opponent of the First World War and later a supporter of the Russian Revolution and Bolshevism.

  ACHILLE STARACE (1889–1945)

  An ordinary soldier, Starace was promoted to the rank of officer of the Bersaglieri corps during the First World War and received several decorations. He was one of Mussolini’s most trusted men, described by the Duce as “the mastiff of the Fascist revolution”. He was the founder of the Combatants’ League in Trento and, in 1923, was entrusted with the task of creating the Voluntary National Security Militia. He was elected as a deputy in 1924, and Mussolini appointed him Secretary of the Fascist Party in 1931. When, in 1939, support for the Fascist regime began to wane, Mussolini dismissed him. After the 8th September 1943 he joined the Italian Social Republic, but Mussolini gave him no active role. He was captured by the Partisans on 28th April 1945 and executed by firing squad the following day in Piazzale Loreto, where the bodies of Mussolini, Claretta Petacci and other Fascists had been amassed.

  MAX STIRNER (1806–56)

  Born Johann Kaspar Schmidt, the German philosopher Max Stirner was one of the first theorists of anarchist individualism. He studied at the University of Berlin under, among others, Hegel. He belonged to a group of young followers of Hegel, which included Bruno Bauer, Ludwig Feuerbach, Engels and Marx. His most famous work is Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (The Ego and Its Own), first published in 1845.

  KURT STUDENT (1890–1978)

  A Luftwaffe general and the commander of the German paratroopers during the Second World War, Student was responsible for planning Operation Eiche, the mission to liberate the imprisoned Mussolini in 1943. He was involved in the defence of Normandy in 1944, and later captured and held in custody by the British until 1948.

  DON LUIGI STURZO (1871–1959)

  Of noble birth, Sturzo was a priest and a political leader. Having been ordained in 1894, he gained a degree in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome two years later. He became involved in politics and in 1905 was elected as a councillor for the province of Catania. In 1919 he founded the Italian People’s Party. He opposed Fascism and achieved the withdrawal of Catholic members of parliament from the first Mussolini government. He lost the support of the Vatican (which was involved in secret negotiations in connection with the Lateran Pacts) and was forced into exile in London, Paris and finally New York. At the end of the war he returned to Italy, and seven years later he was appointed a senator for life.

  DON PIETRO TACCHI VENTURI (1861–1956)

  A Jesuit priest and historian, Tacchi Venturi was the intermediary and main point of contact between Mussolini and Pius XI during the negotiations leading up to the Lateran Pacts. He also mediated in the dispute between the Duce and the Pope over the question of the education of young people.

  ENRICO TELLINI (1871–1923)

  Tellini was a general in the Italian army who took part in the war between Italy and Turkey in 1911 and later in the First World War. In 1923 he was dispatched by the League of Nations as the head of a mission to patrol the border between Greece and Albania, and was killed in an ambush near the city of Ioannina.

  REGINA TERRUZZI (1862–1951)

  A teacher and socialist writer, Terruzzi was a member of the Lega per la Tutela dei Diritti delle Donne (League for the Protection of Women’s Rights) as well as the founder of the Socialist Women’s Union. During the First World War she was an interventionist and warmed to Mussolini’s ideas, later taking a critical stance against the violence of the Fascist terror squads.

  PALMIRO TOGLIATTI (1893–1964)

  Togliatti was one of the founders of the Communist Party and its secretary from 1927 until his death. He was also one of the most powerful members of the Comintern. In 1944 he became Deputy Prime Minister and the following year the Minister for Justice. In June 1946 he issued a general amnesty, resulting in the release of thousands of Fascist prisoners. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1946 and remained a member of parliament throughout his life.

  ARTURO TOSCANINI (1867–1957)

  After studying the cello and composition at the conservatoire, in 1886 Toscanini, who was then nineteen, was offered the opportunity to direct an orchestra. He became the greatest conductor of his time. In 1898 he was invited to conduct at La Scala in Milan. He also conducted at the Met in New York and at Bayreuth, and he directed the inaugural concert of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra (later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra). He joined the Fascist movement in 1919, but subsequently became a fierce opponent of the regime and sought refuge in the United States, where the NBC Symphony Orchestra was founded for him. He returned to Italy after the war to conduct again at La Scala, restored after the bombings. In 1949 he was appointed a senator for life.

  CLAUDIO TREVES (1869–1933)

  A journalist, socialist and anti-Fascist leader, Treves took on the editorship of Avanti! in 1910. During the First World War he was an anti-interventionist. Only after the Battle of Caporetto in October-November 1917 did he change his position in favour of a pact of national unity as a reaction to the humiliating defeat suffered by the Italians. In 1906 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. In 1926 he went into exile, first in Switzerland and later in France.

  FILIPPO TURATI (1857–1932)

  A lawyer, journali
st and socialist leader, Turati was among the founding members of the Socialist Party in 1892. He was elected as a deputy in 1896. He was an anti-interventionist during the First World War, but moved to an interventionist position after the defeat at Caporetto in 1917. In 1926 he fled to France to escape from the Fascist regime.

  GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901)

  The great Italian composer had his first opera performed at La Scala in Milan in 1839. After a disastrous reception of his second work, Un giorno di regno (King for a Day) in 1840, his Nabucco was performed at La Scala in 1842 and was a roaring success. From then on he wrote a new opera almost every year, with increasing success, coming to be perceived as the greatest living opera composer. Verdi was a patriot and a supporter of the Risorgimento movement. He was elected as a deputy in the first parliament of unified Italy in 1861 and became a senator for life in 1874.

  OLINDO VERNOCCHI (1888–1954)

  Vernocchi was one of the major figures of the Socialist Party and co-edited Avanti!, the party’s official newspaper, with Pietro Nenni and Riccardo Somigliano. He was the last secretary of the Socialist Party before the advent of the Fascist dictatorship. He tried, unsuccessfully, to escape to France in 1927. Mussolini did not place him in forced internment, probably for reasons of political propaganda, wanting to show that he could afford to leave such a prominent Socialist at liberty. He was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly in 1946.