Claretta

by R. J. B. Bosworth

  99.See ibid. For his memorial at Campo Verano, see http://www.inmiamemoria.com/scatole_dei_ricordi/Petacci/Benvenuto/Petacci_Benvenuto___556894.php (accessed 4 February 2016).

  100.Francesco Saverio Petacci, ‘Prefazione’, pp. 7–10.

  101.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 19 January 1941.

  102.Claretta Petacci, Mussolini segreto, p. 240.

  103.Ibid., p. 275.

  104.Claretta Petacci, Verso il disastro, p. 41.

  105.Ibid., p. 207.

  106.Nino D’Aroma, Mussolini segreto, pp. 431–2.

  107.Luigi De Vincentis, Io son te, p. 17.

  108.Piero Saporito, Empty balcony (London: V. Gollancz, 1945), p. 109 fn. 1.

  109.Spartacus, Claretta, p. 28.

  110.Zita Ritossa, ‘Mia “cognata” Claretta Petacci’, p. 36.

  111.Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, 103, 10 May 1938, M. Petacci to Sebastiani; 16 May 1938, M. Petacci to Sebastiani; 2 September 1938, Sebastiani to M. Petacci; 16 January 1939, Sebastiani to Ministry of Education and separate note.

  112.Ibid., Ministry of the Navy to Sebastiani.

  113.Ibid., note, 14 August 1938.

  114.Ibid., 25 August 1938, M. Petacci to Sebastiani; 22 September, 3 October 1938, Goiran reports.

  115.Ibid., undated note [1942].

  116.Franco Rovere, Vita amorosa di Claretta Petacci, p. 125. Rovere claimed that a Hungarian, who wanted to obtain Italian citizenship, sold it for 1 million lire, when it was worth seven. He was pressured to do so by the ubiquitous Buffarini Guidi. For a further summary omitting Buffarini Guidi, see Paolo Valente, Porto di mare: Frammenti dell’anima multiculturale di una piccola città europea. Italiani (e molti altri) a Merano tra esodi, deportazioni e guerre (1934–1953) (Trento: Temi 2005), pp. 199–204; Cf. Myriam Petacci, Chi ama è perduto, pp. 37, 207.

  117.The cadastral record registers the successive sales and the price of 1.625 million lire but neither confirms nor denies rumour of sharp dealing. See Libro fondiario, catasto fondiario e urbano, Ufficio del libro fondiario di Merano (Provincia autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige), 837/1654/2016.

  118.The villa’s architectural history has been recorded by a sometime tenant from Sweden. See Gunvor Björkman, Schildhof (Stockholm: Ivar Halggstroms Büktryckeri AB, 1959).

  119.Guardian, 13 October 2009.

  120.Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, 103, M. Petacci plan, 21 February 1943.

  121.Mimmo Franzinelli, I tentacoli dell’Ovra, p. 261; Mauro Canali, Le spie del regime (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2004), pp. 245–55.

  122.Carte Petacci 5/83, 4 June 1939, Riccardi to [F.S. Petacci]; 5 May 1941, Riccardi to ‘Donna Clara’; 20 October 1941, Riccardi to F.S. Petacci; 6 November, 6 December 1942, 12 March, 16 April 1943, Riccardi to ‘Donna Clara’.

  123.Galeazzo Ciano, Diary 1937–1943, p. 467.

  124.Ibid., p. 486. For a scandalous report of longstanding corrupt financial dealings between Osio and Riccardi, cf. Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, 91, 28 January 1943.

  125.Myriam Petacci, Chi ama è perduto, p. 247.

  126.The memorandum is published in Roberto Festorazzi, Claretta Petacci, pp. 293–307. This version includes further detail assembled after July 1943.

  127.Galeazzo Ciano, Diary 1937–1943 (ed. Renzo De Felice) (London: Phoenix Press, 2002), pp. 532–3; cf. Giuseppe Bottai, Diario 1935–1944, p. 316.

  128.Ugo Guspini, L’orecchio del regime, p. 196.

  129.Carmine Senise, Quando ero capo della polizia 1940–1943 (Rome: Ruffolo Editore, 1946), pp. 154–63.

  130.Galeazzo Ciano, Diary 1937–1943, p. 511.

  131.Edda Mussolini Ciano, My truth, p. 186.

  132.Giuseppe Bottai, Diario 1935–1944, pp. 337; 366.

  133.Ibid., p. 219.

  134.For biographical introduction, see http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/guido-buffarini-guidi_%28Dizionario_Biografico%29/ (accessed 4 February 2016).

  135.Io’ Di Benigno, Occasioni mancate: Roma in un diario segreto 1943–1944 (Rome: Edizioni SEI, 1945), p. 46.

  136.Roberto Festorazzi, Claretta Petacci, pp. 88–92.

  137.Arrigo Petacco, Eva e Claretta, pp. 106–7. For documentation, see Carte Petacci 10/160.

  138.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 1 January 1942.

  139.Ibid., 17 January 1942.

  140.Ibid., 22, 23 January 1942.

  141.Ibid., 10, 20 May 1942.

  142.Ibid., late May 1942.

  143.Ibid., 15, 18, 19 September 1942.

  144.Ibid., 30 November 1942.

  145.Ibid., 2 December 1942.

  146.Ibid., 4 December 1942.

  147.Ibid., 12, 14, 16, 18 December 1942.

  148.Ibid., 20 December 1942.

  149.Fondo Monelli, b. 139, Carboni report.

  150.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 20 December 1942.

  151.Ibid., February 1943.

  152.Spartacus, Claretta: fiore del mio giardino, p. 23.

  153.Edda Mussolini Ciano, My truth, pp. 182–3.

  154.Carte Petacci, undated diary entry, [May 1943].

  155.Giuseppe Bottai, Diario 1935–1944, p. 376.

  156.Fondo Monelli, b. 139.

  157.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 17 May 1943.

  158.Ibid., 17 May 1943.

  159.Carte Petacci 4/58, undated letter, Giuseppina Persichetti to Mussolini.

  160.Giuseppe Bottai, Diario 1935–1944, p. 379. Cf. Edda Mussolini Ciano, My truth, p. 187.

  161.Renzo De Felice, Mussolini l’alleato 1940–1945, vol. 1, L’Italia in guerra 1940–1943, part 2, p. 1536.

  162.Natalia and Valerio Emanuele Marino, L’Ovra a Cinecittà, p. 241.

  163.Quirino Armellini, Diario di guerra: nove mesi al comando supremo (Cernusco sul Naviglio: Garzanti, 1946), p. 269.

  164.Renzo De Felice, Mussolini l’alleato 1940–1945, vol. I, L’Italia in guerra 1940–1943, part 2, p. 1345.

  165.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 17 July 1943.

  166.Ugo Guspini, L’orecchio del regime, p. 224.

  167.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 25 July 1943. For Rachele, see Paolo Monelli, Mussolini: piccolo borghese (Milan: Garzanti, 1950), p. 183 as reported in Ray Moseley, Mussolini’s shadow, pp. 173–4.

  Chapter 6 The winter of a patriarch and his Ducessa

  1.Il Messaggero, 6 December 1941.

  2.Ibid., 29 August 1943.

  3.Fondo Monelli, b. 139.

  4.La Stampa, 27 August 1943. Copies of both the newspaper pieces are preserved in the Petacci papers. See Carte Petacci, 16.

  5.Carte Petacci, 4/60, [August 1943], M. Petacci memorandum.

  6.Renzo Montagna, Mussolini e il processo di Verona (Milan: Edizioni Omnia, 1949), p. 53.

  7.Carte Petacci, 16, 20 October 1943, Sister Margherita Vaccari to the Petaccis.

  8.Ibid., undated inventory.

  9.Vittorio Mussolini, Mussolini, pp. 14–15.

  10.Ray Moseley, Mussolini’s shadow, pp. 176–84.

  11.R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini, pp. 325–8.

  12.For a graphic example, see Mimmo Franzinelli, Disertori, pp. 158–79.

  13.For populist version, see Arrigo Petacco, Ammazzate quel fascista! Vita intrepida di Ettore Muti, (Milan: Mondadori, 2003).

  14.In her memoirs, Myriam remembered him, despite their different political tracks. Myriam Petacci, Chi ama è perduto, pp. 5–6. So did the Resistance hero and eventual socialist president of the republic Sandro Pertini, who recalled that Persichetti fell almost beside him while they tried to oppose the Germans. Gianni Bisiach, Pertini racconta: gli anni 1915–1945 (Milan: Mondadori, 1983), p. 98.

  15.For background, see R.J.B. Bosworth, ‘War, totalitarianism and “deep belief” in Fascist Italy 1935–1943’, European History Quarterly, 34, 2004.

  16.Edvige Mussolini, Mio fratello Benito, p. 168.

  17.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario (Cernusco sul Naviglio: Editori Associati, 1946), p. vii. In his unpublished collection of the Petacci papers 1941–5, Franzinelli has prepar
ed a new edition of this section of Claretta’s diaries.

  18.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario, pp. 1–4.

  19.Carte Petacci, 16 [August 1943], Giuseppina Persichetti to Questore of Novara.

  20.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario, p. 4.

  21.Ibid., p. 5.

  22.Ibid., pp. 5–6.

  23.Ibid., pp. 7–11.

  24.See Silvio Pellico, My prisons: le mie prigioni (London: Oxford University Press, 1963).

  25.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario, pp. 20, 43.

  26.Ibid., pp. 38–40. For background, see Antonio V. Savona and Michele L. Straniero, Canti dell’Italia fascista (1919–1945) (Milan: Garzanti, 1979).

  27.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario, pp. 34–5.

  28.Ibid., pp. 48–9.

  29.Ibid., pp. 76–80.

  30.Ibid., pp. 81–6.

  31.Ibid., pp. 95; 100–2.

  32.Ibid., pp. 104–7.

  33.Ibid., pp. 122–42.

  34.Ibid., p. 144.

  35.Ibid., p. 144.

  36.Ibid., pp. 148–62.

  37.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario, pp. 163–5.

  38.For the speech, see Benito Mussolini, Opera omnia, vol. XXXII, pp. 1–5.

  39.Clara Petacci, Il mio diario, pp. 165–78.

  40.Benito Mussolini, Opera omnia, vol. XXXII, p. 4. In the following year, Mussolini put together another work entitled Storia di un anno (tempo del bastone e della carota). It went back over the events leading to 25 July, the forty-five days and Mussolini’s romantic escape from the Gran Sasso, with a nationalist, as much as a radical Fascist, message. See vol. XXXIV, pp. 301–444. There was no mention of any Petacci in its pages.

  41.Ibid., vol. XXXIV, p. 286.

  42.Ibid., vol. XXXIV, p. 294.

  43.For narration, see Renzo De Felice, Mussolini l’alleato 1940–1945, vol. II, La guerra civile 1943–1945 (Turin: Einaudi, 1997), pp. 3–71.

  44.Georg Zachariae, Mussolini si confessa. Eventually, Mussolini sent a note of thanks to Hitler’s personal – and idiosyncratic – doctor, Theo Morrell, for choosing Zachariae. Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, 122, 22 September 1944, Mussolini to Morrell.

  45.Renzo De Felice, Mussolini l’alleato 1940–1945, vol. II, La guerra civile 1943–1945, pp. 345–62.

  46.Pasquale Chessa and Barbara Raggi, L’ultima lettera di Benito Mussolini: amore e politica a Salò 1943–45 (Milan: Mondadori, 2010), p. 53.

  47.Benito Mussolini, A Clara (Milan: Mondadori, 2011), p. 347.

  48.Giovanni Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia: diario del capo della segreteria particolare del Duce 1943–1944 (Cernusco sul Naviglio: Garzanti, 1949), pp. 81–2.

  49.Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, 122, 25 October 1943, pro-memoria for Dolfin.

  50.Giovanni Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, pp. 32; 42.

  51.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 152–4; Vincenzo Costa, L’ultimo federale: memorie della guerra civile 1943–1945 (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1997), pp. 312–13.

  52.Carte Petacci, diary entry [4 October 1943].

  53.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 73–7. His letter of 10 October followed up the phone call of 4 October and dealt with many of the same issues

  54.Zita Ritossa, ‘Mia “cognata” Claretta Petacci’, Tempo, 21 February 1957.

  55.Ibid., 11 April 1957.

  56.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 28 October 1943.

  57.Eugen Dollmann, Roma Nazista (Milan: Longanesi, 1951), p. 370.

  58.For its current use for dancing and other entertainment, see http://www.classvenues.com/wedding-venue/671/wedding-venues-in-italy/torre-san-marco-e-villa-fiordaliso (accessed 28 January 2016).

  59.Carte Petacci, diary entry, 14 April 1944.

  60.Fondo Monelli, b. 139.

  61.For background, see Reto Hofmann, The Fascist effect: Japan and Italy, 1915–1952 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015), pp. 8–37.

  62.I owe this information to Dr Reto Hofmann and to a memoir Ono published in 1951–2; it was highly sympathetic to Fascism.

  63.Cf. also Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Ordinario, 42, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, 43, reports of meetings between Ono and Mussolini. Cf. Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 90; 92.

  64.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 80.

  65.Ibid., pp. 80–4.

  66.Ibid., pp. 87–8.

  67.Segreteria particolare del Duce, Carteggio Riservato, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, 120 [October 1943], A. Pallottelli to Mussolini; 25 November 1943, Dolfin to A. Pallottelli.

  68.Ibid., 120, undated letter, A. Pallottelli to Dolfin.

  69.Ibid., 123, 30 May 1944, V. Pallottelli to Mussolini.

  70.Zita Ritossa, ‘Mia “cognata” Claretta Petacci’, Tempo, 11 April 1957.

  71.Pasquale Chessa and Barbara Raggi, L’ultima lettera di Benito Mussolini, pp. 61–2.

  72.Carte Petacci, letters of 16, 18 January 1944.

  73.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 115, for another effort on her part to raise Marcello’s prominence.

  74.Carte Petacci, 4/59, undated letter [?October 1943], Giuseppina Persichetti to Mussolini.

  75.Ibid., 3/32, 31 January ‘1943’ [evidently 1944], Giuseppina Persichetti to Mussolini.

  76.Myriam Petacci, Chi ama è perduto, p. 317.

  77.Carte Petacci, 4/61, undated letter, Francesco Saverio Petacci to Mussolini.

  78.Carte Petacci, letter of 21 February 1944.

  79.Ibid., 3/34, undated letter [1944], Myriam to Mussolini.

  80.Ibid., 3/34, undated letter [early 1944], Myriam to Mussolini.

  81.Ibid., 3/34, undated letter [1944], Myriam to Mussolini. Her appeal was duly backed up by her sister. Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 159.

  82.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 171.

  83.Carte Petacci, 3/33, 23 May 1944, Marcello to Mussolini.

  84.Ibid., undated letter [1944], Marcello to Mussolini.

  85.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 92–105.

  86.Ibid., pp. 106–9.

  87.Ibid., p. 118.

  88.Ibid., p. 115.

  89.Ibid., pp. 120–1.

  90.Carte Petacci, letter of 23 March 1944.

  91.Ibid., letter of 30 March 1944.

  92.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 151–4.

  93.Ibid., pp. 159–60.

  94.Ibid., p. 160.

  95.Pasquale Chessa and Barbara Raggi, L’ultima lettera di Benito Mussolini, pp. 92–4.

  96.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 164–5.

  97.Carte Petacci, letter of 23 April 1944.

  98.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 167–8.

  99.Carte Petacci, 5/79, undated letter, Giuseppina Persichetti to Mussolini, italics in original.

  100.Ibid., 3/34, [May 1944], Myriam to Mussolini.

  101.See ibid., [June 1944]. Two letters, Myriam to Mussolini; 3/32, [1944], also Myriam to Mussolini. They were not restrained by Mussolini’s request to Clara that they cease. Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 210.

  102.See, for example, Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 233–4.

  103.Ibid., p. 188.

  104.Carte Petacci, letters of late May, 6 June 1944, partially reported in Pasquale Chessa and Barbara Raggi, L’ultima lettera di Benito Mussolini, pp. 112–13. Cf. Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 204–6.

  105.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 202. Cf. 1 July (p. 228), with his denial that he had seen her again.

  106.Ibid., pp. 215; 222; 284; 286–7.

  107.Carte Petacci, undated letter [June–July 1944].

  108.Pasquale Chessa and Barbara Raggi, L’ultima lettera di Benito Mussolini, pp. 121–2.

  109.Ibid., pp. 123–4.

  110.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 240–3.

  111.Carte Petacci, 5/78 [?June 1944], Myriam to Mussolini.

  112.Ibid. [?June 1944], Myriam to Mussolini.

  113.Ibid., 3/34 [?June 1944], Myriam to Mussolini.

  114.Ibid., 5/79 [?August 1944], Myriam to Claretta.

  115.Myriam Petacci, Chi ama è perduto, p. 323. Carte Petacci, 5
/84, 16 August 1944, E. Morreale report.

  116.Giovanni Tassani, Diplomatico tra due guerre: vita di Giacomo Paulucci di Calboli Barone (Florence: Le Lettere, 2012), pp. 427–61.

  117.Carte Petacci, 5/84, 16 August 1944, E. Morreale report.

  118.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 282. Cf. Carte Petacci, 5/84, 13 December 1944, E. Morreale report.

  119.Carte Petacci, undated letter [August 1944].

  120.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 234.

  121.Ibid., p. 261.

  122.Carte Petacci, undated letter [?August 1944].

  123.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, pp. 259–61; 285; 290–1.

  124.Ibid., pp. 281–2.

  125.Ibid., p. 283.

  126.Ibid., pp. 291–2.

  127.Ibid., pp. 293–4; 296–7.

  128.Ibid., pp. 298–9; 332.

  129.Roberto Festorazzi, Claretta Petacci, pp. 183–7.

  130.Antonio Bonino, Mussolini mi ha detto: memorie del vicesegretario del Partito fascista repubblicano 1944–1945 (ed. Marino Viganò) (Rome: Settimo Sigillo, 1995), p. 60.

  131.Eugen Dollmann, Roma nazista, pp. 370–2. His later English account somewhat varies from the first Italian one.

  132.Roberto Gervaso, Claretta, la donna che morì per Mussolini, p. 13.

  133.Bruno Spampanato, Contromemoriale (Rome: Edizione di ‘Illustrato’, 1952), vol. 1, p. 234.

  134.Eugen Dollmann, The interpreter: memoirs (London: Hutchinson, 1967), pp. 327–8.

  135.Ibid., p. 326.

  136.Benito Mussolini, A Clara, p. 301.

  137.Ibid., pp. 302–3.

  138.Pasquale Chessa and Barbara Raggi, L’ultima lettera di Benito Mussolini, p. 141–2.

  Chapter 7 Death in the afternoon

  1.For background, see Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The pike.

  2.The Villa Mirabella is now part of the historic site of Il Vittoriale degli Italiani. Most recently it housed an exhibition of the sentimental paintings of the Bolognese artist, Antonio Saliola. They are given sentimental endorsement by the president of the Fondazione Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, Giordano Bruno Guerri, the anti-anti-Fascist historian. The paintings feature young women and the moon. There is, however, no explicit reference to Claretta. See Cristina Baldassari (ed.), Che fai tu, luna, in ciel nei quadri di Saliola? Dipinti di Antonio Saliola con una lettera di Giordano Bruno Guerri (Villa Mirabella: Fondazione Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, 2016).

  3.An Australian historian might enjoy the information that the boat, commissioned in 1901, cruised around Australian ports from Fremantle to Brisbane on its first major voyage. See further details at http://www.vittoriale.it/nave-puglia (accessed 14 September 2016).