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Details
MUSSOLINI, Benito (1883-1945). Speech typescript, WITH AUTOGRAPH EMENDATIONS IN MUSSOLINI'S HAND, Milan, 16 December 1944. 25 pages, 4to, in large type, paper clip burns on first page. In Italian.
MUSSOLINI ATTACKS CHURCHILL AND THE "CRIMINAL FORMULA OF CASABLANCA" AND REMAINS CONVINCED OF INEVITABLE GERMAN VICTORY
A few months after the September raid by German commandos that freed him from Allied custody, and just four months before his death, Mussolini gives this defiant speech to a Milan audience. He begins by attacking "the criminal formula of Casablanca," a reference to the unconditional surrender policy of Churchill and Roosevelt. And makes a vague but intriguing reference to German secret weapons (perhaps the V-1 and V-2 rockets) that would "end the war in a blow." By his side during this speech was the commander of SS forces in Italy, and the Nazi ambassador to the so-called "Salo Republic" which Mussolini established in northern Italy. In truth, Mussolini's power was a shell of its former scope. His German masters wanted him to give this speech as a way of maintaining Italian public support for the ongoing German occupation. They feared the growing enthusiasm displayed by ordinary Italians towards the advancing Allied forces. That is why Il Duce devotes so much attention in this speech to a scare-version of Italy's fate in an Allied dominated postwar world: the "criminal" unconditional surrender policy, he says, will mean the advance of Soviet troops into the Mediterranean. A weakened England will not be able to control the Russian bear, and only a German and fascist victory could protect the Italian people from the brutality of Bolshevik rule. Eyewitnesses (according to biographer Christopher Hibbert), noted Mussolini's lackluster delivery of this address. His heart was no longer in his own cause. But he was pleased by the warm response from the crowd. There was, at least, come lingering personal affection towards him among some Italians. But this did not prevent his summary execution, along with his mistress and entourage, when he tried to escape to Switzerland in April 1945.
MUSSOLINI ATTACKS CHURCHILL AND THE "CRIMINAL FORMULA OF CASABLANCA" AND REMAINS CONVINCED OF INEVITABLE GERMAN VICTORY
A few months after the September raid by German commandos that freed him from Allied custody, and just four months before his death, Mussolini gives this defiant speech to a Milan audience. He begins by attacking "the criminal formula of Casablanca," a reference to the unconditional surrender policy of Churchill and Roosevelt. And makes a vague but intriguing reference to German secret weapons (perhaps the V-1 and V-2 rockets) that would "end the war in a blow." By his side during this speech was the commander of SS forces in Italy, and the Nazi ambassador to the so-called "Salo Republic" which Mussolini established in northern Italy. In truth, Mussolini's power was a shell of its former scope. His German masters wanted him to give this speech as a way of maintaining Italian public support for the ongoing German occupation. They feared the growing enthusiasm displayed by ordinary Italians towards the advancing Allied forces. That is why Il Duce devotes so much attention in this speech to a scare-version of Italy's fate in an Allied dominated postwar world: the "criminal" unconditional surrender policy, he says, will mean the advance of Soviet troops into the Mediterranean. A weakened England will not be able to control the Russian bear, and only a German and fascist victory could protect the Italian people from the brutality of Bolshevik rule. Eyewitnesses (according to biographer Christopher Hibbert), noted Mussolini's lackluster delivery of this address. His heart was no longer in his own cause. But he was pleased by the warm response from the crowd. There was, at least, come lingering personal affection towards him among some Italians. But this did not prevent his summary execution, along with his mistress and entourage, when he tried to escape to Switzerland in April 1945.