Abstract
In the last stages of the war, a cornered Mussolini pulled out all stops to salvage his regime, his reputation, and his own life, which caused relations between Italian leaders and their German counterparts to nearly snap. In a whirl of overtures, Mussolini urged Germany to declare a truce with the USSR while pondering moves toward the Allies for a joint effort to halt Communism. When all this failed, Mussolini considered a last-ditch resistance in the Valtellina, but was, in turn, betrayed by a German-negotiated surrender to the Allies on the Italian front.
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Notes
- 1.
Gentile , I crimini di guerra tedeschi in Italia, pp. 180–81.
- 2.
Cited in Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 185.
- 3.
Moellhausen, La carte perdente, p. 207.
- 4.
Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della R.S.I.,” pp. 103–06.
- 5.
Ildefonso Schuster, Gli ultimi tempi di un regime (Milano: La Via, 1946), p. 66.
- 6.
Cited in Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, pp. 218–20. For the text in Italian, see Gasparini and Razeto, 1944, pp. 419–20.
- 7.
Cited in Moseley, Mussolini, pp. 165–66. See also Rachele Mussolini, La mia vita con Benito (Milan: Mondadori, 1948), p. 255, and OO, XXXII: 128–40.
- 8.
Cited in Ibid; Rachele Mussolini, La mia vita con Benito, p. 255.
- 9.
Patricelli, Il nemico in casa, p. 233.
- 10.
OO, XXXII: 157–61.
- 11.
Viganò, Il ministero degli affari esteri, Verbale della riunione tenutasi all’ambasciata di Germania sabato 29 gennaio 1945/XXIII, pp. 567–78.
- 12.
Ibid. See also Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, pp. 232–33.
- 13.
Patricelli, Il nemico in casa, pp. 252–53.
- 14.
Valiani, Tutte le strade conducono a Roma, p. 258.
- 15.
Battaglia , Storia della resistenza italiana, p. 289.
- 16.
Lazzero, Il sacco d’Italia, pp. 72–73, citing a letter Mussolini sent to Hitler on 28 February 1945.
- 17.
Ibid., p. 86, record of a telephone conversation between Mussolini and Petacci, several days after the Yalta Conference.
- 18.
Cited in Ibid., p. 90, record of a telephone conversation between Mussolini and Pavolini, 25 March 1943.
- 19.
Cited in Ibid., p. 88, Mussolini’s phone conversation with Petacci, 3 March 1945.
- 20.
Winston Churchill, The Second World War, II: Their Finest Hour (London: Cassel, 1949), p. 107.
- 21.
DDI, 9, IV, 487, Mussolini to Churchill, 18 May 1940.
- 22.
Franzinelli, L’arma segreta del Duce, Kindle location 47.
- 23.
Cited in Lazzero, Il sacco d’Italia, p. 74, Mussolini’s letter to Clara Petacci, 14 March 1945.
- 24.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Garda, p. 466.
- 25.
Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, pp. 266–67.
- 26.
Mellini , Guerra diplomatica a Salò, pp. 121–25.
- 27.
Pini and Susmel , Mussolini, l’uomo e l’opera, IV: 487.
- 28.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Chigi al Lago di Garda, p. 464. Tamaro lends credence to Dr. Zachariae’s reported conversations with the Duce, who told him that during the war he intended to make contact with Churchill and make an agreement, something that Ribbentrop could never accomplish. But Hitler, listening to Ribbentrop, who always opposed Mussolini’s initiatives, never wanted to follow his advice. Tamaro, Due anni di storia, IV: 465.
- 29.
Cited in Pini and Susmel , Mussolini, l’uomo e l’opera, IV: 488.
- 30.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Garda, p. 466, places emphasis on this Italian solution of the war. The federale of Milano, Vincenzo Costa, claimed his paternity of the Valtellina as the last refuge of the RSI. Pansa, Il sangue dei vinti, p. 66.
- 31.
Bocca, La Repubbica di Mussolini, p. 315.
- 32.
OO, XXXII: 166.
- 33.
Cited in Bocca, La repubblica di Mussolini, pp. 321–22.
- 34.
Mellini, Guerra diplomatica a Salò, p. 128; Fabei, I neri e i rossi, pp. 249–50; Cospito and Neulen, Salò-Berlino, p. 273.
- 35.
MAE AGRSI, Germania, 1/1, Appunto per il Duce, 29 March 1945, unsigned memorandum but probably written by Anfuso, 061349–061353.
- 36.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, p. 251.
- 37.
Mellini , Guerra diplomatica a Salò, p. 129.
- 38.
Fabei, I neri e i rossi, pp. 250–53.
- 39.
One known exception was a report placed on Mussolini’s desk that orders had been given to German troops in Milan not to leave their barracks, which suggested talks with local partisans aimed at a truce. Deakin, The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 272.
- 40.
Klinkhammer, L’occupazione tedesca in Italia, p. 317.
- 41.
Moseley, Mussolini, p. 212; Costa, l’Ultimo federale, p. XXIX. Military leaders such as Graziani, Diamanti, and Borghese thought the Valtellina was simply a folly.
- 42.
Cuzzi, “Gli ultimi mesi della RSI,” p. 112.
- 43.
Deakin , The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 282.
- 44.
Bellotti , La repubblica di Mussolini, p. 216.
- 45.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Guarda, p. 469. Wolff’s turn of phrase to Anfuso.
- 46.
Zachariae, Mussolini si confessa, Kindle edition, location 2608.
- 47.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Garda, pp. 470–71.
- 48.
Ibid.; Falanga, L’avamposto di Mussolini nel Reich di Hitler, pp. 365–66.
- 49.
Cited in Deakin, The Six Hundred Days of Mussolini, p. 284.
- 50.
Falanga, L’avamposto di Mussolini nel Reich di Hitler, p. 366.
- 51.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Garda, pp. 472–73; Pini and Susmel, Mussolini, l’uomo e l’opera, IV: 495. A little later he told Anfuso: “It was perfectly superfluous to make a proposal of this kind to Hitler at this moment.”
- 52.
Mellini, Guerra diplomatica a Salò, pp. 137, 140.
- 53.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Garda, pp. 476–77.
- 54.
Ibid., p. 480.
- 55.
Avagliano and Palmieri, L’Italia di Salò, p. 397.
- 56.
Dolfin, Con Mussolini nella tragedia, p. 24.
- 57.
Schuster, Gli ultimi tempi di un regime, p. 168.
- 58.
Bertoldi, Salò, p. 368.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Ibid., pp. 368–69.
- 61.
Anfuso, Da Palazzo Venezia al Lago di Garda, p. 466.
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Burgwyn, H.J. (2018). Frenzied Endgame. In: Mussolini and the Salò Republic, 1943–1945. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76189-3_17
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