Personal Recollections by Zaira Majonica:
"The order instituted by fascist government was only a façade. The division among population remained unchanged. One of the reasons was the aggressive way of leading the country, which provoked the reaction that would drive many people to adhere to a communist ideology, anarchism, and liberalism.
The other reason is a psychological portrait of Italian population that was used to have a very close government in their small territories, prince-domes, and republics, in the north-central zone of Italy’s land. Otherwise in the North (Lombardy, Veneto) Italy had been occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the population fought against it and its centralistic government. In the Vatican state the population assumed the majesty of the Pope. In South the population was used to deal with the central power of the King of Two Sicily (the King belonged to Spanish Royalty of the Borbone), who was settled in Naples. In this way Italy had almost three different ways to perceive the government and its behavior toward the population, so the division was unavoidable among the Italian population, and the fascism couldn’t cope with all this diversity in one idea of nation.
Mussolini became “Il Duce” (from Latin Dux = conductor) and his former anti-imperialism, anti-nationalism and antimilitarism, was transformed in militarism, nationalism and imperialism. This is a simplistic manner to arrive to this conclusion, but a full explanation is very complex and it is not the purpose of this work.
This change in Mussolini’s government is said was also due to his megalomania, (delirium of grandiosity) and he dreamed to give to Italy an Empire. For reaching this target he had to establish more clearly Italian settlements in Africa.
This is a short story: Before WWI Italy had a settlement in Libya (1912), obtained taking advantage of the weakness of The Ottoman Empire. This invasion was concluded in 1922 when the Fascism reached the power. In 1934, I. Balbo established the boundaries of Libya, that remains still today. During Italian government were sent colons from Sicily and the southern Italy to settle down farms. At the same time were built roads, railways, hospital, schools and factory.
Eritrea was an Italian settlement in the early of 1900. In 1920 the fascism annexed Eritrea as a colony. As an Italian colony, every facility was built for the welfare of the population.( In 1944 during the WWII England conquered Eritrea.)
Somalia was a protectorate until 1925, when the fascism took the power, Somalia became an Italian colony.
Ethiopia was conquered in 1936 in a war that had the blame of international society, and The League of Nations sanctioned Italy, so every trade with Italy was forbidden with the exception of oil trade.
The Italian government reached the target for having the colony in the Horn of Africa, and those lands were called “Africa Orientale Italiana” and Mussolini declared the establishment of the Italian Empire, in 1936. Albania was added in 1939.
Consequences: With the sanctions of the League of Nations, Italy was left alone, the only ally was Germany. A new time begun for the Italian society, because for obtaining the goods that were needed, it had to start new factory to produce the imported products, and make changes in the economic field. This economic system was called “autarchic” (self sufficiency, especially in the economic perspective).
The bonds with Nazi Germany became more and more tight, and in 1938 the government (Il Gran Consiglio) signed the Racial Laws, that specified what and what not was allowed to Italian Jewish. This law had a strong impact in the normal life of Italian Jewish, but they never were imprisoned or persecuted by the government, nevertheless some abuse were committed by some functionary of the government.
In 1939, the Steel Pact between Germany and Italy was signed and the axis Berlin – Rome started. This pact established that every political decision had to be consulted between the two allies, but this never happened and the political, strategic actions were taken unilaterally by Germany (Hitler). Mussolini realized very soon that he was only a puppy in the Hitler’s hands.
When the war started in 1939 , Mussolini didn’t follow Hitler. He was watching how the war was progressing. Several of his ministers advised him about the danger of starting a war for what Italian army wasn’t prepared, and on another side he was beware that the real ruler of that war would be Hitler.
In spite of those advises, he considered that the collapse of France under a Hitler invasion was a fact and this signified the strength of Germany and as ally he could share the victory, with all its advantages, in June 1940 he declared the war.
In 1943 the war was getting worse and worse for Italian forces and the internal division among them became more and more important, so far, that Mussolini was dismissed of his charge as premier, and after his refusal to accept the Great Council’s demand, the King gave the order to apprehend him, which meant prison. He was imprisoned in the island of Ponza and trying to avoid a rescue by German forces, he was transferred to Gran Sasso a mountain in the center of Italy. In spite of this precaution, Hitler forces, landed on the mountain and got him.
At that point he became a hostage in Hitler’s hands, who forced him to create the Salo’ Republic in the North of Italy where German forces were well established.
At the same time the allies reached Sicily and September 3 1943 the Armistice was signed by General Badoglio and Allies. On September 8 the King announced the armistice.
At this moment all the Italian forces were driven in to a general confusion, The Headquarters didn’t answer to the frequent calls for having orders about how acting in those circumstances, so anyone took his own decision. This situation remained unchanged during three days.
In the North German forces occupied Italy and starting to reach Rome. The King left Rome and fled to Brindisi (South Italy), avoiding capture by German forces.
At the same time in the North of Italy, the Partisan movement started fighting against German occupation and acting as a guerrilla they started a civil war, taking revenge against everyone they considered or they knew to be a fascist or not belonged to their group. Most of them were communist. The Partisans attacked the German troops with ambushes and if the author of the action didn’t present himself to the German Command, for each German soldier killed, 10 Italians civilians, without any consideration about age or sex, would be executed. A regime of terror was installed in these Italians regions and the civil population couldn’t trust in partisans, either in fascist or in German troops. At the same time started a real hunting against Italians Jewish, who were sent to concentration camps in Germany.
In the South of Italy, where the allies arrived, things were less hard, the presence of partisans was not so significant, but the bombing scared the population. All the Italian forces were obliged to cooperate with the allies and considered cobelligerent.
Italian forces were fighting also in the Italian colonies in Africa, in Greece and in Russia.
During this period, the King delegated his powers to his son Umberto, who was King of Italy only after the war for one month. He and his wife Maria Jose had the sympathy of the population especially in the south, but after a plebiscite for choosing between monarchy or republic, the republic won and he was exiled.
At the beginning of 1945, Mussolini was still under the protection of the German Army. In April, he was moving with a column of German troops when the partisans intercepted the convoy and Mussolini was recognized and taken as prisoner by the partisans. The execution took place the day after together with his mistress. Both were hanged head down in Piazzale Loreto in Milan. This was really a shameful action. The war had ended, but for Italy there was a long journey to reach the peace.
Italy lost every territory that had gained after the WWI, the colonies, and the city of Trieste remained under the government of the Allies until 1954. All the Italian population of the peninsula of Istria, and Dalmatia left their lands and were received in Italy like refugees (profughi Giuliani e Dalmati).
Note: The reprisal or retaliation system (1 to 10) to fight against enemies was executed not only for German forces during the war, was used also by France, England, Australia and Russia, especially against war prisoners, military and civil. There are not good guys in a war. In spite of this some good guy appear and saved some people from reprisal. Also during the Jewish hunting there were persons who saved hundreds of Jewish from deportation and Israel recognized this and planted thousands of trees in their names.
Consequences of the WWII in Italy:
The 25 of April is the day of Liberation in Italy. Nevertheless Italy wasn’t free from hate and revenge. After the murder of Mussolini, civil war didn’t end. During the entire month of April and may be longer, Italians partisans still continued to kill, anyone suspected to be a fascist, or declared to be a fascist. The communist partisans killed the catholic, the liberal, and the democrats or anyone else associated to other political organizations.
There was also some lynching by a furious mob, against people they considered responsible for criminal offense. Also assassinations for personal revenge only, or for mere ideological reasons like “the fight of class” in the Marxism-Leninism ideology. As was written by an Italian journalist: “In Italy we have had three wars: one against the German occupation, another against the Salo’ Republic, the fascist, the last one by the communist against the ‘class enemy,’” this meant everyone that didn’t share the ideology of communism. They were fighting their own war to establish a communist government in Italy like Russia had. The number of these murders reached 30,000 (thirty thousand), in a very conservative way, because the record is not clear nor complete.
Who were these Partisans? After the Armistice the Royal Army suffered disbandment and many soldiers and officials formed groups to fight against the intruders, as they considered the German troops. The most of them had been enrolled to accomplish the duty to serve in a military corps, they haven’t a military career. The communists formed its group (the brigade), so did the socialist, liberals, catholic democrats. Also the young men that had been dismissed to the military service for some psychological or mental problem joined one of those groups. The main purpose was to fight against all the fascist system, but the diversity among them, the lack of one leader, determined an internal fight between groups, so the civil war was getting worst.
What happened to the military forces spread all over the Italian territory and abroad?
The Italian territory was cut in two parts, the Center North under the German power, The South under Allies forces. The war ended those situations. The new government had a different behavior toward Italian forces which were fighting on behalf of one side or the other. Whoever was fighting on behalf of the German side, voluntarily or not, had his civil rights suspended. These included the right to vote or to regain his previous job before the War. Whoever fought on behalf of the Royal forces, had his career frozen. Whoever fought with the Allies side kept all his rights as a citizen.
The terrible devastation that Italy suffered was solved with the economic aid of the Marshall Plan for Europe, and Italy could rebuild the country. In spite of the bombing, the historic monuments were respected from both belligerent sides.
One of the targets, possibly the main, was to avoid the proliferation of the communist ideology in Europe, so the purpose of the aid was trying to raise the economic power of the States and population. Extreme poverty can lead to the adhesion to any ideology which could give some hope for a better or a fair life. This target has been reached, now Communism is not an important party as he was before, during, and for year after the war, especially in Italy.
Internally Italy passed from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. The cultural exchange between the North and South, the internal migration of population from the south to north looking for a job in the industries, created a more comprehensive behavior between people previously discriminated.
Nevertheless the wounds opened during the civil war haven’t been healed, Italy is still leaking its wounds and trying to hide the dirty under the rug. Why? One of the reasons is that the winner or who considered himself a winner still had power in the political field and is not interested to clarify many terrible casualties that happened during the civil war.
What would have happened if Italy would not have been involved in the WWII?
A possible scenario could have been a civil war between the members of the Fascism and members of Communist party that was outlawed.
The other possible scenario could have been an extreme dictatorial system of government, with all of its unpredictable consequences.
In both scenarios the economic field would be under a turmoil of possibilities, but generally speaking without a certain level of liberty no trade can develop properly.
The last one and possibly the most realistic scenario could have been the neutrality of Italy. In this case the possible reaction of Hitler could have been the invasion of Italy. What could have happened in this situation is very hard to say."