The Last Days of Benito Mussolini -- The Reader's Digest, October 1944, Part 1

Certainly not a scholarly publication, The Reader's Digest offers a glimpse into American Life. I've found three issues, one from 1934, 1937, and 1944, carefully preserved in all these papers and books. Surprising, many of the articles could be written for today, and basically say many of them same things. For example, along with the article about Benito Mussolini, there are articles entitled, "The New Communist Conspiracy", "Accidents Stranger than Fiction", and "An Ounce of Prevention: Today's Cure for Cancer". Along with "Life in these United States" and "Picturesque Speech and Patter", The Reader's Digest of 1944 feels very similarly to the same book I find in the grocery store today.

There are several items that are of historical note in the October, 1944 issue, including this one. I thought you may be interested in them, as they offer a contemporary view of the happenings at that particular moment in time. In Mussolini's case, he had lost power, but had yet to be strung up in front of a gas station with his mistress beside him. Yet, I was unaware of the machinations of his power loss, etc. I have added the illustrations. Therefore, you may be interested in What Happened, When:

"The Last Days of Benito Mussolini, by George Kent"

"Here, told for the first time, is the story of the last seven days of Benito Mussolini as dictator of the Italian People. These days, July 19 to 25, 1943, began with a meeting between Hitler and il Duce , in an Alpine village, as Allied troops were racing forward in Sicily. They ended in a savage 12-hour session of the Fascist Grand Council in the famous balcony room of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome.

When Mussolini and Hitler met in the village of Feltre in northern Italy on July 19 -- the day the Allies first bombed Rome from the air -- der Fuhrer made it plain to il Duce that the Nazi-Fascist honeymoon was ended, and the German High Command was taking over in Italy in name as well as fact. Furthermore, he said, unless Mussolini got tough and aroused his people to wholehearted support of the war, he would be replaced by someone who would. Altogether an unpleasant conversation.

As he rode back to Rome from Feltre, he had a message of utter submission to Germany to give his German-hating people. An extraordinary dose of propaganda would be needed to make them swallow it.

Never a strong man, he was physically ill as the train carried him south. Everyone remembers photographs of Mussolini posing as the man of muscles, skiing, rubbing snow on his bare chest. What we hadn't known is that when the cameramen departed il Duce went to bed for more than 24 hours to recover.

He also suffered from stomach ulcers, and at home kept strictly to a diet of milk and stewed foods, avoiding tobacco and alcohol. On public occasions, however, such as this meeting with Hitler, he hid his weakness and brashly ate everything set before him -- with disastrous results. As the train jolted on, Mussolini rolled in pain on the floor, trying now and then to ease the agony by balancing on elbows and knees.

On Wednesday, July 21, back in Rome, he astonished the inner circle by calling a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council for the following Saturday. No such meeting had been held for more than three years. But il Duce's reason was obvious. He had a harsh pill to feed Italy -- the loss of Italian sovereignty -- and need all possible support.

For two years, Dino Grandi had brooded over the disaster which was overwhelming his country. There was only one way out: Italy must quit before it was too late. And Italy would never quit as long as Mussolini held power. Mussolini must go.

On Thursday, July 22, Grandi decided to tell Mussolini that he was going to ask the Council to oust him. How much courage this took, only those who had lived for years under a Fascist regime can understand. To act before the Council was one thing: to warn il Duce two days in advance was suicidal. Mussolini agreed to see him, allotting him 15 minutes.

Grandi, whose voice was soft, began by reminding il Duc e of a statement he had once made: "Let all parties perish, ours along with the others, so long as our country is safe." Grandi told him the country was in danger, that it was il Duce's duty to return the command of the armies to the King, so that peace could be made.

Grandi stayed an hour and a half. Mussolini's face was dark, and as his visitor spoke he played constantly with a pencil. Finally the Duce arose and said, "We will see." The interview was over.

At home, Grandi went through the list of members of the Grand Council, and checked six whose good will could be depended on in the crisis. That evening, he visited them, discovering that these half dozen would support his attack on Mussolini. All that evening and the next day they talked, while men of Mussolini's secret police watched them from the shadows. At any moment bullets might put an end to their conversations, but they had come to the point where their honor as patriots was more important than living.

Saturday afternoon, at 5 o'clock, cars containing the members of the Grand Council pulled up before the Palazzo Venezia. In the courtyard, usually empty except for a guard or two, stood a battalion of helmeted Fascist militia, armed with rifles and machine guns -- a gentle warning.

The balcony room of the Palazzo adjoins Mussolini's office; through it he had passed to reach the balcony each time he delivered a speech to the crowds of Rome. It is a long room, hung with tapestries and old masters and lighted by a beautiful Renaissance chandelier. At one end is a throne-like seat, the place of il Duce ; facing it, a wide semicircle of chairs.

Before sitting down, all raised their arms in the Fascist salute -- and the Fascist Grand Council was in session. Mussolini spoke first, for about an hour, on the conduct of the war, placing blame for defeat on the military leaders. Old Marshal de Bono, who had lost his command in Ethiopian campaign, objected. Others spoke, and the discussion went on for another hour.

A little after seven, Grandi remarked that the Council was a civil group and not qualified to discuss military matters. Then turning to Mussolini, he said, "What I am about to say, you already know, because I told it to you two days ago." Il Duce , black-browed and pale, sat silently, toying with his pencil. Grandi spoke for over an hour, urging that Mussolini had outlived his usefulness, and that the command of the armies be restored to the King.

Then he drew from his pocket a copy of a motion directing that government by Parliament be restored and that Mussolini be instructed to ask the King to assume, under Article Five of the Constitution, "all supreme initiative of decision".

Having read the motion, Grandi uttered a word which in that room was revolutionary: " Votare, " which means "Let us vote". In more than 20 years of Grand Council meetings, no member had ever voted. " Votare !" said Grandi again, and sat down.

The Council had been in session four hours. Because Mussolini didn't smoke, no one else did. No one drank or ate anything. There was nothing to relieve the tension. Mussolini had counted on angry speeches, denunciation, but here was a document, a demand for a vote. He leaned sideways in his chair, his lips working, passing his pencil back and forth between his hands.

In the halls immediately outside the room and at the doors about 60 men stood with fixed bayonets. The men, the toughest in Italy, were the Moschettieri del Duce -- Musketeers of the Duce. They were pledged to support Mussolini to the death, and obeyed only him. A word from the man on the throne, and Grandi and his supporters would speak no more.

But nothing happened. Then Federzoni, president of the Royal Academy, compared this war with the last, to the detriment of Mussolini. Bottai, who had run the trade unions, told of the workmen's dissatisfaction. Di Marsico, Minister of Justice, attacked from the legal point of view. De Stefani, former Minister of Finance, dwelt upon the war's economic havoc.

Count Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law, one of the few who knew Grandi's plans beforehand, supported Grandi courageously. He addressed the Council, charging that Mussolini's blind passion for martial glory had made him lead Italy into war without consultation with the Council, and against Ciano's advice. This despite the known serious shortages of many types of armament.

Mussolini shouted, "The moment you entered my house, there entered treason!"

Then, the supporters of Mussolini took the floor and the talk went on four hours more. Finally, Mussolini arose, said that nothing was being accomplished, that it was getting late, and declared the meeting adjourned.

Grandi sprang up, What did time matter? he said. At this moment Italian soldiers are fighting and dying on battlefields in Sicily. Why be disturbed over the loss of a few hours? Let us work out a solution.

The meeting continued. Mussolini began to speak. His face was gray and, in the words of one of the members, his voice had the savagery of a wounded lion. He defended his dictatorship and the Axis pact. It was too late to think of turning back, he said; Italy must stay in the war. His conscience was clear. The people were with him to a man.

Grandi asked Mussolini to tell them what Hitler had told him. Mussolini refused, but assured the Council that victory was inevitable.

"Words, only words!" shouted Grandi. "We know you asked for 3000 planes. He offered you 300!"

Farinacci, one time secretary of the Fascist Party, defended the Duce, and in a long speech praising Hitler and Germany, asked the Council to vote its allegiance. Then Scorza, secretary of the Party, introduced a vote of confidence for Mussolini. It declared that all who opposed the dictatorship and the war were subject to the charge of treason."

----------------End of Part 1------------------

At the end of this, Part 2, I will briefly summarize what happened to the men of the Council!

Thanks for coming by!