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The Best and Worst for Two Tyrants: A Group Writing Post
On this day in 1943, German paratroopers and Waffen SS commandos freed Mussolini from his mountaintop prison. In an extremely high-risk operation, ninety German special forces, riding aboard ten gliders (towed by airplanes), landed near the Hotel Campo Imperatore, high in the Apennine Mountains, where Mussolini was imprisoned. The German commandos quickly overwhelmed Mussolini’s guards, and in less than an hour they had freed Mussolini and were on their way to Berlin to present Il Duce to the Fuhrer.
Despite that minor glitch when Mussolini was imprisoned, two of the world’s most vicious dictators were riding high: Their armies were conquering nations, their bureaucrats were making sure the trains ran on time, and they were soaking up the acclaim of adoring Italians and Germans, who seemed more than satisfied to watch the political theater that Hitler and Mussolini used to exalt the state. In histrionic speeches, in parades, in huge Fascist rallies, Hitler and Mussolini were masters of political theater.
It was their best of times. But brutal dictators — and their mistresses — usually don’t end well.
Mussolini went first. He had ruled Italy with an iron fist since 1922, but his alliance with the German Fascists turned out to be a disaster. After a vote of no confidence at a meeting of the Grand Council in 1945, Mussolini was placed under house arrest. While attempting to escape to Switzerland, Mussolini and his mistress were captured, lined up, and shot to death.
Their bodies were brought back to Milan, where they were hung from a girder above a gas station. There the corpses were abused, especially Mussolini’s, by being beaten, used as target practice, and mauled by hammers. In the photo below, Mussolini is second from the left. His mistress, Clara Petacci, is to his left. The other three were Fascists allied with Mussolini.
Hitler didn’t fare a whole lot better. Two days after Mussolini was executed, Hitler was trapped like a rat in a bunker below the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, with Russian soldiers closing in fast in their search for him. With Hitler realized the jig was up, he swallowed a cyanide capsule and then put a quick end to his miserable life by shooting himself in the head. His longtime mistress and wife of forty hours, Eva Braun, also poisoned herself.
According to Russian accounts, their soldiers dragged Hitler’s body above ground, where his corpse was burned and his bones crushed.
For Hitler and Mussolini, those were indeed the worst of times.
Published in General
I thought I read somewhere Hitler’s own staff did this. Oh well, must be getting old . . .
Scorzeny, the leader of the SS unit rescuing Mussolini, escaped to Spain where he lived out the remainder of his life.
I guess it was the worst for them, but the best for the rest of the world. Thanks, Kent.
The only shame in this story is thinking that Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot and other evil men did not meet similar ends.
Indeed.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Indeed.
Nah, Stad, it is probably I who is getting old. I assumed that Russians did it. I probably assumed too much.
Yeah. I believe I read that his staff brought his corpse up above ground and burned it, so there’d be no trophy for the Russians.
Didn’t know your first paragraph: Intriguing!
The plan was to fly Mussolini out in a Fieseler Storch, a two man observation plane. Just Benito and the pilot. Skorzeny insisted on going along, which meant the Storch was seriously overweight; not ideal for a mountaintop takeoff. The plane appeared to drop off of a cliff face, but the pilot recovered the craft and got it home.
I have a different view of this.
Mussolini wasn’t actually that bad. I’m not saying that he was a great guy, but he was a rather typical non-Communist semi-dictator. He was driven into an alliance with Hitler by British opposition to his invasion of Ethiopia. That was a foolish move by the British.
Mussolini didn’t even intervene in the war until France was on the verge of collapse. He was an opportunist. When he did so, it didn’t really look like a miscalculation. At that time, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was still in place, and there were few indications that Hitler was going to launch an invasion of Russia. Of course, that is the chance that Mussolini took by siding with Hitler.
There was a brief period, in 1942, when the war was apparently going well for Mussolini and Hitler. By the time of Mussolini’s fall from power in 1943, the Axis situation was a disaster. The Soviets had won at Stalingrad; the US had won at Guadalcanal and Midway; the Germans and Italians had been driven out of Africa and the Allies had taken Sicily. The invasion of Italy itself was imminent, which is the reason that Mussolini was removed from power.
The Germans then decided to fight for Italy, and were quite harsh to the Italians. They did rescue Mussolini and installed him as a puppet, but he was not riding high.
Piggy backing somewhat on Jerry I’m not even sure Mussolini would make the top 10 of brutal world dictators/oppressive leaders if put side by side with others. In western academia we always look at Hitler but as Steven Kotkin has shown there is only one real dictator and that is Joseph Stalin…Mao is a close second but Mao’s inner circle could get away with things Stalin’s could only dream of. It always amazes me how Stalin and Mao basically get a pass when they are responsible for the deaths of multiple millions either directly or through their policies. I’m not trying to defend Fascism here but it can’t even hold a candle to death wrought by Marxist dictators. But hey…Marx means well so all is forgiven…oh…and I’m sick of hearing all these academians argue that Stalin was not a Marxist…again…as Steven Kotkin has shown Stalin was a devout Marxist-Leninist.
If you figure Stalin for a death toll of 60,000,000, Mao gets at least 150% of that.
Lincoln hater!
Yes one of the more prominent books written about the life and times of Hitler did recount the tale that the staff did it.
Off the top of my head I would say it was depicted this way in “The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich” by William Shirer, who won the 1961 National Book Award for Nonfiction for writing it.
Amazingly, except for the German top bass that committed suicide inside the bunker, all the servants and staff made their way out of that bunker. Despite shelling and sniper fire, arrived safely back in their home neighborhoods.
But if the Russians did claim credit, it would be of a piece with the rest of their WWII porpaganda, such as erasing the Lend-Lease materials of any sign they had come from the USA, and asserting that all these vehicles, materiel, and weapons of war were provided by the glorious Party. [spit]
Stalin had confirmation that Hitler had committed suicide and his soldiers found the remnants in the burn pit outside the bunker. However, he wanted to keep the Allies uncertain about what had happened and never publicly confirmed it.
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
It takes a hell of a fire to destroy a human body. Exhibit 1 is a rather common photo of Goebbels charred but still recognizable remains. Granted, according to the stories of some bunker survivors, there wasn’t much gas left after Hitler’s cremation.
According to Russian sources, a special unit accompanied the Soviet assault forces. Charged with the mission of recovering Hitler, or his remains. From there stories diverge. In one version, Hitler’s remains were found and sent to Moscow. There is one History Channel story which claims, and they do show, a portion of a male skull with a bullet wound, held in the ex-KGB archives. There is another show where it is claimed Hitler’s and Braun’s remains were “verified” and buried in a lot in Magdeburg. Later, in the 70s, the remains were disinterred, cremated, one presumes in a modern crematoria, and the remains were scattered.
That’s it!
I remember the scene in Downfall where the female staff disguised themselves as male soldiers to escape rape at the hands of Russian troops. However, the movie showed them with their longer hair showing, which in reality would have stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. My guess is the filmaker had to do it so the actresses would stand out in the crowd . . .
A couple of crunchy ones, to use Screwtape’s phrase. This post is part of our September group writing theme: “Best and Worst.” Stop by and sign up today.
Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.