Dear Readers,
April is the month that life ended for Benito Mussolini. The man who once dreamed of bringing “Rispetto” on the world stage to “La Bella Italia” died ignobly on April 28, 1945. An assortment of Mussolini Italian connections follows: April seems to have brought the Mussolini family more sadness than showers. Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Claretta Petacci, were executed by the partisans at Dongo, but soon after the corpses were hung upside down from a gas station railing in Piazzale Loreto, Milano.
Mussolini had five children with his wife Rachele: Edda, Bruno, Vittorio, Romano and Anna Maria. Edda, Mussolini’s first born died on April 8th, Anna Maria, his youngest daughter, died on April 25thand Edda’s youngest son Marzio on April 11th.
Betrayal (tradimento) by l’Inghilterra(England) I once wrote, was the reason Mussolini reluctantly sided with Hitler in World War II. Signor A.D.V. of Sun Valley, California, informed me that “l’Inghilterra” was not the sole culprit and sent me several informative clippings to buttress his claim. Unfortunately, they are all in Italian which I can read at second grade level very slowly.
In the meantime I’ll share some of his thoughts with you: “Mussolini was tradito not only from l’Inghilterra but from his own commilitoni ministries: Italo Balbo, Dino Grandis and more. There was no need to bring the country to the “sfacelo” to relieve a man from power. If those traditori were not in sintonia with Mussolini they could resign but the “poltrona calda” of the parliament was “comoda” for all.
After the Impero Romano, Mussolini was the only head of the nation that wanted one Italia Grandeand, more than this, respect. He still resented the injustice done to Italy at the end of the first world war (1918) at Versailles, France. England, France, U.S.A. and Italy, who fought on the side of the “vincitori”, met to sign the Armistice. The three considered Italy like “pezze da piedi”. Mussolini did not become rich, like many prime ministers, deputati and senators who became rich in a short time after the end of WWI.”
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Costanzo Ciano, Admiral, old fascist friend, communications minister and father of Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law, reputedly lived like a millionaire, however, any denunciations of profiteering by other “honest” fascist usually resulted in dismissal or worst for the “whistle blower”.
When Mussolini discovered that some fascist leaders were “living like millionaires” he was not troubled by the corruption itself, so much as leaks or public knowledge that he was appointing or surrounded by any high level scoundrels, thereby keeping the culprits in positions of power and allowing them to continue making dishonest profits from contracts in administrative offices in Milan and other regional deals throughout Italy.
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“Donna” Rachele(Guidi) Mussolini had her first child, Edda (1910) out of wedlock but married, in a civil ceremony five years later. In 1925, in an effort to ingratiate himself with the Catholic Church, Benito and Rachele were married in a religious ceremony. By that time he had fathered three children with Rachele; Edda 1910, Vittorio 1916, Bruno 1918 and in 1927 Romano arrived followed in 1929 by Anna Maria.
The name of Claretta Petacci, Mussolini’s final mistress, who joined him in death in April 1945, is well known, however it was Ida Dalser who presented Mussolini with his first son, Benito Albino Mussolini, in 1915. And when Mussolini went off to fight in World War I he referred to Ida Dalser as his wife so that she and their child could receive some public assistance.
When Mussolini came to power Ida Dalser and Benito Albino who tried to maintain contact with him became aninconvenience to Mussolini. The truth is that she had really been a big asset to him in starting his newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia which began publication in November 1914, in competition with Avanti.
Ida Dalser, the first of four children born to the mayor of Sopramonte in the province of Trento, met Mussolini in her hometown in 1909 after he had been named director of the Labor Department of Austria’s Socialist Party. They saw each other again four years later in Milan, where he ran the Socialist newspaper Avanti! He was no longer unattached as he had already become Edda’s father, but neither was he married, since he and Rachele were not wed until December 16, 1915, in a civil ceremony.
A son was born from Mussolini’s affair with Ida Dalser, and was entered into the birth registry on November 11, 1915, as Benito Albino Dalser. Two years later Mussolini recognized the child as his, and before a notary public in Monza, he agreed to pay 200 lira a month for child support. In 1917, while in the military, Mussolini was wounded by a grenade launcher in Carso and was sent to recover in a military hospital in Milan.
Both Rachele and Ida Dalser visited him there, each arriving without the other’s knowledge until suddenly they found themselves face-to-face. The ladies got into a screaming match saying “I am Mussolini’s wife and only I have the right to be at his side” etc. From his bed, looking like a mummy with bandages restraining his movement, Benito attempted to intervene.
He got up from his bed while a doctor and two nurses also tried their best to separate the ladies and things went downhill from there for Ida Dalser. As “Il Duce” began to achieve absolute power and the number of his supporters and sycophants multiplied, Ida Dalser was unable to cross barriers that kept her from her beloved Benito, and she grew increasingly isolated and depressed and began to go in and out of hospitals.
Ida died in 1937 and Benito Albino in 1942. Now much to my surprise a couple of weeks ago, during this first week of April, I learned that Ida Dalser’s love affair with Mussolini was the subject of a new Italian film, Vincere(to win). I went to see it. The film was very well done and favorably focused on Ida Dalser. Here is an excerpt from the review, by Mick LaSalle, Chronicle movie critic: “Vincere, Drama, Starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Filippo Timi. Directed by Marco Bellocchio. In Italian with English subtitles.
In “Vincere,” Italian maestro Marco Bellocchio uncovers a skeleton in Benito Mussolini’s sexual closet, and there we find behavior not exactly inconsistent with his future attacks on North Africa and Greece and his alliance with Adolf Hitler. This man wanted what he wanted and didn’t care who got hurt.
“Vincere” tells the story of one woman who got hurt - Ida Dalser, the lover of Mussolini’s early years, who discovered the future dictator when he was just a young journalist. She shared her bed with him and later financed the founding of the newspaper, Il Popolo d’ Italia, which became the propaganda arm of the Fascist Party. After he married someone else, she continued to see him romantically, and even had his child.
Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays Ida, and if you know Mezzogiorno you know instantly why this film is worth seeing. Bellocchio has always been concerned with sex as the great revealer, and truth teller in human relations and uses news- reel or archival footage to ground “Vincere” in its historical period.”
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Edda Mussolini Ciano (1910-1995) married Galeazzo Ciano, a rich upper class Italian playboy and son of Mussolini’s old fascist friend Admiral Costanzo Ciano, in April 1930. Edda had previously been in love with the son of a famous industrialist from Romagna, Orsi Mangelli. After dinner with Edda and her family, Orsi spoke privately with “Il Duce” and asked about Edda’s dowry.
Mussolini replied that his daugh- ter Edda had nothing, just as he had nothing. And young Orsi Mangelli never showed his face again… This conversation may have had a “silver lining”, for as we all know barely two weeks into 1944 Mussolini’s son-in-law, Galeazzo Cianowas executed as a traitor along with other Grand Council conspirators.
Looking back, one can say it was fun while it lasted. Shortly after their April 1930 wedding in Rome, Galeazzo was appointed the Italian Consul to Shanghi and he and Edda left for China. Mussolini was thrilled when Guglielmo Marconi enabled him to speak with Edda in Shanghi via Marconi’s invention of radio communications.
In 1934 returning from China, Edda and Galeazzo spent a good deal of time in London, where Dino Grandi was serving as ambassador. In 1934 Galeazzo was named undersecretary for press and propaganda and at age 32 at the start of the Ethiopian campaign, appointed minister. Edda was truly popular and a sort of trendsetter. When she came back from Brazil she brought back a jaguar and for a while Villa Torlonia was also home to a golden eagle and a pair of lions, Rai and Italia.
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