25 April 1945: Italy Liberation Day
From On This Day in Working Class History by Working Class History
April 25, 2026 · 2 min
About this episode
This episode discusses the liberation of major cities in Italy from fascism on April 25, 1945, highlighting the working class uprising and the events in Genoa and Milan.
On this day, 25 April 1945, some major cities in Italy were liberated from fascism following a working class uprising and general strike in what has since been immortalised as the country's annual Liberation Day. Other towns and cities were liberated before and afterwards. But on April 25, the cities of Milan and Genoa were liberated. Genoa was the only European city where Nazi forces surrendered to resistance partisans. At 7:30 PM, German general Günther Meinhold and communist factory worker Remo Scappini signed the Nazi surrender agreement. The partisan resistance force in Genoa only consisted of around 5000 fighters, compared with over 10,000 Germans, with thousands more outside the city. The partisans controlled all the major roads going in and out of the city, and they were supported by an insurrection in the city. Some German officers resisted the order to surrender, but by 9 AM on April 26, the resistance announced that the insurrection had succeeded and Genoa had been liberated. Learn more about the Italian resistance in our podcast episodes 77-80: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-80-italian-resistance/ Our work is only possible because of support from you, our…
Topics covered
- Italian resistance
- World War II
- fascism
- working class uprising
- general strike
- liberation
Keywords
- Italy
- Liberation Day
- fascism
- Genoa
- Milan
- working class
- resistance
- World War II
- April 25
- general strike
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Italy, Milan, Genoa
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