Mussolini's Last Day on Earth

About this episode

This episode discusses Benito Mussolini's final hours before his capture and execution in 1945.

Benito Mussolini was captured by partisans on 27th April, 1945, whilst attempting a hopeless escape to Switzerland, ‘disguised’ in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet alongside his much-younger mistress, Clara Petacci. Hiding in plain sight was never going to work for a man who had spent years building a cult of personality. He put up little resistance to his capture. That night, the couple spent their final hours in a peasant farmhouse, under the nervous watch of their captors. Mussolini, who once saw himself as Italy’s savior and Hitler’s equal, had lost everything. His empire was gone, his people had turned against him, and now he was simply waiting to die. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the missing evidence around his iconic execution; explain what happened to Mussolini’s body in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto; and discover how his tomb in Predappio is still attracting neo-fascist pilgrims... Further Reading: • ‘Benito Mussolini's Death At The Hands Of Italian Partisans In 1945’ (All That’s Interesting, 2025): https://allthatsinteresting.com/benito-mussolini-death • ‘How Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini Became The First Face Of Fascism’ (HistoryExtra, 2022)…

People in this episode

Hosts: Arion, Rebecca, Olly

Topics covered

• Mussolini
• World War II
• fascism
• Italian history
• executions
• political downfall

Keywords

• Mussolini
• Clara Petacci
• execution
• fascism
• Italy
• World War II
• history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Luftwaffe

Places: Switzerland, Milan, Predappio

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