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Avigliano Umbro – 25 April 2024 – Today our country celebrates the liberation from Nazi-fascism when the military commander of the National Liberation Committee Cadorna gave the order for the insurrection of the partisan forces that liberated Bologna, Turin, Milan, Genoa, anticipating the ‘ arrival of the Allies. On 25 April the German garrison surrendered to the partisans. Precisely this date was chosen to commemorate the liberation from Nazi-fascism. Established by decree in 1946, as a public holiday together with 2 June, the anniversary of the Italian Republic.
THE END that same April 25th Mussolini decided to flee to Switzerland, joining a German convoy disguised as a soldier. Stopped by partisans in Dongo, on Lake Como, he was recognised, captured and shot on 28 April together with his lover Claretta Petacci. The two corpses, together with those of some generals, were exposed for a few hours in Milan, in Piazzale Loreto, (where in August 1944 15 partisans had been shot and their bodies exposed for the whole day). The following day the German forces surrendered in Caserta. Two days after Mussolini’s death, on April 30, realizing his defeat, Hitler committed suicide in the underground bunker of the Berlin Chancellery besieged by the Red Army, and his followers burned his body. On 7 May 1945 in Reims, France, Hitler’s successor, Admiral Donitz signed the unconditional surrender, putting an end to the war in Europe.
WHAT WE NEEDED AND NEEDED TO GET FREE FROM the fundamental problem is that speaking of our country, Germany has partly paid for its mistakes, for a long time there was silence about the fascist regime. Mussolini came to power with a coup d’état but no one stopped him, in fact the crown in the name of Vittorio Emanuele III gave him the role of Prime Minister without firing a shot. It must be said that until 1936 – 38 there was an attitude of acquiescence towards fascism, despite the fact that starting from 1925 the very fascist or liberticidal laws of the liberal state were enacted which in fact brought about the end of all freedoms. Yet up to the present day, fascism has continued to be a source of news and false beliefs fueled by the same regime that it invented through propaganda, and which still continue to circulate, favored by the digital network. Among these inventions, as underlined by the historian Francesco Filippi in the volume Mussolini has also done good things (2019), there was the idea that during the regime Italy was economically more prosperous compared to the democratic phase of the country; in reality, among the measures that were adopted for the “battle of the lira” there was the reduction of wages for workers by 20%. Furthermore, another myth to dispel is that compared to Hitler, Mussolini was a “good dictator” and that fascism would not have had the brutal, ferocious and racist connotations of Nazism but ultimately they were “good people”, more altruistic and tolerant individuals. This is what we had to and must free ourselves from today, from the false ideas and constructions that we have developed over time without however letting history and facts speak for themselves. Only from the historiography of reliable and not ideologically based works can we free ourselves and build a more united country capable of fighting against every form of domination and power.
