On this day, 28 April 1945, Italy’s fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, was executed by anti-fascist partisans, and his body hung up in a public square in Milan.
After his reign of terror was deposed in 1943, Mussolini was broken from captivity by Nazi troops, and put in charge of a puppet government in northern Italy, which was occupied by Germany.
As more of Italy was liberated by partisan and Allied forces, he tried to escape to Switzerland disguised in a German uniform. But he was spotted by a resistance member who called out “We’ve got Big-Head!”
Mussolini was executed near Lake Como alongside a number of other senior fascists and his mistress. Their bodies were then hung from the roof of a petrol station in Piazzale Loreto. The previous year, the Milan Gestapo had publicly executed 15 Italian partisans in that square and hung their bodies there for several days. At the time, Mussolini is said to have remarked, “for the blood of Piazzale Loreto, we shall pay dearly.”
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