(2x) Benito Mussolini & The women in his life - 'End of Dictator, hanged by the people in Milan' 1945

2 vintage press photos, all in good condition, tampering and wear marks, see photos for details, annotations and stamp on reverse.

measurements:

1. 24cm x 18
2. 18cm x 12.5


Benito Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian journalist, ideologue and statesman, who served as President of the Council from 1922 until his fall in 1943.

Founder of fascism, he was President of the Council of the Kingdom of Italy from 31 October 1922 to 25 July 1943, First Marshal of the Empire from 30 March 1938 to 25 July 1943, and Head of State of the Italian Social Republic (RSI) from September 1943 to April 1945. He is commonly referred to by the term "Duce", an Italian word derived from the Latin Dux and meaning "Leader" or "Guide".
After 1935, he became close to the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, with whom he established the Pact of Steel (1939).

Then he was deposed and arrested by order of the king. Liberated by the Germans, he established the Italian Social Republic in northern Italy. On April 25, 1945, while trying to flee to Valtellina disguised as a German soldier, he was captured by a group of partisans, who shot him and his mistress Clara Petacci. Their bodies are handed over to an angry crowd, hung by their feet, in Milan's Piazzale Loreto.

Mussolini married Rachele Guidi (1890-1979), a small peasant girl from Romagna, daughter of his father's partner, in December 1915 after six years of living together, first civilly, then religiously in 1925, once he had become the leader of the Party of Order and the guardian of traditional values. He had five children by her, Edda born in 1910, Vittorio (1916), Bruno (1918), Romano (1927) and Anna Maria (1929).

Rachele and his children remained aloof from the Duce's public life. It was seven years after her arrival in Rome that she was allowed to join him and move with him and her children to the Villa Torlonia where they lived in separate apartments and where Mussolini liked to have his quick meals alone. In 14 years, she was only admitted twice to the Venice palace to attend military parades, while Clara Petacci had a private apartment there. The first official appearance of Donna Rachelle, a sort of title of first lady, was on the occasion of Edda's wedding in 1930.

Edda Mussolini (1910-1995) was the Duce's favorite daughter. She resembles him and he took care of her a lot in his childhood when his time was less taken up by his political and journalistic activities. "Whoever touches Edda, touches the apple of my eye!" he declared. Her parents nicknamed her the "crazy filly" (cavallina matta) because of her rebellious character, her ardent and rebellious nature. She claims to have been the first woman in Italy to wear pants, smoke in public, or drive a car. Sporty and courageous (she swam away from a fire on a hospital ship during the war), she loved gambling, alcohol, tobacco...

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