[Music] [Music] long considered a buffoon a bumbling brute an insignificant tyrant [Music] very much overshadowed by Adolf Hitler the man who dragged Italy into World War II is one of history's most famous [Music] dictators one of the most derided as well musolini on April 29th 1945 the day before Hitler's suicide side his body was displayed in public in a Milan [Music] Square he his mistress and other leading fascists had been executed by Italian [Music] partisans his corpse was mutilated and strung up by its feet for all to see and yet several months earlier in this
very spot musolini had been worshiped as a living [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] God they called him Uche the leader 100 years ago in 1922 he seized power in Italy through violence and deception and invented fascism for more than 20 years he imposed toel arianism on his people a strategy admired by dictators around the [Music] world he was a genius I still make the Roman salute definitely it wasn't like this but like this the Roman salute those years were years of pain and suffering good I'm always struck by how these charismatic figures managed to bewitch
so many people this is the story of a power hungry megalomaniac who wanted to change the soul of Italy and led his people to disaster this tragic story begins in the 1920s in beautiful Italy the land of Michelangelo Dante and Verde a glorious past a nation in crisis the average income was three times lower than in France and Great Britain to escape poverty millions of Italians chose to immigrate score settling assassinations [Music] riots since Italy's Victory alongside France and Great Britain in 1918 Civil War had undermined democracy Farmers everywhere grabbed uncultivated land workers started strikes
and lashed out at their bosses during the Great War they had been promised social reforms which never materialized in Italy trade unions and leftist parties united against the [Music] Bourgeois facing them this Dapper man Benito melini the Striker's Arch Enemy the man who wanted to transform Italy the teacher turned journalist had recently created a movement fascism in this millanes Palazo lent to him by local industrialists fascism for fasis a symbol of power in ancient Rome he adopted the Roman salute and made his men wear a uniform the black shirt sometimes with a skull on their
helmets their weapons these clubs were manganelo that were used to terrorize the left their motto Min fego I don't give a damn musolini had 300,000 men and the streets were theirs replacing the strikers they drove the trams and kept the streets clean most were War veterans Advocates of extreme violence they dreamt of Revolution a revolution of the right to put the country in order and make Italy a world power [Music] all over the country they terrorized the Reds during brutal punitive Expeditions I ask for one ferocious man with the energy to break and attack without
hesitating declared [Music] melini he was convinced he could achieve Power by crushing the marxists his ambition was to rule Italy alone no matter what the cost he was hugely ambitious he was capable of crushing absolutely anyone he was an aggressive man the aim of fascism is that violence solves everything that was the idea Teresa vergali her family was persecuted by the first fascists my father told me they lured him out of the cooperative's bar by saying to him we need a word there were three of them two men held him down and the third beat
him up they left him lying there molini used castor oil as an instrument of torture forcing it down his enemy throats after swallowing castor oil the poor victim couldn't control his bows he would soil himself and have to walk across the Village Square and everyone would stare not everyone could stand it in fact the left melini persecuted were no strangers to him before the Great War he had been one of them he was born in this Valley in the village of prapo in Romania a socialist stronghold 2 hours from [Music] Venice he described his childhood
as tough with his Pious school teacher mother and his Anarchist blacksmith father considered Dangerous by the police like his father Benito melini spent several spells in prison for revolutionary agitation including in 1911 when Italy invaded Libya and committed atrocities against its people an anti-colonialist melini LED a riot to block the movement of troops to [Music] Libya his enemies at the time were those of his father the Army the Bourgeois and the Church all those who would later support him a strange character he read a lot and played the violin alone in the countryside for hours
on end an odd mixture of strength and sensitivity but he was unable to control his violence as a teenager he raped one of his neighbors and later wrote about it in a book then he married a local girl a gidi he proposed to her gun in hand and threatened to kill her her parents and himself if he was turned down dramatic and impulsive he was wounded at the front in 1917 and the hell of the trenches was a life-changing experience for him Italy's sacrifices had not been sufficiently rewarded by the Allies 600,000 Dead 1 million
wounded and a mutilated Victory according to the expression of the time now a nationalist he was an advocate of violence the fascists saw War as the great test of Nations this is his desk he ran the newspaper IL poopo Italia which he founded in Milan with the help of a group of industrialists 3 years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 Italy's business Community now saw him as a Bull workk against communism in return musolini lent them his men to break strikes and protect their property Marta boni's father was an industrialist and member of the Italian
fascist party this is my father with his funny hat we lived through violence that's for sure he was kicked out of his Factory by the workers we were extremely frightened of the Russians that was Italy we were afraid the Russians would eat our children I think my father saw musolini as the man capable of restoring order in the chaos that was [Music] Italy in 1922 Italy was ready to embrace [Music] fascism and the Parliamentary monarchy did not stand in the way in Rome King Victor Emanuel III nicknamed pipetto by the Italians due to his small
stature feared for his crown he was responsible for appointing the Prime Minister and was willing to negotiate to save his position opposite him a political class alarmed by the fascists but incapable of presenting a united front this man was the then prime minister Luigi faka a moderate reformer after months of inaction he wanted to oppose musolini but it was a vain wish because in October 1922 in one of those tragic moments when history speeds up Italy changed dramatically the march on Rome a lesson in how to Stage a coup for budding dictators and in particular
Hitler who watched attentively from Germany in Naples the great city of the South 40,000 fascist militants attended the party's National [Applause] Convention elected as a deputy along with 30 or so black shirts 18 months earlier musolini decided to hasten history and launch an attack on Rome to take control of the country for months his supporters had urged him to to go For Broke at a mass rally in Naples musolini launched an ultimatum from the podium either the government will be given to us or we will march on Rome it was a risky gamble if the
government sent in the Army and decided to open fire it would be the end for him and prison that very evening playing the respectable politician he left his raging supporters in Naples and returned to Milan then waited the Insurrection was planned for October 27th some made a head start without waiting for the 27th cities rose up [Music] Piza cremona while in Milan carrying on as if it was business as usual melini went to his newspaper offices and attended the Opera with his wife in fact he had already given the order to march on the capital
the situation could have turned violent at any moment surprisingly on reaching Rome the fascists encountered no resistance after 3 years of Civil War the state was in [Applause] disarray everything depended on the king prime minister faka had asked him to declare a state of Siege and send in the Army but fearing he would be swept from power and to avoid chaos Victor Emmanuel refused to use Force 5 days after the ultimatum he offered ministerial posts to musolini and three of his deputies in Milan melini turned his nose up at what he considered a miserable plate
of lentils for him it was either complete power or chaos Italy was on the brink of explosion Business Leaders voiced their official support for musolini and the King yielded he asked musolini to form a new [Applause] government here is m arriving in Rome he had waited years for this moment having marched from Naples the militants turned out to welcome him with musolini their life would soon change for good in a top hat the Young Thug from prapo the street brawler far more subtle than he appeared was received by the king and appointed as prime minister
if father could see me musolini whispered to his brother his legal Ceta was a stroke of political genius a miracle a dream that could become reality and did become reality we immediately saw that things were changing and order was being restored Italy with its whippings beatings screaming and assassinations the new fascist order was underway and beautiful Italy would not resist for long in the heart of Rome at the kiji palace musolini could now impose totalitarian rule over Italy and realize his dream of turning the country into a fascist Society but to achieve this he needed
complete power which was not the case the King and Parliament still had power the Press was free to say what it liked and the trade unions to strike [Music] he was only halfway there as head of government musolini personally took over the ministries of the interior and Foreign Affairs taking over the rest would require stealth just this once he went on a charm offensive he instantly won over two of his main opponents former prime ministers he was seen everywhere smiling embracing these conservatives he despised but who support he needed to dominate Parliament his argument the
fear of communist chaos and it worked the moderates in Parliament granted him full powers for one year time enough to quash the left they thought melini used his power to suppress civil liberties he'll calm down they said in 1923 he had a new electoral law passed and won the general election the following year musolini had become respectable but he reverted to type taking more of a stick than a carrot approach now the regime's official militia his gang of thugs LED an assault on the strongholds of the left and publicly humiliated politicians such as this Deputy
during the conquest of power trade unionists were hunting down some were dragged their feet tied behind trunks the Black Terror reached its height during the elections in 1924 several of his cronies kidnapped the leader of the opposition socialist deputy jakomo motti and stabbed him to death in a car his corpse was found two months later in the country side a huge Scandal Italy was in shock musolini almost lost everything but he was much Wier than people supposed he survived several assassination attempts a fact he exploited to the [Music] [Applause] fullest the bullet nicked his nose
see how he used this Italy is more threatened than ever he declared [Music] under the pretext of defending the state he pushed the Ley fascisti or fascist legislation through Parliament drafted earlier and pulled out of the drawer at the right moment they abolished all civil liberties all trade unions were banned except the official fascist Trade union no more newspapers except for those friendly to musolini a single party his a parliament that passed any law it was asked to and served no purpose as for the king he was reduced to a mere symbol by the mid
1920s democracy was dead in Italy Long Live Uche [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] to sweeten the pill melini used an old recipe national pride to put an end to the old Italian Hang-Ups and propose a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] dream to flatter his people musolini reminded them they were The Heirs of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance immigration abroad is over he said no more stereotypical images of Italians macaroni mandolin players late trains for 20 years to make up for lost Liberties Uche offered them symbolic compensation I think the fact there was someone who said
hey guys we're good strong numerous we're the best suited us we who had always felt like we were the class dancers [Music] [Applause] yes I see myself as a descendant of the Roman Empire because they loved their country as much as I [Music] do he was the Italian Soldier because he wanted to expand Italy's territory you're too young to remember but we were a very poor country in some parts people only ate palenta musolini the new Caesar one of the world's first populists although the term was yet to be coined before his people's astonished eyes
he promised to make Italy great [Music] again he launched a series of battles the battle for grain to make Italy self-sufficient in food the battle of the L for National sovereignty the Battle of race would soon follow to win support he undertook large-scale public works such as the Reclamation of the pontine marshes a legendary area south of Rome flooded since Antiquity and unsuitable for farming by draining the swamp Distributing land and building New Towns melini promised an end to imigration and a new Italian [Music] Renaissance even though previous governments had undertaken similar projects everyone applauded
the new [Music] Superman musolini the strategist tackled unresolved issues such as the dispute with the Vatican that dated back to the unification of Italy when the pope was dispossessed of his States musolini the anti-clerical leader agreed to reintroduced the crucifix in schools established Catholicism as the state religion and recognized the sovereignty of the Vatican the latter in Accords Amer miracle for Catholics that is a great many [Music] people well before anyone else he understood the power of images cameras now followed his every [Music] step in 1924 as he was toppling democracy musolini entrusted the luche
Institute with the task of projecting a positive image of the state or rather himself [Music] movie theaters all over the country screened newsreels about Uche which he signed off cinematography is the strongest weapon he declared the opportunity as well to promote the social policies of a regime that simply dressed up old things as Something New by reorganizing existing systems in reality only industrial workers or almost benefited from its policies I consider him a clever manuchi had no Scruples he knew how to talk to the people he wasn't an [Music] aristocrat and to get the party
going he created the ministry of popular culture [Music] the musolini Trap [Music] [Music] [Applause] Italian workers were no longer allowed to strike but they were granted a 70% discount on train fairs for weekends in the country and at the seaside our first friends to go to the coast and see the sea saw it thanks to the summer camps fascism took children to the Sea and to the mountains what can I say the multitude like a woman is made to be violated declared musolini in private [Music] [Applause] in the early 1930s he won over a large
part of the population including some of his future victims before musolini turned on them Jews too admired him such as young Silvana auki in [Music] Rome I sang it too it was amusing actually what else would you like to know it seems incredible after 82 years but I was caught up in the enthusiasm too we were all happy I didn't know what he was talking about of course he was fascinating he had a real talent like all dictators he was a great talker he was talented that's the way it [Music] was [Applause] [Music] [Music] defend
when we all woke up I wondered how I had managed not to laugh when melini made his speeches he had this Fierce look which was totally ridiculous but at the time we all looked at him and thought what [Music] strength musolini the mirror in which many Italians saw their own reflection if Uche had succeeded the whole country could too he lived in one of Rome's grandest houses The Villa Tonia he hosted the greats of the world there men such as Gandhi Churchill praised him to the skies if I had been Italian I am sure I
would have been with musolini from the beginning in this dream setting uch continued to play to the cameras before any other world leader he put his family on show especially his daughter aah his wild Philly as he called her one of the first women in Italy to drive a car and wear short skirts she later married a count he and his wife raeli had five children including vitorio and Bruno who became bomber Pilots the stereotypical Latin man his daughter aah once said my father thinks women should stay at home have children and wear horns he
made little attempt to hide his lovers such as the Venetian socialite margarita sarfati with whom he spent 15 years an intellectual she taught him how to behave in society introduced him to businessmen and artists and wrote his biography Dukes a bestseller in Europe and the United States [Music] she was Jewish initially this was not a problem sooner or later it would become [Music] one 10 years after seizing power musolini became increasingly radical fooled by the regime's charm offensive many failed to realize he was not the sort of tyrant Italy had seen so often in the
past but rather a modern totalitarian dictator who would not stop at exercising [Music] power Uche wanted to change his people to transform them from within [Music] here is the new man he dreamed of the Jack booted strutting knife wielding [Music] fascist the new model for the [Music] Italians with these ruthless fanatic obedient citizen soldiers musolini thought he would be able to hold on to power for decades [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] he said believe obey fight believe in what I say and what the says obey without question when I give you orders and
fight because I sending you into battle he could not have been clearer [Applause] [Applause] there was real respect I thought careful we mustn't criticize musolini the young Pierro gandini 10 years old at the time the budding new man like all his generation he was a member of the balila melini's Youth Organization the the regime drummed military values and mythology into these young Warriors from a very early [Music] age hail Caesar those who are about to die salute you what I liked was the military aspect having a gun playing I thought I was somebody it made
me feel big and [Music] strong unlike in the 20s his enemies were no longer just the Socialists and communists but all those who did not conform who thought for themselves and refused to cow toow to the [Music] dictator in this totalitarian Society uch was everywhere he controlled everything to get a job in the public sector you had to be a party member when we went to vote it was like voting in public we were down below and they were above us and so they could see what we marked on the slip in every village the
party as well as the local Administration was run by the black shirts they watched every family they would say the pharmacist that street is an opponent either we convert him or Scare him so much that he stops spreading his propaganda even if it meant beating him up either you're with us and you do what we tell you to do or you'll have problems you'll lose your job you'll lose your benefits musini scared people that's all you could be thrown in jail simply for saying fascism is a [Music] disgrace to criticize Uchi was to attack Italy
deviant elements were denounced arrested and imprisoned [Music] such as the philosopher grami one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party who became the icon of a generation of [Music] anti-fascists to silence the anti-fascists musolini set up the special Tribunal for the defense of the state with the power to impose the death penalty on dissidents or lock them up for years such as here off the coast of Naples the fascists wanted them to stay there to keep quiet so people would forget about them if they did something against the regime in power it's normal they
were sent to prison violence is not immoral said musolini when it is effective in a cancerous situation it is moral sacy and necessary the fascist police sent 15,000 opponents without trial into Kino this new repressive system was a cross between a concentration camp and house arrest they were held in Huts or village houses houses isolated cut off from their families they stayed there for years some even died in captivity a less harsh form of repression than in Nazi Germany but equally effective to survive Italians had to play along with the regime conceal their opinions and
hold tight when my father was sent to prison for all those months how did my mother cope with my newborn brother and 5-year-old me what sacrifices did she make the poor woman she alone knows we did what we could escaping the worst avoiding evil hiding fleeing hiding other people I didn't agree even though there was this typically Italian habit of being Too Faced and pretending to agree with him applauding but then going home and laughing about it all violent repression few had imagined and against which they were now powerless in Italy all political opposition fell
silent both left and right the only Italians to speak out were those who had chosen self-imposed Exile mainly in France which welcomed 30,000 political refugees for every 1 million Italian immigrants in Paris the capital of anti-fascism they made the public aware of the regime's true nature and some even met their deaths musolini did not hesitate to have opponents such as the roselli brothers eliminated by the far-right militants of the [Applause] kagul the world was outraged but Uche did not give a dam [Music] [Music] his regime now inspired other dictators men like musolini are born only
one once every Thousand Years raved Hitler who had seized power in [Music] 1933 musolini was now over 50 he ruled from his office at the palat Venia surrounded by sycophants such as the grand Council of fascism whose members he selected among his friends in the party and the government and who never contradicted him [Music] he still had the support of the business Community the Army and the church he had it all but it was not enough musolini was never satisfied he played with his associates more and more humiliating them [Music] a man with a voracious
sexual appetite he converted the top floor of the palace for his Mistresses according to his private secretary he had on average one woman a day selected from letters he received from all over Italy most female admirers had a brief 15-minute encounter with [Music] Uchi he was obsessed with turning Italy into a nation of fascists he communicated with the multitude from his [Applause] [Music] [Applause] balcony in 1935 he made one of his most important speeches here the declaration of war against the empire of Ethiopia he believed it would be the start of a colonial war that
would test the new man and Revitalize his regime [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Ethiopia the war many had been waiting for and musolini had dreamt of for [Music] years before colonizing Libya in 1911 Italy had already tried to take over the Empire of Ethiopia in the 19th century attacking from erria and Somalia but it failed miserably for for the former anti-colonialist Italy too had a right to A Place in the [Music] [Applause] Sun it was his dream to make Italy a colonial power just as Britain France and others were to a greater extent Italy needed
space where Italians could work rather than immigrating abroad [Music] [Applause] [Music] they believed what musolini said that with the wars we would become rich that we were The Heirs of the Romans that we were Superior with this myth of the superiority of the race from the books I read I thought it was a backward country because in the past used witch [Music] [Music] Dost waged in the name of progress but overtly racist melini's colonial war was condemned by the International Community there is this song little black face beautiful abisa wait and Hope the hour is
Drawing Near when we shall be near you we will give you our duci and our King and we all cried poor thing in Ethiopia the fascist troops used poison gas a weapon of mass destruction banned by the treaties that musolini himself had signed all the characteristics of a genocide [Music] Uche gave free reign to his troops which included his own children 19-year-old vitorio and 17-year-old Bruno bomber Pilots presented as prototypes of the new man they showered incendiary bombs on Ethiopia it was very enjoyable work wrote vorio in a book on his return [Music] and at
the same moment young Pio gandini accompanied his parents to Ethiopia little did he know that one of their friends this Soldier a famous Mountaineer would become a criminal he received the order from musolini to throw poison gas into a cave where thousands of Ethiopians were Sheltering with their families those who managed to escape were shot on the [Music] spot musolini was at the height of his popularity to show the world he had the support of his people he launched a gold campaign the day of the wedding rings also known as the Day of [Music] Faith
hundreds of thousands of couples in communion with Uche handed over their wedding rings to be melted [Music] down God and history today mean musolini wrote a student leader hungry for recognition sure of his Destiny musolini did not intend to stop [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there his delusions of grander would soon lead to his downfall [Music]
