Police in Turin seized previously unknown handwritten notes by Benito Mussolini ahead of a planned auction. The documents were handed over to the state archive and are considered to be extremely important historical evidence.
In an auction house in the northern Italian city of Turin, the police seized hitherto unknown handwritten notes of the former Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. This is stated in the statement of the carabinieri issued on Monday, writes TASR according to the DPA agency.
- In Turin, the police seized Mussolini’s handwritten notes.
- The notes were supposed to be auctioned, they ended up in the state archive.
- They are attributed to Mussolini based on the handwriting and monogram.
A special carabinieri unit seized the notes before the upcoming auction and handed them over to the central state archive in Rome. They are considered documents of “special historical importance”. Based on an initial investigation through a comparative examination of the handwriting, the font and monogram “M” at the end of one of the pages can be attributed to Mussolini.
Notes from a meeting with Hitler
According to experts from the Carabinieri Special Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, the notes refer to a meeting with Hitler at Klessheim Castle near Salzburg in present-day Austria on April 22, 1944.
They are said to contain various topics in the fields of “armed forces”, “politics” and “economy and labour”. It is believed that they were created in preparation for a meeting between the two dictators. Although undated, their content is said to match the themes of the meeting with Hitler, the carabinieri said.
The fate of Mussolini and Petaccio
Experts believe that Mussolini probably used them directly during the meeting as they were translated four times.
Both dictators were close allies. After his overthrow in Rome in 1943, with Hitler’s help, Mussolini ruled northern Italy in a puppet state known as the Republic of Salò.
While trying to escape to Switzerland on April 28, 1945, Italian partisans near the village of Mezzegra shot him together with his lover Clara Petacciová. Their bodies were taken to Milan and hung upside down in Piazzale Loreto.
