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Benito Mussolini
Young socialist
Mussolini was born in 1883. As a young man, he was a
rousing orator, a tireless journalist – and a socialist. In
1912, after years of hack journalism and selfpromotion, he was appointed editor of the Socialist
Party newspaper Avanti!, preaching left wing
revolution.
But, when the First World War broke out, and Mussolini
called for Italy to ally itself with France, he was
expelled from the party, whose policy was neutrality.
When Italy joined the war, Mussolini fought in the
army, then after peace in 1918 rebuilt his political
Benito Mussolini
career by appealing to his fellow ex-servicemen. The
result was a new political philosophy: a combination of nationalism, authoritarian
discipline and charismatic leadership. Mussolini called it Fascism.
Successful Fascist
The Fascist movement was launched in 1919. As a succession of governments faced
strikes, factory occupations and riots, Fascist gangs presented themselves as the
only force able to restore order. Their methods were increasingly violent; when a
general strike was called in 1922, Fascists burned down Socialist Party buildings
and destroyed the presses of Avanti!.
Mussolini then started the March on Rome, a show of strength aimed at making him
dictator. But although this appeared to be a coup, in fact its success depended on
support from Italy's king, Victor Emmanuel III. In the event, Mussolini didn't march
to Rome – he went to Rome by train and became prime minister by royal
appointment.
Mussolini's rule was brutally authoritarian: the parliament was packed with Fascists,
opposition newspapers were banned, and opponents of the regime were beaten up.
However, the regime was also genuinely popular – Mussolini was part celebrity and
part saint. About 3,000 different picture postcards portraying him were
independently produced under Fascism, with total sales approaching 100,000,000.
Fascism was not Nazism: Mussolini didn't share Hitler's obsessive racism. There was
no systematic discrimination against Jews; and political opponents were imprisoned
or exiled to remote regions of Italy rather than thrown into concentration camps.
Fatal attraction
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany. Although Mussolini was the senior
Fascist, he soon recognised Hitler as the dominant figure on the European stage.
Reversing his earlier policies, and despite the fact that he had once had a Jewish
mistress, Mussolini introduced anti-Semitic legislation.
In 1935, Mussolini tried to demonstrate Italy's power by invading Abyssinia (now
Ethiopia). The following year, Italy joined Germany in providing military support to
General Franco's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, while Hitler supported
Mussolini's fantasies about a new Italian empire. In 1940, Italy entered the Second
World War on Germany's side.
Mismanaged, ill-equipped and worn down by years of fighting in Abyssinia and
Spain, Italian forces were routed in Greece and got bogged down in North Africa. In
the spring of 1943, they were driven out of Africa; on 10 July, Allied forces landed
in Sicily. Soon after, Mussolini was deposed by the Fascist Grand Council and the
king. In September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, and Mussolini was
arrested and held in a remote hotel in the Apennines.
But Hitler couldn't let Italy fall without a fight: the Germans invaded the country,
Mussolini was rescued by German crack troops, and taken to the northern lakeside
resort of Salò, where he was proclaimed head of a new Italian republic. Here, he
attempted to reinvent Fascism, but the real power lay with the Nazis.
Endgame
In 1945, after much bitter fighting, the Germans withdrew from Italy, and on 27
April 1945 Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by Italian
Resistance forces. They were both shot, in confused circumstances, the following
day. The bodies were put on public display, hung by the feet. The dead dictator was
now hated as fiercely as he had once been loved. Mussolini's attraction to Hitler
proved to be his downfall.
After the end of the war, another Italian Republic was founded and the Fascist party
was banned. But the veterans of the Salò republic set up the Movimento Sociale
Italiano (Italian Social Movement). Renamed the Alleanza Nazionale (National
Alliance), the party is now part of Italy's coalition government. The names have
changed, but the legacy of right wing authoritarianism lives on.
http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/mussolini.html
Adolf Hitler
With a passion to be an artist and an architect, young
Adolf Hitler spent many years in Vienna, after
dropping out of school at age 16, where he sold
paintings on postcards to locals and tourists alike.
Without the support of his father in his pursuits, he
quickly ran out of money and lived in a homeless
shelter. Some evidence suggests that Hitler was
exposed more than ever to anti-Semitism during his
time there, as the city had a large Jewish community,
which fostered his evolving ideology.
Hitler went to Munich, Germany in 1913 and was
fascinated with the architecture and art of the place.
But, as he fed his aesthetic hunger, he also joined the
Bavarian Army in World War I, where he served in
France and Belgium under Ludwig III. He received a
badge for a wound he received from enemy fire.
Becoming a German patriot, but not a full-fledged citizen meant that Hitler couldn’t
hold any real public office. He remained in the Army after World War I and moved
up to the position of a police spy where he was to convince other small political
groups on a scheme of propaganda and ‘national thinking’ that Jews in Germany
had cost them the war.
Adolf Hitler had become an excellent orator in front of crowds. After hearing him
speak, people feverishly followed and believed what he said. Hitler became the
leader of the newly dubbed National Socialist German Workers Party and his
speeches against communism, capitalism, and groups such as the Jews, won him
national backing on every level.
In his autobiography called Mein Kampf, which he dictated while serving a short
prison term, he talks about both his personal struggle growing up as a
‘misunderstood artist’ and how his political beliefs were formed. Hitler made millions
from its publication and by World War II, it was required reading in Germany.
With the Great Depression taking place in the United States and elsewhere in the
world, Germany too fell into economic hardships. Hitler was able to bridge the lower
and middle classes together in hopes of bringing Germany back to its previous
greatness. His party assigned him to a post so that he could receive German
citizenship and he ran for president. Hitler was sworn in as the Chancellor and his
Nazi Party had already gained control of many of the top governmental offices.
Eventually, Hitler lifted himself to dictator with full-fledged support from many
parties. He now had control of the military, to which no one else had power.
Hitler improved the infrastructure of Germany and the living standards of different
classes. He also began his campaign to take over other European lands and to
exterminate anyone he saw as a hindrance to his progress – namely the Jews. As
Hitler attached Poland, no other country did much to stop him. By the time Hitler
had attacked the Netherlands, France declared war, but were quickly defeated.
Then, Hitler declared war on the United States by siding with Japan, and marked
the beginning of World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, until Hitler’s defeat, he and Heinrich Himmler had been
involved in the killing of over eleven million people, including more than six million
Jews. It has been called the ‘Holocaust’. The end of the war came when Russia,
Britain, and the United States took Munich. When the liberating troops were within
just a few hundred meters of Hitler’s bunker, he killed himself, along with his new
wife Eva Braun and his dog named Blondi.
http://www.biographyshelf.com/adolf_hitler_biography.html