[RERUN] EPISODE 69: Capturing Mussolini

History on Fire

Daniele Bolelli

Society & Culture

4.8 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2024

⏱️ 118 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“He must be handed over to a tribunal of the people so it can judge him quickly. We want this, even though we think an execution platoon is too much of an honor for this man. He would deserve to be killed like a mangy dog.” — Future Italian President Sandro Pertini about Benito Mussolini

“The world unfortunately continues to be a battlefield where different egos clash, repeating the mistakes of the past.” — Federigo Giordano

“Death to the Nazi-Fascists.” — The closing quote of most letters written by Federigo Giordano during WWII

I am not done with stories of resistance from Italy during WW II. Today, I’ll tell the story of a friend, one of the very last partisan commanders to still be alive—Federigo Giordano (battle name “Gek.”) His name is still recognized in some towns in Northern Italy since he was the one to lead his men to liberate them from Fascists and Nazis. In this episode we’ll tackle the growth of racism within Fascist ideology, becoming a partisan in the mountains of Northern Italy, rejecting the Alexander Proclamation, saving American aviators, participating in the capture of Benito Mussolini, Mussolini ‘hanging’ in Piazzale Loreto, drunk Nazis in one room while partisans hide in the attic, having to explain to a 90+ year old lady why you killed her sister over 70 years earlier, and much more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to episode 69 of history on fire.
0:04.0	Today I'll be speaking primarily about the wartime experience of partisan commander Federico Giordanoop.
0:11.0	Originally this episode was published in 2021 but this is the first time that it's
0:16.6	published outside of any paywall so this should be news for the vast majority of
0:21.3	you guys listening.
0:24.0	In the course of the episode,
0:25.9	you'll hear me mention about Federico still being alive.
0:29.8	Well, that was true when I recorded,
0:31.8	but it's no longer true now since he died in early
0:35.0	2024 at 97 years old. Having said that, let me get a couple of things out of the way and then we'll get the episode rolling.
0:46.6	Now I'm in an ideal world, I'm trying to figure out how I want to explain this, but basically I'm not a huge fan of
0:54.8	having to depend on ads I'm definitely not a huge fan of paywalls you know done
1:00.0	that don't want to do that ever again. I'm really not a fan of depending on ads, which of course sort of limits my options as far as the podcast goes because realistically the main ways that podcast finance themselves is either
1:13.7	through ads or through listener support.
1:17.3	So if I rule out paywalls, I'm trying not to do too many ads, there means that I primarily depend on people listening and enjoying it enough
1:27.5	so that they want to throw a few bucks my way.
1:30.9	So hopefully, I don't know, maybe I'll figure out some other way down the road, but right now this is where it's at.
1:36.0	So long story short, I really want to thank those of you who have been sweet enough to support my work, either on patron or on substock or some people even
1:46.6	just sending through PayPal. Big shout out to the people sending, you know, parting with way more than their money
1:55.0	that it would be wise. The people supporting at the highest possible level
1:58.7	on Patreon are Mark Chang, Jimmy Moxan, Justin Born, Julian Bailey, Ljubov Zvereva,
2:06.7	Shout out also to David Tock, who came with me along with Lillitzver Eva, David also came with me to Japan on that tour of Japan. That was awesome.
	...

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