On April 28, 1945, Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed by members of the Italian resistance. The entire country is engulfed in a powerful anti-fascist uprising, and Anglo-American troops are advancing from the south.
The uprising is led by the National Committee for the Liberation of Northern Italy (KNOSI), created more than a year ago, in which five parties - from the Communists to the Christian Democrats - participate. And the command of the partisan forces with over 200,000 fighters is entrusted to the main partisan headquarters headed by General Raffaele Cadorna.
By April 25, the insurgents established control over the major industrial centers of Turin, Milan and Genoa and many other settlements.
Duceto has been in Milan since April 14. Feeling betrayed and abandoned by his German patrons, he desperately searches for a way out. His emissary established contact with some members of KNOSI. Committee member Sandro Pertini, the future president of Italy, is adamant: The Duce must admit defeat, surrender unconditionally and await the verdict handed down to him by the people. Attempts to seek asylum in Switzerland, again through an intermediary, have also been fruitless. The authorities in Bern make it clear that they do not object to the arrival of women and children, but in no case can they receive fascist leaders.
Finding himself at a dead end, in the afternoon of April 25, Mussolini left Milan and headed north with his entourage. The next day, he was joined by the artist Clara Petacci, who had been his lover since 1932. After vicissitudes, the two of them, as well as other companions of the dictator, joined a German military column that was being pulled along a steep alpine road. No one knows where they will end up, nor that they have entered an area controlled by the 52nd Assault Guerrilla Brigade “Luigi Clerici”. Its commander is Count Pierluigi Bellini delle Stella.
On the morning of April 27, the convoy was stopped by a partisan post near the village of Muso. The partisans are few and therefore agree to let the Germans through (near the border they are disarmed and captured) while detaining the Italian fascists traveling with them. When inspecting one of the trucks, partisan Giuseppe Negri notices a figure in a German uniform dozing in the corner.
When asked what kind of person this person is, German soldiers answer: “A drunkard”. Negri lifts his cloak to examine the face of the “drunkard” and immediately recognizes Mussolini. The Duce, his mistress and other fascists were thrown from the cars. The arrested were taken to the nearby mountain town of Dongo, where the command of the 52nd Brigade is located. For safety, Mussolini and Petacci were taken to the small village of Bondzanigo. They were accommodated there in the home of a trusted rural family, personally known to the political commissar of the brigade, Michele Moretti. Two partisans were left for security.
At 4:10 p.m. on April 28, 1945, Duceto was executed. The bodies of the murdered were taken to the “Loreto” square. and hanging upside down from the scaffolding of a local gas station. The symbolism is tragic - in the same place on August 10, 1944, the fascists left the bodies of 15 patriots, shot as hostages, for edification.