Speech at the Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan, December 16, 1944

By Benito Mussolini

Comrades!

Now that there is no great distance separating us, I feel a more direct communication with your spirit. I speak directly to you and look you in the eyes, and I feel that our souls vibrate in unison, because the same single flame burns within them: that of profound love for this Italy which was great and which must be made great again, at any cost or sacrifice.

Comrades!

One can not return to this city — your city, our city — one can not return to this place without being overcome by a profound and irresistible sense of emotion. This very square is linked to an event not only of Italian history, but of world history.

Today, while traveling through your city, I saw first-hand the terrible wounds that the barbaric and despicable enemy has inflicted upon it. The Milanese people have proven themselves proud to bear these blows; they have demonstrated their strength and solid moral structure.

Once again, Milan has shown that it is possible to welcome refugees from every region of Italy into its hospitable walls, and has shown that the Ambrosian soul considers all Italians to be brothers, from the Alps to the far end of the islands.

As the enemy advanced towards the north, he found ever more angry and hostile faces, snipers who shot him dead. Florence has set an example that has filled all Italians with pride. This example was imitated in Forlì. And I am certain that the same example would be repeated in all the other cities, because by now everyone realizes what these "liberators" are really about. They bring us nothing but political slavery, economic slavery and moral abjection.

A people worthy of their name are never defeated until they lay down their arms.

And we will not lay them down until the day of victory.