By Benito Mussolini
Blackshirts! Men and women of Italy!
After a long silence, once more my voice reaches out to you. I am sure you recognize it. It is the voice that has been with you in difficult times, and in the triumphant days of the Fatherland.
I have delayed speaking to you for a few days after a period of moral isolation. It was necessary to re-establish contact with the world.
The radio does not allow long speeches and for the moment I am not sure of all the facts. Let me take you back to the afternoon of July 25, the day of the greatest adventure of my already very adventurous life.
My conversation with the King at Villa Savoia lasted twenty minutes, maybe less. I found a man with whom any reasoning was impossible as he had already made his mind up. The bursting of the crisis was imminent.
It is not unusual that, both in peace and in war, a Minister be asked to give his resignation and a commanding officer be dismissed, but it is unique in history that a man, like the one speaking to you, after twenty years of service and absolute—I say absolute—loyalty to the King, found himself arrested on the threshold of the King's private house, was forced to climb into a Red Cross ambulance—under the pretext of rescuing him from a conspiracy—and was taken at a crazy speed first to one Carabinieri barracks then to another.
I immediately realized that the rescue was a farce, a feeling that grew stronger when I was taken first to Ponza, and later to La Maddalena and then to the Gran Sasso. The plan was to deliver me in person to the enemy.
However I had the clear impression, even when I was completely isolated from the world, that the Führer was concerned about my fate. Goering sent me a telegram, more as a brother than a comrade. Later on the Führer reached me with a truly monumental edition of the works of Nietzsche. The word 'fidelity' has a profound meaning, unmistakable, I would say eternal, in the German soul. It is the word that collectively and individually sums up the Germanic spirit. I was convinced that I would have proof of this.
Knowing the conditions of the armistice I no longer had the slightest doubt as to what was hidden in the text of Article 12. Furthermore, a high-ranking officer said to me: "You are a hostage".
During the night between the 11th and the 12th of September I made it clear that the enemy would never take me alive. There was in the clear air, around the imposing top of the mountain, a kind of expectation.
It was at 2 PM that I saw the first glider land. Then in succession, the others: and then squads of men advanced toward the building determined to break through every form of opposition. I expected some kind of resistance. The soldiers guarding me surrendered and not one shot was fired. It was all over in 5 minutes. This undertaking which reveals the organization, spirit of initiative and decisiveness of the Germans will remain memorable in the history of the war; in time it will become legendary.
Here ends the chapter that could be called my personal drama: but this is a truly negligible episode compared to the frightful tragedy into which the liberal-democratic and constitutional [Badoglio] Government of July 25 plunged the entire Nation. I did not believe at first that the [Badoglio] Government of July 25 had such disastrous plans for the Party, the Regime and the Nation itself. But after a few days, the first measures revealed that it was implementing a program intended to destroy all the work accomplished by the Regime over a period of twenty years, and to the nullify twenty years of glorious history that had given our Italy an Empire and a position in the world which it had never had before.
Today, in the face of total destruction, in the face of a war which continues in our territory, with us as spectators, some people want to quibble in order to seek formulas for compromise and alibis against responsibility and so to keep up the equivocation.
We, on the other hand, while we revindicate our responsibilities in full, we want to specify those of the others, beginning with the Head of State [King Vittorio Emanuele III], who, having been unmasked and having not abdicated, as the majority of Italians expected, can and must be directly called into question. It was his Dynasty which, throughout the entire period of the war—although it had been declared by the same King—was the principal agent of defeatism and of anti-German propaganda. The King's dismissive attitude towards the war and his mental reservations lent themselves to enemy speculations, while his Heir—who had even expressed his intention to command the Southern Forces—has never shown himself on the battlefield.
I am now more than ever convinced that the House of Savoy wanted, prepared and organized the coup d'etat even in its smallest details, with Badoglio as accomplice and executor, and also with the help of some cowardly and sly generals, and a few Fascist elements turned cowards. There can be no doubt that immediately after my capture the King authorised negotiations for the armistice, negotiations that were perhaps already under way between the two dynasties of Rome and London.
It was the King who advised his accomplices to deceive Germany in the most despicable manner, denying even after the signing that negotiations were in progress.
It was the dynastic court who premeditated and executed the demolition of the Regime which twenty years ago had saved it and created the powerful internal diversion on the basis of the statute of 1848 and of liberty protected by the state of siege. As for the conditions of the armistice, which were to have been generous, they are among the harshest in history. The King made no objection, not even an attempt at objection, to the handing over of my person to the enemy. It is the King who, by his action—driven by his concern for the future of his Crown—created for Italy a situation of chaos and shame, which can be summed up as follows: In all the Continents, from farthest Asia to America, it is known what remaining loyal to pacts means for the House of Savoy.
Now that we have accepted the shameful capitulation, the enemies themselves are not hiding their scorn for us; this is natural enough. England, for example, whom no one thought of attacking—and least of all the Führer thought of doing so—went to war, according to Churchill's statements, in support of the pledge given to Poland.
From now on it may be that, even in private relationships, every Italian will be under suspicion. If the consequences of all this were to fall only on the group of those responsible, the harm would not be serious. But we must harbor no delusions: all this will be borne by the Italian people, from the most exalted to the humblest of its citizens.
In addition to compromising our honour, we have lost, besides the metropolitan territory occupied and pillaged by the enemy, also, and perhaps forever, all our Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean and French positions, which we had acquired—not without sacrifice of blood.
The Royal Army everywhere has almost totally disbanded. Nothing has been more humiliating than their disarmament in the presence of the scornful local population.
This humiliation must have been especially harsh for those officers and soldiers who fought side by side with the Germans on so many battlefields.
The terrible weight of this shame must have been felt in those graveyards in Africa and Russia where Italian and German soldiers lie side by side, after the last battle fought together.
The Royal Navy, constructed entirely during the twenty years of Fascism, has given itself up to the enemy in Malta—the same Malta which constitutes and will always constitute a constant threat to Italy, so long as it remains the stronghold of English imperialism in the Mediterranean.
Only the Air Force has been able to save a good part of its equipment; but that, too, is practically disorganized.
These are the indisputable responsibilities, documented also in the speech by the Führer who relayed the deceit practiced against Germany hour by hour; a deceit made worse by murderous Anglo-American bombings of large and small towns in central Italy, carried out with the agreement of the Badoglio government, which continued, notwithstanding the signing of the armistice.
Given these conditions, it is not the Regime that has betrayed the Monarchy, but the Monarchy that has betrayed the Regime. So low has it fallen in the minds and hearts of the people today that it is simply absurd to suppose that all this can in any way compromise the unitary structure of the Italian people. When a Monarchy fails in its tasks, it loses every reason for existence. As for traditions, Italy has more republican traditions than it has monarchical ones. The unity and independence of Italy from all foreign monarchies was willed more by the republican current and by its purest and greatest apostle, Giuseppe Mazzini, than by the monarchists.
The State that we wish to establish will be national and social in the broadest sense of the word: that is, it will be Fascist in the sense of our origins. While the movement is developing into an irresistible force our intentions are as follows:
1. War will resume alongside Germany, Japan, and the other allies. Only blood can wipe away such a shameful page in the history of the Fatherland.Faithful Blackshirts from all over Italy!
2. We will organize our Armed Forces without delay around the Militia. Only those driven by faith and fighting for an idea do not measure the magnitude of sacrifice.
3. We will eliminate all traitors, particularly those who until 11:30 PM of July 25 served in the ranks of the Party and have now joined the enemy.
4. We will destroy the parasitical plutocracies and at last will make work the object of the economy and the unbreakable basis of the State.
I call you once more to work and to arms. The rejoicing of the enemy over the capitulation of Italy does not mean that they already have victory in their grasp, since the great empires of Germany and Japan will never capitulate.
Members of the Fascist squads, rebuild your battalions that in the past have accomplished heroic deeds.
Young Fascists, re-group yourselves in the Divisions which will repeat on the soil of the Fatherland the glorious exploits of Bir-el-Gobi.
Aviators, join again as pilots your German comrades so that you may render powerless enemy attacks on our cities.
Fascist women, resume your work of moral and material support, so necessary to our people. Farmers, workers, and employees: the State that will emerge from this immense toil will be yours, and as such it will defend against whoever might dream to return to the past. Our will, courage and faith will give back to Italy its character, its future, its potential and its position in the world. More than just a hope, this must be an absolute certainty for you all.
Long live Italy! Long live the Republican Fascist Party!
