This Rare Photo Captures The Moment Benito Mussolini Died

This Rare Photo Captures The Moment Benito Mussolini Died

On April 26, 1945, Benito Mussolini – the fascist 'Il Duce' of Italy during WWII – was cornered by communist partisans in northern Italy. The day before, on April 25, Mussolini had finally seen the writing on the wall – the fall of Hitler's regime to Allied forces was imminent, and his hold over northern Italy was loosening by the minute. Though he tried to flee the country dressed as a German officer, Mussolini was killed, desecrated, and strung up at a gas station in Milan. 

The photo of Mussolini's final fate documents a full day of fury acted out on the reviled leader. Though he was already deceased when his body was dumped into a central square in Milan, that didn't stop swells of people from beating, spitting on, and screaming at his remains. Along with his mistress Clara Petacci and 14 other fascists, Benito Mussolini's body was beaten beyond recognition and hung above a gas station – a symbol of what the world thought of Axis leaders at the end of WWII.

Mussolini's fate at the hands of Italian partisans wasn't the first time Italians had expressed their disapproval of Mussolini's leadership, however. Though he was elected democratically in 1922, Mussolini only pretended to respect this form of governance for a short time; within five years, Mussolini had established a dictatorship in Italy. When he allied his country with Germany at the advent of WWII, Italians were none too happy with his choice. He was even captured and imprisoned by the Italian government in 1943; Hitler's troops freed him, however. From then on, he ruled over the German puppet state of the Italian Social Republic in northern Italy. That is, until he met his brutal end in April of 1945.