April 25 marks Festa della Liberazione, Liberation Day, in Italy, a public holiday that commemorates the end of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s reign, the Nazi occupation during World War II, and the triumphs of the partisans and the Resistance movement.
Government offices, banks, post offices, and schools are closed for the day, and parades are held across the country. The holiday celebrates the Allied liberation of Nazi-occupied Italy on April 25, 1945, as well as the partigiani, the partisans, who opposed the Fascist regime and actively sought to overthrow it while striving to liberate the country from the Germans.
The partisans were fighting a three-front war: a civil war against the Fascists, a national one against German forces, and a class one against the ruling elite, according to Britannica. It is estimated that roughly 200,000 partisans took part in the Resistance, and that combined Fascist and Nazist forces killed 70,000 Italian partisans and civilians
Toward the end of the war, partisan assaults against Nazist forces increased, causing the Germans to double down on massacres against the general population. On June 17, 1944, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, the supreme commander of German forces in Italy, issued a decree holding the general population responsible for partisan attacks and acts of resistance, according to the National World War II Museum.
On April 28, 1945, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by the partisans attempting to flee the country into Switzerland. They were both shot and their bodies were transported to Milan where they were publicly hung upside down, according to History.com.
German forces in Italy were the first to surrender unconditionally to the Allied forces, and German command officially signed a surrender on April 29, 1945. The surrender became effective on May 2, and five days later on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western Allies, officially ending the war in Europe.
Asia London Palomba
Asia London Palomba is a trilingual freelance journalist from Rome, Italy. In the past, her work on culture, travel, and history has been published in The Boston Globe, Atlas Obscura, The Christian Science Monitor, and Grub Street, New York Magazine's food section. In her free time, Asia enjoys traveling home to Italy to spend time with family and friends, drinking Hugo Spritzes, and making her nonna's homemade cavatelli.