Local people searching among the ruins of the village of Gessopalena after the massacre

April 25th — Festa della Liberazione — marks the day in 1945 in Italy that the resistance movement issued a call to national insurrection.  Mussolini was captured 2 days later, executed 3 days later and marks the path to the 2nd May Nazi surrender and Italian occupation and end of the ‘Fascist’ regime. While the retreating Nazis left devastation in their wake, it’s vital to remember: they were not the architects of Italian oppression.

Mussolini had already done that work.

For over two decades, Fascism had eroded Italy from within, dismantling free speech, banning opposition, glorifying war, and criminalising identity. Over 15,000 Italians were imprisoned, exiled, or sent to internal colonies for opposing the regime. Others jumped ship before they could be arrested, like Pope Francis’s family, who moved to Argentina in 1929, his father was a known anti-fascist.   Francis said on the subject, ” They were filled with pain about leaving their homeland, but my father told me they could no longer speak freely, that everything was becoming suffocating under Fascism”.

More than 7,500 Jews were rounded up under Mussolini’s Racial Laws, passed in 1938 without German coercion. He didn’t just submit to Hitler — he led the way in excluding residents and citizens.

Who Mussolini Excluded — And When

The Fascist regime didn’t just dismantle political opposition — it systematically excluded entire groups from Italian public life, often laying the groundwork for Nazi collaboration and genocide. These policies weren’t accidental or forced — they were deliberate, homegrown, and ideologically driven.

Women

• Exclusion Began: 1920s–1930s

• How:

  • Women were pushed out of public and political life under Fascism’s “pro-natalist”  (pro-birth) agenda.
    Mussolini’s regime treated women’s bodies as tools of the state. Through aggressive pro-natalist policies, the Fascist government aimed to boost Italy’s population — not for social good, but to prepare for war and empire-building.

    • Contraception and abortion were outlawed, branded as crimes against the state.

    • Large families were rewarded with tax breaks, job advantages, and better housing.

    • The state created motherhood organisations to “support” women, but mostly to control them.

    • A massive ruralisation propaganda campaign pushed families to the countryside, believing it would increase birth rates.

    • Mussolini formed a strong alliance with the Catholic Church, reinforcing traditional roles and suppressing any talk of reproductive rights.

    • Motherhood was glorified as a national duty, with slogans like “Give birth for the nation!”

    This wasn’t about care. It was about control.

  • In 1925, women were banned from teaching history or philosophy in secondary schools.

  • By the 1930s, women were barred from most civil service jobs, political associations, and were expected to return to the home as mothers of the future fascist generation.

  • Mussolini declared: “Women must obey. This is their mission in life.”

Jewish Italians

• Exclusion Began: 1938 with the Racial Laws (Leggi Razziali)

• How:

  • Jews were stripped of Italian citizenship, banned from attending or teaching in schools, working in public offices, or marrying non-Jews.

  • Jewish-owned businesses were boycotted or confiscated.

  • These laws were Mussolini’s initiative, not imposed by Hitler, and laid the groundwork for later deportations under Nazi occupation (starting in 1943).

Roma and Sinti People

• Exclusion Began: 1926 onwards, intensified in the 1930s

• How:

  • Labelled as “asocial elements,” Roma communities were subject to police surveillance, forced relocation, and internment in camps such as Agnone *then part of the Abruzzi now Molise.

  • Many were later handed over to Nazi forces for deportation.

Political Dissidents & ‘Leftists’

• Exclusion Began: From 1925 onward

• How:

  • After declaring a dictatorship in 1925, Mussolini’s regime banned all opposition parties and jailed, exiled, or killed socialists, communists, anarchists, and anti-Fascist intellectuals.

  • Confino (internal exile) was used to isolate dissenters to remote villages and islands.

Disabled & LGBTQ+ People

• Exclusion Began: 1930s

• How:

  • Fascism promoted a myth of the “strong, virile Italian” and saw disability and queerness as weaknesses and something foreign.

  • LGBTQ+ Italians were criminalised and persecuted and excluded from public life and employment using public decency laws to “preserve morality” and sent to the ‘Queer’ labour camps like the one  Mussolini created on the Tremiti Islands.

  • People with disabilities were institutionalised, mortality rates for this group of people rose during Mussolini’s time and disabled people were rejected from receiving disability pensions by Mussolini’s ‘doctors’.

48 Brigades of Resistance

Abruzzo — wild, mountainous, and proud — became a stronghold of partisan resistance at the time of Nazi occupation with 48 brigades in the region fighting for their neighbours’ freedom. And for that, many paid a terrible price. All four provinces — L’Aquila, Teramo, Chieti, and Pescara — witnessed banishment, horrific reprisals, punishments and in some cases, massacres.  On top of being bombed and caught in cross-fire between the Nazies and Allies, The Atlante delle Strage Naziste e Fasciste lists 903 victims from 309 ‘episodes’ in Abruzzo. Those most famous being in

• Gessopalena – 21 January 1944
  Nazi troops killed 42 civilians in retaliation for partisan activities.​

• Pietransieri (Roccaraso) – 21 November 1943
  Nazi troops massacred 128 civilians, including 60 women and 34 children, in the Limmari woods. ​

• Capistrello – 4 June 1944
  Nazi and Fascist forces executed 33 civilians, mainly shepherds and farmers, near the railway station.

Dictators Know Their Own

Mussolini did not act alone. He found comfort and camaraderie in fellow authoritarians, especially Hitler. They exchanged admiration, methods, and ideological fervour. It is no coincidence that both glorified mythic pasts, scapegoated minorities, and crushed dissent with patriotic slogans.

It’s also no coincidence that modern strongmen — from Trump to Orbán to Putin — follow the same path, often praising each other, copying tactics, and stoking fear to consolidate power. They know their audience. And they know how easily people forget. In countries where headlines fade fast, it’s chilling how quickly some forget that it was Russia who invaded Ukraine, not the other way around, while voices like Trump’s work to rewrite the story and blame the victim.

A Warning, Not Just a Memory

Liberation Day should not be a distant holiday of flags and marches. It is a living reminder of what happens when a society looks away, rationalises hate, or lets one man place himself above the law.

As authoritarian rhetoric rises again across the globe — cloaked in populism, “law and order,” or conspiracy — we must remember:
Fascism does not arrive as a foreign invader. It is built, accepted, and even cheered from within.

We owe the partisans, the victims of every massacre in Abruzzo and all those allied soldiers who gave up their lives for freedom and democracy, more than a wreath.

We owe them vigilance.

Footnote

The term ‘fascist’ used in this article is to describe someone who supports a nationalist, authoritarian political ideology that emphasises:

• Strong centralised power,

• Suppression of opposition,

• Control of society and the economy,

• And often the glorification of the nation and its leader.

The word comes from “fascio”, meaning bundle, symbolising unity and strength through authority.

Author: Sam Dunham

Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 13 and juggles working as a freelance SEO copywriter & teaches IGCSEs at Istituo Cristo Re in Rome. She is the founder of the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, co-founder of Let's Blog Abruzzo and 'English in the Woods' initiative.