“Unraveling the Mystery: Why Italy Escaped a Post-War Reckoning for Its Atrocities”
However, the intricacies of the armistice and the civil war already show the signs of Allied ambivalence towards Italian authorities when it came to punishment for crimes. Nonetheless, the Allies were less ambiguous when it came to their war aims: their armies’ advance towards the north of the peninsula was slow, but relentless. By April 1945 the German occupation forces were retreating to Austria and the Fascist loyalist forces were crumbling.
By the 25th of the month, WWII officially ended in Italy, initiating a short, yet intense period of trials, executions, and retribution against Fascists no longer in power.
Benito Mussolini himself and 17 of his top officials were executed by resistance factions on April 28. More Fascist Party officials, police commissioners, military leaders and even regular foot soldiers would be tried and sentenced to death by improvised courts, also set up by the resistance. And although the Italian Civil War had ended, the killings did not: far-left factions within the resistance continued to mete out summary justice against former fascist militias, especially in the infamous ‘triangle of death’, in the Emilia region. The death toll of this lethal wave of revenge is unclear, ranging from 4,500 to 30,000 victims.
But it was ok in this case, because, again, the people doing it were the good guys.
On a more formal level, British occupation forces swiftly organised and conducted 40 trials against Italian war criminals.
On top of this, Italian, pro-Allied authorities, also set about to initiate a process of de-Fascistisation, similar in principle to the process of denazification which the Allies would pursue in Germany and Austria, see our video: How Did Germany Denazify So Quickly After WWII.
