Italy Lecture

Question 1

People?

Answer 1

Mussolini
Marshall Badoglio
King Victor Manuel

Question 2

Rome-Berlin Axis?

Answer 2

1st November 1936

Question 3

When did Italy enter WWII?

Answer 3

10th June 1940

Question 4

Background?

Answer 4

1921-22- political and economic unrest, Mussolini forms govt, march on Rome 1922

Question 5

Growth of left?

Answer 5

PSI (largest party in parliament by 1919)

Question 6

Fascism?

Answer 6

Social Darwinism
ultranationalism
male dominance
corporation
single party
contempt for the masses

Question 7

Giacomo Matteotti?

Answer 7

socialist MP kidnapped in 1924
Mussolini’s bodyguards involved

Question 8

Italian racism?

Answer 8

Asmera- urban areas, cinemas, and transport racially segregated by 1914.
Jail sentences for Italians that married Ethiopians.

Question 9

who did Italy try to occupy?

Answer 9

Greece and the Balkans
650,000 troops

Question 10

March-September 1943?

Answer 10

mass strikes in northern cities.
allied invasion/liberation of Sicily.
coup and Mussolini arrested.
Armistice.
Germans invade north.

Question 11

Operation Husky?

Answer 11

July to August 1943
Invasion of Sicily

Question 12

Armistice of Cassibile?

Answer 12

8th September 1943.
unconditional surrender

Question 13

Operation Baytown?

Answer 13

3rd September 1943
British and Canadian troops to Italian toe

Question 14

where were the Allied landings in Italy?

Answer 14

against German defences at Salerno and Taranto

Question 15

1943- country split in 2?

Answer 15

slow advance from the south from the Allies and the 10,000 soldiers of the Italian Liberation Corps

Question 16

Where did the King, Badoglio and the govt go?

Answer 16

the south

Question 17

where was the partisan movement weak?

Answer 17

rural areas and Catholic areas

Question 18

who liberated Mussolini?

Answer 18

RSI

Question 19

Civil war 1943-45?

Answer 19

class war- hoping to introduce socialism.
war of liberation- fought against German invader.
civil war- partisans fighting RSI

Question 20

RSI vs partisans?

Answer 20

partisans had a greater hatred for RSI than for Germans.
resistance grew from 1943

Question 21

groups?

Answer 21

Garibaldi brigades
Matteotti brigades
action party brigades
catholic sympathisers
monarchists

Question 22

action party (PdA)?

Answer 22

radical-democratic, anti-clerical and anti-monarchic.
1943

Question 23

PCI?

Answer 23

Italian Communist Party
supported by workers and students in north.

Question 24

CIL 1944?

Answer 24

Italian Liberation Corps
24,000 Italian men

Question 25

Salerno Turn, April 1944?

Answer 25

Anti-fascist compromise (parties, monarchy and the PM)
govt of national unity

Question 26

Liberation 1944-45?

Answer 26

Rome (4th June 1944).
Florence liberated by partisans (2nd September).
insurrection in northern cities (Genoa, Milan, and Turin)- high point of resistance.

Question 27

Italian Jews and antisemitism?

Answer 27

Regio Decreto 1938- jews stripped of assets, revoked citizenship from 1919.
Primo Levi- deported in 1944 (one of 20 survivors from his 650 transport)

Question 28

Casualties?

Answer 28

290,000 pre-armistice.
87,000 post-armistice
650,000 soldiers and officers in concentration and labour camps

Question 29

predominant memorialisation?

Answer 29

anti-fascism (Catholics, communists, socialists, moderates, liberals)