Black brigades
The Black Brigades ( Italian : Brigate Nere ) were a fascist paramilitary association in the Italian Social Republic . They were created towards the end of World War II , after the Italian armistice with the Allies in Cassibile, Sicily in September 1943.
Benito Mussolini was arrested after the Grand Fascist Council had him with the active support of King Vittorio Emanuele III. and negotiations began with the Allies about Italy's withdrawal from the war. Mussolini was later freed from his fortress detention by German paratroopers as part of the " Operation Eiche " and appointed by Adolf Hitler on September 23, 1943 as head of state of the newly founded "Italian Social Republic", a puppet government whose territory stretched from Northern Italy to Rome .
After the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale (MVSN, also known as " Black Shirts ") was dissolved as part of the armistice agreement, the Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana was formed on November 24, 1943, mainly from Carabinieri and army units .
The Black Brigades were established by decree of June 30, 1944. They consisted of members of the Fascist Republican Party ( Partito Fascista Repubblicano , PFR). They not only fought against the Allies and against Italian partisans , but also persecuted and murdered alleged and actual political opponents as well as civilians whose commitment to fascism seemed doubtful to them. They were merciless towards Jews and robbed, raped and murdered many other civilians as well.
The Black Brigades were not really brigade- sized; in fact, their units were usually only a small battalion or an extended company . There were 41 stationary area brigades, numbered from 1 to 41, and 8 mobile brigades, from 1 to 7 plus the Second Arditi Brigade. They often wore a black top with their usual Italian army uniform , as well as the skull on their badges.
literature
- RJB Bosworth: Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 . Penguin, 2007, ISBN 0-14-303856-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Susan Zuccotti: The Italians and the Holocaust, Basic Books 1987, ISBN 1-870015-03-7 , p. 153.