Roberto Farinacci - Prominence, In World War II

Italian statesman, born in Isernia, SC Italy. Among the first to join the Fascist movement, he organized the Fascist squads in the Cremona province, became a deputy (1921) and party leader (1925–6), a member of the Fascist grand council (1935), and a minister of state (1938). An ardent racialist and anti-Semite, notorious for his extremism and pro-Nazi tendencies, he edited the Regime Fascista, the Party organ. He was in favour of the alliance with Germany and its anti-semitic policy, and backed Mussolini at the Gran Consiglio meeting of 1943. He escaped to Germany but returned to establish the Republic of Salò. He was ultimately captured and shot, on the same day and by the same band of partisans as Mussolini, while attempting to flee to Switzerland.

Roberto Farinacci (October 16, 1892, Isernia—April 28, 1945, Vimercate) was a leading Italian Fascist politician, and important member of the National Fascist Party (PNF) before and during World War II. After the war, Farinacci was an ardent supporter of Benito Mussolini and his Fascist movement. The Cremona squads were amongst the most brutal in Italy, and Farinacci effectively used them to terrorize the population into submission to Fascist rule.

Prominence

Quickly rising as one of the most powerful members of the National Fascist Party, gathering around him a large number of supporters, Farinacci came to represent the most radical right wing faction of the party, one that thought Mussolini to be a too liberal leader (likewise, Mussolini believed Farinacci was too violent and irresponsible).

In 1925, Farinacci became the second most powerful man in the country when Mussolini appointed him secretary of the Party. Afterwards, Mussolini purged the party of thousands of its radical, pro-Farinacci members: Farinacci himself disappeared from the limelight, and practiced law for much of the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1935 Farinacci fought in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, as a member of the Voluntary Militia for National Security (MVSN) - the new official name of the Blackshirts, and eventually attained the rank of lieutenant general. In 1937, Farinacci participated in the Spanish Civil War, and in 1938 became a governmental minister and enforced the Anti-semitic racial segregation measures inspired by Nazi Germany.

In World War II

When World War II began, Farinacci sided with Germany: he frequently communicated with the Nazis, and became one of Mussolini’s advisors on Italy’s dealings with Germany. For his part, Farinacci urged Mussolini to enter Italy into the war as a member of the Axis. While the majority of the council voted to force Mussolini out of the government, Farinacci didn't side against the Duce. After Mussolini's arrest, Farinacci fled to Germany in order to escape arrest.

The Nazi hierarchy considered putting Farinacci in charge of a German-backed Italian government in Northern Italy - the Italian Social Republic - but he was passed over in favor of Mussolini when the dictator was rescued by Otto Skorzeny in September (through the raid known as Unternehmen Eiche).