After deposition of Benito Mussolini by the King Vittorio Emanuele III (following the vote in the meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism on the night of 25 July 1943) the new government presided over by Peter Badoglio contacted the Allied Command to stipulate an armistice. The stipulation took place in Sicily (where the allied troops had already landed), in the Syracusan hamlet of Cassibile, in the Santa Teresa Longarini district and remained secret for five days, in compliance with a clause of the pact which provided for it to enter into force from the of its public announcement. the afternoon of8 September 1943 at 17:30 (18:30 for Italy), Radio Algiers broadcast the proclamation in English through the mouth of the US general Dwight Eisenhower.
The proclamation read by Badoglio on 8 September
At 19:42 Italian Prime Minister Badoglio spread the news with a proclamation broadcast by the microphones of the Eiar. Here is the text:
«The Italian government, recognizing the impossibility of continuing the unequal struggle against the overwhelming enemy power, with the intention of sparing further and more serious disasters for the nation, has asked for an armistice from General Eisenhower, commander in chief of the Anglo-American allied forces. The request has been accepted. Consequently, all acts of hostility against the Anglo-American forces by the Italian forces in all places must cease. However, they will react to any attacks from any other source.
"Everybody at home"
The reaction ofItalian army, engaged on various fronts, was one of surprise and bewilderment, in the absence of precise orders and in the face of a German action that wasted no time in invading the whole peninsula. The tragic confusion of that day is well told in a great film "Everyone at Home" from 1960 directed by Luigi Comencini. Second Lieutenant Alberto Innocenzi, played by a very good Alberto Sordi, is sent that morning with his platoon to replace the unit stationed in the outpost on the coast in Venezia Giulia. The only order he receives from his command is to make the soldiers sing during the platoon march, as recommended by a circular from the General Staff. The unit sets off chanting "Mum, I'm back to the little house again", but when he reaches the outpost he finds it surrounded by Germans who are shooting at the Italian soldiers.
It is at this point that the writers have written a line that, even in its comedy, provides the mood of the moment. Lieutenant Innocenzi finds a payphone in a bar and informs the Command that "the Germans allied with the Americans”. Thus began the "everyone at home". Innocenzi tries to keep the platoon united, but little by little everyone melts away, except for a small group that follows him. So start the route to the south through a destroyed, hungry, opportunist Italy, between the services that don't work, the raids of the Allied air force, the hunt for Jews, the black market. A journey that ends in Napoli, where Lieutenant Innocenzi takes part in the days of liberation from the Germans.
In essence, September 8 went down in history as the day of cowardice, of escape, of each for himself; but also how the day of enlightenment on the road to Damascus for many Italians, brought up in the institutions of the fascist regime, who in the space of a few hours discovered and made other values their own, taking part in the Resistance in the mountains and in the cities.
The Flight of the King and the Government
It was much criticised the stampede from Rome, towards Pescara, then to Brindisi, of the royal family and the government, under the protection of the Allies who already occupied those territories. The House of Savoy had great responsibilities in the "resistible rise" of Mussolini and his twenty-year regime. But the escape from Rome was also a way to ensure the continuity of the state and the representativeness of its institutions, up to the organization of a small army that fought alongside the Allies.
The soldiers at the crossroads
Sure that for official and soldier motions scattered in many countries alongside the German troops on 8 September was a dramatic moment. Those units that took up arms against the Germans were massacred. For others, the possible alternative was between the concentration camp or enlistment in the army of the puppet Republic of Salò (RSI), where the diehards of fascism gathered. The government of Salò provided, every year, for the calls for military service. Many young people who had the opportunity became dodgers; others enlisted because they could not do otherwise. Many went up to the mountains to join the partisan formations.
The amnesty of Togliatti
They weren't easy choices for anyone; decisions were often conditioned by chance, by the location where the Italian soldiers were on that fateful day and by the possibility of reaching the liberated areas. That is why, after so many decades, more understanding is needed for those who fought on the wrong side. A need that was understood by Palmiro Togliatti, when in the role of Minister of Justice he wanted to archive, with an amnesty, the atrocities of a civil war. Togliatti wore only one badge in his jacket buttonhole: that of the Anpi. Too bad that the current leaders of that glorious association have forgotten the teachings of the Best.
