In the Province of Ljubljana, alone, the Italians sent some 25,000 to 40,000 Slovene civilians to concentration camps, which equaled 7.5% to 12% of its total population. The Italians also sent tens-of-thousands of Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins and others to concentration camps, including many women and children.
The 1935-36 Italian fascist invasion and subsequent occupation of Ethiopia were accompanied by numerous atrocities: the use of mustard gas, the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and ambulances, the execution of captured prisoners without trial, the Graziani massacre, the killings at Däbrä Libanos monastery, and the ...
The Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) were some of the most systematic perpetrators of war crimes in modern history.
In reality Benito Mussolini's invading soldiers murdered many thousands of civilians, bombed the Red Cross, dropped poison gas, starved infants in concentration camps and tried to annihilate cultures deemed inferior.
Casualties. Nearly four million Italians served in the Italian Royal Army during the Second World War. Nearly half a million Italians (including civilians) died between June 1940 and May 1945. The Royal Army suffered 161,729 casualties between 10 June 1940 and 8 September 1943 in the war against the Allies.
And just to add some spice, the Italians had betrayed their German partner and surrendered to the Western Allies, placing the entire German position in Italy in jeopardy.
Italy wanted to gain the territory of Turkey and Africa but they didn't get what they wanted at end of WWI. Also, they were unhappy with the treaty of Versailles, they thought that injustice had been done to them. So it joined the side of Japan and Germany to get its territories back.
Mussolini had a penchant for violence even as a youth.
At age 10 he was expelled from a religious boarding school for stabbing a classmate in the hand, and another stabbing incident took place at his next school. He also admitted to knifing a girlfriend in the arm.
The Fascist state ruled Italy violently, projecting its coercive power deeply and diffusely into society through confinement, imprisonment, low-level physical assaults, economic deprivations, intimidation, discrimination and other quotidian forms of coercion.
Italy was punished for its participation in WW2 in The Treaty of Peace with Italy, which spelled the end of the Italian colonial empire, along with other border revisions.
In WWII, the U.S. Treated Nazi POWs Better Than Black Troops | Time.
Secret wartime files made public only in 2006 reveal that American GIs committed more than 400 sexual offenses in Europe, including 126 rapes in England, between 1942 and 1945.
Italo-Turkish War
One of the most notorious incidents during this conflict was the October Tripoli massacre, wherein many civilian inhabitants of the Mechiya oasis were killed over a period of three days as retribution for the execution and mutilation of Italian captives taken in an ambush at nearby Sciara Sciat.
Prisoners (except officers) were made to work, but while labour was compulsory, conditions were not unduly harsh. There was no systematic brutality towards Italian prisoners of war, but there was corporal punishment and occasional violence. Prisoners also had to face cold and disease, especially tuberculosis.
Italy joined the war as one of the Axis Powers in 1940, as the French Third Republic surrendered, with a plan to concentrate Italian forces on a major offensive against the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East, known as the "parallel war", while expecting the collapse of British forces in the European theatre.
"You don't have to agree with his methods... but let's be honest, Mussolini built roads, bridges, buildings, sports installations, he remade many parts of our Italy," said Tajani, who is close to tycoon and former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Legend would have it that Mussolini put roofs over Italians' heads, developed the economy, had trains running on time, stood up for justice and against the mafia, protected the Jews from Nazi Germany, was a feminist, and put Italy on the map as a respected power.
Fascism. While communism is a system based around a theory of economic equality and advocates for a classless society, fascism is a nationalistic, top-down system with rigid class roles that is ruled by an all-powerful dictator.
Similarities: • Both opposed liberalism; supported powerful government institutions • Gained support in the post-WWI period, directly benefitting from instability and societal unrest caused by the aftermath of the war Fundamental Difference: Mussolini founded an ideology and a movement with himself as the leader; ...
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Mussolini did not indulge in his country's revered cuisine. He rarely ate pasta or meat and called French food “useless.” His favorite food was a salad made of raw garlic and olive oil, which he thought was good for his heart. His wife thought it made him smell unbearable.
Italy's main issue was its enmity with Austria-Hungary, Germany's main ally. That made Italy the "odd man out" in the so-called Triple Alliance with the other two. Italy had joined (reluctantly) with Germany out of a fear of France.
Despite the Pact of Steel, Italy at first remained neutral. On June 10, 1940, shortly before Germany defeated France, Italy joined the war as Germany's ally. In addition to invading France, Italian forces attacked British interests in North and East Africa.
In fact, Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany during the second world war not to prevent Soviet conquest but to win back territories lost to the USSR as a result of the winter war of 1939-40. The peace treaty that ended the war in March 1940 left Finnish independence intact.