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Witness History: The Death of Mussolini

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The Death of Mussolini

29/04/2014 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Death of Mussolini

The fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is killed and his body strung up in a Milan square

In April 1945, Italians crowded see the body of former dictator, Benito Mussolini, strung up on a meathook alongside his mistress and other fascists, in a Milan square.

In April 1945, thousands of Italians crowded into a Milan square to see the body of the wartime fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini. He, his mistress and his close associates had been shot by partisans, and their corpses strung up by their feet for all to see. We talk to the poet Franco Loi, who was in the crowd that day, and to an American journalist who has documented Mussolini's last days. 

(Photo: Benito Mussolini (right) and Adolf Hitler (left) give the fascist salute at the Tomb of the Fascist Martyrs, Florence, 1938. Credit: Getty Images)

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