Fascism feeds on symbols. A place, a historical event, an anniversary is enough to attract the attention of thousands of militants. Some are just nostalgic. Others are bandits who are in constant active service in the stands of football stadiums and in groups active throughout the region, from cities to small towns in the Italian provinces. Just like the meeting of fascists in Rome on the evening of January 7. Just like in municipal councils where extreme parties are elected. However, today there is still a place that embodies all the symbols of the fascist ideology, fueled by hatred and racism, and which allied itself with Nazism and dragged the world into the tragedy of World War II. Predappio, in the Forli province of northern Italy, is the birthplace of Benito Mussolini.

As violence resurfaces everywhere, as our map shows, perhaps it is time to pause and reflect. And to choose a place to commemorate all the victims of political hatred in Italy. From the martyrs of Benito Mussolini’s regime to the murders of the civil war. From the thousands of Italian Jews who never returned from the extermination camps to the women and children murdered in reprisals. Down to the last victims of the terrorism that bloodied the Italian Cold War. A place where names, photographs and small objects from daily life are collected. This reminds us who the victims are. It may be the birthplace of Benito Mussolini, and it may be entrusted to foundations and associations that can direct the project. If you accept our petition, send your name and surname by e-mail to fabrizio.gatti@citynews.it and please share this article with your friends.

Austria prevented the building where Adolf Hitler was born from becoming a place of pilgrimage by turning it into a police station. On the other hand, in Predappio, the birthplace of Il Duce, it has been converted into a museum where the Fascist Ventennio has been commemorated for several years, although not openly: with exhibitions and historical events that continue to attract sympathizers from all over Italy. For this reason, every July 29 (birth), October 27 (March to Rome) and April 28 (execution) Italian neo-fascists gather in Mussolini’s honor.

It is enough to take a look at the social media page “Casa Natale Mussolini” to understand the atmosphere of the commemorations supported by the Municipality, which owns the building. These are exhibits that would certainly have historical significance if installed in another museum. But in Mussolini’s house they take on a strong celebratory and hagiographic value.

Some of the headlines published in the organizers’ posts include: ‘When Predappio Takes Flight: Who Fly, Matters and Wins’; ‘Mussolini’s Town: Luigi, Alessandro and Benito’; ‘Badoglio Telegraphs… The African Dream of Empire’; ‘Primary School in the Fascist Era’; ‘Wheat and the War of Autarchy’; ‘Young Mussolini’; ‘Propaganda Comics in Italy from the Beginning to 1945’, with copies of Peperino in Abyssinia, Il Balilla, La Piccola Italiana. Even though the exhibition is dedicated to Dante Alighieri, ‘The Most Italian of Poets’, the famous lines of his face in the poster are compared to those of Benito Mussolini, depicted in ‘Permanent Profile’ by Futurist sculptor Renato Bertelli. In the photo below, the fascist rally in Rome on January 7, 2024 (by LaPresse).

In recent years, no mention has been made of crimes ranging from Milanese shirtmaker Teresa Galli, the first victim of fascist violence in 1919, to socialist secretary Giacomo Matteotti, murdered in Rome on June 10, a hundred years ago. The fascist team that kidnapped him. Not a word about the anti-fascists who were massacred before and after the march on Rome. And for the thousands of Jews abandoned to Nazi extermination. From Predappio’s perspective, fascism seems merely the saga of dreamers, aerialists, artists, successful industrialists and urban planners. Therefore, the birthplace of Benito Mussolini should be the monument dedicated to the victims of political hatred. If you accept our petition, please send your name and surname to fabrizio.gatti@citynews.it (Italian Edition here).

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Fabrizio Gatti, Stefano Bises, Fabio Repici, Domenico Tambasco, Daniele Cassamagnaghi, Sascha Rosemann, Liana Levi, Nils Hartmann, Paola Colombo, Alberto Sgreva, Nadia Cavalleri, Barbara Leonardi, Gianluca De Crignis, Paola Di Mauro, Stefania Andreoni, Nicolina Piroscia, Mariella Dalmanzio, Stella Grosso, Francesca Pavone, Maria D’Urso, Elisabetta Gallicchio, Matteo Prandelli, Federica Dassori, Giuditta Moruzzi, Silvia Bazzocchi, Ugo Valentinetti, Mario Rambelli, Eugenio Giuseppe Vedove, Tiziana Cantarella, Cornelio Tosone, Andrea Berlingozzi, Caterina Dragotta ,