Fernando Mezzasoma (August 3, 1907 – April 28, 1945), also referred to as Ferdinando, was an Italian fascist journalist and political figure. He was deputy national secretary of the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. Th ...

and Minister of Popular Culture of the Italian Social Republic.

Biography

Mezzasoma was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, the son of middle-class

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

ns; from his late teens he showed himself to be a passionate supporter of Benito Mussolini. Mezzasoma had to contribute to his impoverished family's income from early on, and took several jobs before finishing studies in accounting. A secretary to the lawyer Amedeo Fani, he was integrated to the state bureaucracy in 1929, after Fani became undersecretary to the ministry of

Dino Grandi Dino Grandi (4 June 1895 – 21 May 1988), 1st Conte di Mordano, was an Italian Fascist politician, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs and president of parliament. Early life Born at Mordano, province of Bologna, Grandi was ...

(the

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

). In 1931, he joined the ranks of the

(PNF), and soon after became secretary of the Perugia branch of the Gruppo Universitario Fascista (GUF), the fascist

student organization A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementary ...

. The following year, Mezzasoma was appointed one of the local PNF leaders in Perugia (holding the position until 1935). He began writing for official magazines, such as ''Dottrina Fascista'' and ''Roma Fascista'', usually under the pen name '' Diogene''. Editor of '' Assalto'' in 1934, he became co-editor of the GUF mouthpiece '' Libro e Moschetto''; in 1937, he published ''Essenza dei GUF'' ("Essence of the GUF"), a propaganda volume that was distributed throughout the network of Fascist youth organizations. During the 1930s he was vice president of the School of Fascist Mysticism. A national deputy-secretary of the GUF in 1935, he was included to the leadership group of the PNF in January 1937, and became its deputy national secretary on February 23, 1939. When Italy entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as an

Axis Power The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were Na ...

, he volunteered for the 7th Artillery Regiment and fought in the Western Alps against France, being awarded a

Bronze Medal of Military Valor The Bronze Medal of Military Valor ( it, Medaglia di bronzo al valor militare) is an Italian medal for gallantry. It was established by Charles Albert of Sardinia on 26 March 1833, along with the higher ranking Gold and Silver Medals for Military ...

. In 1942, he quit the army to become the director of the Italian press; he continued in that role until 1943. Unlike a great many leading figures of the government (such as

Galeazzo Ciano Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1 ...

and

), he stayed loyal to Mussolini long after the July 1943

Grand Council of Fascism The Grand Council of Fascism (, also translated "Fascist Grand Council") was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy, that held and applied great power to control the institutions of government. It was created as a body of th ...

crisis which ended the latter's rule in Rome. With the foundation of the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

-assisted Italian Social Republic, he was appointed Mussolini's Minister of Popular Culture, and held this post until the Republic collapsed less than two years later. He clashed with

Junio Valerio Borghese Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese (6 June 1906 – 26 August 1974), nicknamed The Black Prince, was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and a prominent hard-line Fascist ...

and, on 19 April 1945 left for

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, parting with his collaborators (including Giorgio Almirante). It seems that he had the opportunity to flee the region following Germany's defeat, but would have refused, saying: "''I am a minister of Mussolini, I shall die with him''". Along with other fascist leaders and officials, at the end of the war he was captured near Lake Como while trying to make his way to Switzerland, and shot by the partisans in Dongo on 28 April 1945. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mezzasoma, Fernando 1907 births 1945 deaths Writers from Rome People of the Italian Social Republic Italian male journalists Italian people of World War II Executed politicians People executed by Italy by firing squad Executed Italian people 20th-century executions by Italy Italian anti-communists 20th-century Italian journalists Italian propagandists 20th-century Italian male writers