Aldo Vidussoni (21 January 1914 – 30 November 1982) was an Italian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and

Fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

politician. After law studies at the

University of Trieste The University of Trieste (, or UniTS, Formerly Regia Università degli Studi or The Royal University of Studies) is a public research university in Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. The university consists of 10 ...

, Vidussoni joined the

Partito Nazionale Fascista The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, Italian Fasces of Combat. Th ...

(PNF) in May 1936. He was a volunteer soldier in the

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

, and then on

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

's side in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

; he lost an eye and an arm on the Santander front, and was awarded a gold medal for valor in combat. Aldo Vidussoni's reputation made him an asset with the

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

régime, and he became an important figure in the hierarchy of the Fascist university corporations - the Gruppi universitari fascisti (GUF). First a secretary of the GUF for the

Province of Trieste The province of Trieste () is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Trieste. It has an area of and a population of 228,049. It has a coastal length of . Abolished in 2017, it was reestabl ...

(in 1938), he was (1940–1941) inspector for the GUF in

Enna Enna ( or ; ; , less frequently ), known from the Middle Ages until 1926 as Castrogiovanni ( ), is a city and located roughly at the center of Sicily, southern Italy, in the province of Enna, towering above the surrounding countryside. It has e ...

, and, in November–December 1941, national secretary of the GUF.

Fascist Party leadership

On 26 December 1941, while still quite young, Vidussoni was appointed national secretary of the PNF, replacing Adelchi Serena by order of Mussolini. His scant political experience and the constant criticism of other leaders had made him ill-suited for the task: despite his initial appeal as a decorated soldier, he soon became widely regarded as ineffective, even "ridiculous". According to the diaries of the Foreign Minister and son-in-law of Mussolini, Count

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 Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law ...

, Vidussoni came to see him on 5 January 1942 with 'savage plans for the Slovenes. He wants to kill them all. I take the liberty of observing there are a million of them. "That does not matter", he answers firmly; "we must imitate the Askari and exterminate them!" I hope he will calm down'.''The Ciano Diaries 1939–1943: The Complete, Unabridged Diaries of Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1936–1943'' (2000) Vidussoni was abruptly replaced by the ruthless ''squadrista'' Carlo Scorza in early 1943. After the pro- Allied

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

inside the

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

in late July 1943 and the

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

signed by the

Pietro Badoglio Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino ( , ; 28 September 1871 – 1 November 1956), was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regim ...

government in Cassibile, Vidussoni chose to side with the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

-backed

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...

(established and led by Mussolini in the north). He became a leading member of the refounded PNF, the ''Partito Fascista Repubblicano'' ( Republican Fascist Party). After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Aldo Vidussoni lived in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

and then

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

. He worked in

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidussoni, Aldo 20th-century Italian lawyers 1914 births 1982 deaths Corpo Truppe Volontarie personnel People from Fogliano Redipuglia Italian amputees Italian military personnel of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War People of the Italian Social Republic Lawyers with disabilities