Fernando Mezzasoma (3 August 1907 – 28 April 1945), also referred to as Ferdinando, was an Italian

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 ...

journalist and political figure. He was deputy national secretary of the National Fascist Party and Minister of Popular Culture of the

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 ...

Biography

Mezzasoma was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, the son of middle-class

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

ns; from his late teens he showed himself to be a passionate supporter of

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 ...

. Mezzasoma had to contribute to his impoverished family's income from early on, and took several jobs before finishing studies in

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

. 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 (the

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

). In 1931, he joined the ranks of the National Fascist Party (PNF), and soon after became secretary of the Perugia branch of the Gruppi Universitari Fascisti (GUF), the fascist student organization. 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 (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 ...

as an Axis Power, he volunteered for the 7th Artillery Regiment and fought in the Western Alps against France, being awarded a Bronze Medal of Military Valor. 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 Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law ...

and Dino Grandi), he stayed loyal to Mussolini long after the July 1943 Grand Council of Fascism crisis which ended the latter's rule in Rome. With the foundation of the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

-assisted

, 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 and, on 19 April 1945 left for

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mezzasoma, Fernando 1907 births 1945 deaths Writers from Rome People of the Italian Social Republic Italian male journalists Executed Italian people Executed politicians Italian military personnel killed in World War II People executed by Italy by firing squad 20th-century executions by Italy 20th-century Italian journalists Italian anti-communist propagandists Italian Fascist propagandists 20th-century Italian male writers Politicians killed in World War II