"His passing in 1945." That's an awfully nice way to say it.

My grandma mantained till her death 5 years ago that Mussolini was the Best leader italy ever had, my dad was a communist supporter so fights at home were wild 😂

My father was in the Italian navy during Mussolinis reign and he loved him because my grandmother didn’t have to pay the mafia anymore for so called “protection” for running a food business. Mussolini ran the mafia out of the country during his reign and my dad hated the mafia but then when Mussolini lost power and was killed the mob resurfaced and my dad was forced to come to this country.

My grandfather was born in NYC, but moved to Italy when he was a little boy. The Italian government tried to force him into the army but due to my grandfather being an American citizen, he was able to flee the country and return to the United States leaving behind his family. He ended up being drafted into the US army for the Italian front just a few years later and at first worked with pigeons before being made an interrogation officer when they realized he was educated and spoke three languages fluently. Funnily enough, he ended up having to have to question his old school principal who used to beat the hell out him and lock him in closets. He didn't kill him, but made his stay hell.

Life in imperial Japan could be cool to cover. So many great films have portrayed it well, but there’s always more to the story IMO

I have never understood why my grandfather, until is death (4 years ago) has always defended Mussolini, even though he soffered war, starvation, he lost some of his friends, part of the family and so on...He always said "the big Mussolini's mistake was to join Hitler, Mussolini was a great leader and Italy lived a great economic boom and welfare under his governement". My grandfather was a great worker, honest and loyal to duty...This always sounded strange to me, but then I noticed also the vaste majority of my friends' grandfathers were of the same opinion. By hearing their stories I wouldn't say it was only propaganda, I believe they were happy and for the first time after the unification of the country (1861) people felt Italy united and strong, they had nice jobs and purchasing power. It is no coincidence that this political model (fascism) was widely emulated in Europe...It probably worked well at the time.

To be honest this video is full of details that, as an Italian, I don't see that often on videos about Italy during WW2. People tend to forget what kind of dictator Mussolini was also because he was overshadowed by Hitler. Also, kudos for your italian pronunciation!

My grandfather used to tell me about how everything was rationed right before the war. He was allowed 100 grams of bread per day (less than a quarter pound). When he was called for his medicals before being drafted he weighed about 50kg (~105lbs). He was deemed unfit for purpose.

My ex's grandfather, who was a staunch anti-fascist, escaped the secret police and jumped on the first boat leaving Italy when he was only 17 years old. He arrived in Argentina with just the clothes on his back. He later married the daughter of Italian immigrants and had a family. I got to meet him shortly before his death in 2009. He had never gone back to Italy, and never saw his family again.

If you haven't done it already, do one on Francoist Spain. Perhaps one on Francisco Pizarro, too.

My grandfather was born in Italy in 1939. He remembers the American invasion and the bombing runs that took place over southern Italy. He moved to Long Island in 1961, like many other Italians before him

Amazing job. Even in Italy there aren’t many teachers that address this topic in the accurate and way you did

it is very great to see people start taking about this part of italys history

Those officers were suprisingly nice. I genuinely didn't expect that.

Dad was born in 1933 and he loved him. Said he was tough on the Mafia thugs

Fascist Italy executed (officially) many fewer people than did the USA during the same period. No mass graves have been found in the 80 years since the war ended (except those of massacres caused by the Germans). Mussolini preferred to blackmail his enemies, and house arrest or exile was preferred to harsher methods. Mussolini was horrible to Africans, but to Italians he was better than some other heads of state were. And as a side note, he was an environmentalist who saw the need to plant new forests.

Many of my neighbours were deported, beaten, assaulted. Some of them were never found. I managed to hear some of the stories sometimes - told by those who made it - which made me truly appreciate the freedom we have today.

My grandfather served with the 598th Field Artillery Regiment 92nd Infantry Division the Buffaloes.During WW2. And he told me about how many of the Italians hated Mussolini. Especially the partisans.

What we don't hear often on TV or YT are tales from people that actually lived under fascism. My grandmother lived during that time, she told us that life was pretty normal and that the fascists even gave poor people free land for them to farm. Her and my grandfather were communists and never got in trouble for it, despite that "fascists were everywhere" like she told me. As for political repression, a thing you forgot to mention is how Mussolini was part of the Italian Socialist Party, but was kicked out as he was supporting Italy participation in WW1. He then fought against basically all of the left as they were pushing for a proletarian revolution, when Mussolini was advocating for workers and land/factories owners to work together and have balanced rights (the fascists were the ones to introduce the 40 hours work week and minimal wage as well, before that there was no limit on how long you could work and how low you could have been paid) Another thing is about racism/antisemitism. Mussolini publicly blamed Hitler's racist policies in one of his speech in 1938 in the city of Bari. The following discriminatory policies that were then put in place in Italy were just there for Hitler to "like" Italy, as the Stesa Front (an alliance between Italy, France, and the UK against Germany) was cut short because of the Second Ethiopian War. The only repression against jews were made under the Italian Social Republic, basically a puppet of Germany after the allies invaded Italy in 1943. A few years before, Mussolini even advocated for the creation of a "jewish state" in Palestine and also advocated for Christian and Jewish soldiers to work together despite religious differences during WW1

Fellini's film 'Amarcord' goes into some experiential detail of life under Mussolini, and because it's Fellini, I can't recommend it enough.

I'd like to hear more about life in other European countries leading up to WW2. The build up to the war is often times over shadowed by the events of the war

The first movie my family rented from Netflix was Felini's Amarcord. It's about Felini's life growing up in Fascist Italy and really illustrates how most people where just trying to get by.

**me frantically taking notes on where he went wrong just in case society collapses and i get to be dictator**

my best friend said that during WWII her grandfather (as a child) had to go through minefields first and that they often picked stuff off corpses just to survive. her dad's side of the family is italian

I've got a feeling Hitler would've run over Italy too after he conquered everything else.

My grand parents lost everything because they were not Facists. They lost they house, business and my grandfather ability to be a engineer officer as a merchant marine.

Weird history gets straight to the point. Nice and compact info.

I live near the Tremiti islands, I can confirm. Also, the surprise detention happened frequently here, they usually imprisoned the artists and people of culture.

Antonio Gramsci once wrote: "It should never be forgotten that, in the struggle between the nations, it is in the interest of each one of them that the other should be weakened by internal struggle. Hence it is always possible to pose the question of whether the parties exist by virtue of their own strength, as their own necessity, or whether rather they only exist to serve the interests of others"

If it hasn't been done, I'd like a video on the _Nazis fascination with the occult._

I had one grandfather partisan and one monarchist. The first one fought against fascism in the civil war (43-45) but at the end of the war saved several fascist lives from wall shooting, because he always said that an Italian can’t kills another Italian. The other grandfather became public prosecutor and then magistrate of Italian republic, and till his death (2021) he always sticked up for the king of Italy and monarchy, he hated the republic and said that the real owner of Italy is the savoia’s family (he wasnt fascist)

I swear, the recommendations are predicting the future

Thanks for this...I never knew much of anything about this time period in Italy, neither from school nor from my Italian family and friends.

I love how after deporting those gay men, they just stuck them on an island together in the Mediterranean. Like, it's hilarious to think that sending these gay guys on a small island 'vacation' together was some sort of punishment. Can only imagine what it was like there for that period of time.

My grandpa was in the Italian resistance then him and his wife moved to NYC a bit after the war ended. They left their families behind and never visited them again. I’m not sure why but shoot, could be many reasons.

Thank you for this video ! 😊💐

This whole "trains running on time" business reminds me of what Stalin's fans are preaching in Russia these days. "There was law and order, young people behaved, and there were no drunks in the streets. And the ice cream tasted great, too. Ahh, the good old days!"

Thanks for your efforts to make history fun and interesting.

2022: “was”?

I congratulate you. This was an excellent presentation.

You should do a video with the mafia getting cracked down on by Mussoloni plus the mafia helping the allies land with in Sicily with Operation Husky.

You know… it’s weird to think that Mussolini was one of the more “gentle” authoritarian(?) leaders of modern history. Like.. the fact that we have worse examples than him today, excluding the obvious Kim Jong-un, is quite interesting.

There is only 1 thing positive in that 20 years, the fact that someone inside thegovernment understood the greatness of Fermi Majorana and Co. And put a lot of money in the research field. Building advanced centre of research in phisics that bruoght several nobel prizes over the decades.INFN in Frascati is amazing place to visit, I hope next spring will be possible to visit again after the covid captivity

Good video. One detail: the emblem of the Socialist Party displayed at min. 03:35 was introduced in 1978; the emblem in the 20s of last century was totally different and based on hammer and sickle (the reference to red carnation only appeared in late 70s)

I'm italian so I've always knew these things but it is interesting reading the comments from people around the world. I've also read my grandma's schoolbooks from that era and they are weird

Best history channel on KZfaq, with the best narrator on KZfaq. Love it. 💚

Still better than the Soviet Union tbh

The picture @ 7:07 is actually one from my grandparents hometown in Italy! The place is called Letino / Gallo Matesse and those are the traditional costumes they wear during festival times in August/September. Even in Canada we have a small festival durring the September long weekend and people here dress up in the same costumes and do the traditional dance. I've even got dressed up and danced a few times!

I would like a video about the fighting in the (Italian) Alps in WWI. It's a terrifying and fascinating time. They bombed whole mountain tops!

It's amazing how some countries still mirror these situations in recent years.

The worrying thing is the amount of support he still has now in Italy

the best part about this channel is you reach to the heart ov history. only spinning things to meet a target audience and saying nothing new :)

Weird History, I want to thank you for these videos. Honest to god, if schools used videos like yours to teach and talk about history, it would have been so much more interesting and enjoyable.

It’s no so much fascist/nazi/communist that’s bad as it is a government that punishes people for disagreeing with the party line. That can happen in a democracy as well

Both of my paternal grandparents were born in fascist Italy, and it’s weird for them to think about Mussolini after living in America for so long. My grandmother thinks of it as you never think of yourself as the bad guy in the moment

Don't know if you've done this yet, but a video on Unit 731 in Japan would be interesting to learn about!

Hey Weird History Channel. Could you do a video on "What Life Was Like on a New England Whaling Ship"? It was a fascinating, gruesome, and often misunderstood occupation that I think you guys would do a great job of showing.The Nantucket whaling museum and the Mystic Seaport are great tourist attractions today that hold a lot of artifacts and documentation from that period of history, as well as the Ron Howard film "In the Heart of the Sea"- the true story about the sperm whale attack on the whaling ship 'Essex' that inspired the story of Moby Dick. Happy holidays!

Could you make a video about Leopold II's brutal murder of 10 million people in the Congo? I recently learned about this and it broke my heart. There's a famous photo of a father looking at his murdered toddler's hacked off hand and foot that really shocked and angered me.

Your content is excellent

As of September 2022, it seems that most people in Italy either forgot about this period of their history or want it back

I’d like to see the cause of the fighting in Belfast and the current politics there

My grandma's mom saw mussolini hang and she always told the family how much relief she and the citizens had felt after this whole hell was over. Its insane to me how his niece still supports this monster today and gets mad at how us young people don't support her family, and most of us don't even understand how in the hell this woman or any part of his family is still allowed to run for politics, for me it should be forbidden even more if they show huge support for what their grandparents did.

Honestly, this doesn't sound so bad, I expected it to be worse.

Thank you for your great work! Would you do a video on Italian war crimes in WWII?

Buckle your seat belts, America.

This piece of history is so creepy and so relevant.

this is literally 1984

The main lessons from fascism: 1) Don't drink the kool-aid. 2) NEVER drink your own kool-aid.

I went to a military museum in 1965. Among other things on display was that strange coffee-can shaped hat Mussolini wore.

would have to say this is a part of WWII story of which I had never heard much.

We're priming for the remix over here! 😂

2:19 Idk why but the whole sequence with the Italian cops was so wholesome, yet so Italian of them to do.

I want you to do a video on the All Japanese American military unit that did crazy hard missions and succeeded where the other units couldn't.

Life in Fascist Portugal! I think it has a lot of history and funny facts that would be cool to cover

Minus the scary music it looked pretty dope. Even saw a few brothers in there.

Even buying grocery was regulated and often drove people to retort to black market

How did things just shift back to normal? Can we get an explanation on how to recover from fascism?

Life during the Civil rights movement!

You can soon experience it for yourself but in the revamped 2022 edition ! 😄

Would like to see videos about medical beliefs in different time periods.

Love love the channel...can you make a video about life in the confederacy during the civil war...thankyou keep up the good work

My great-grandparents were members of the Fascist Party and one of them even participated at the March on Rome. Later on, on of my great-grandfathers participated at the pacification of Libya and the Abyssian campaign. Even the brother of my great-grandfather was part of the Black Brigades. They all kinda loved the new fascist order - but no one had a Problem with "lesser freedom", since they had jobs, something to eat etc.

Watching this as an Italian abroad in late 2022 so I know what to expect when I go back home

Dang you can almost see the similarities in modern states like China and North Korea.

of course the italian police recommended that he bring wine

"Vincere e vinceremo" e poi ha perso "Winning and we'll win" then he lost

One of the most bizarre things about Fascist Italy were the internment camps that just left people alone. They rounded up gays, and then just let them be gay without any additional punishment. Even Jews during the war were rounded up and then sent to furnished housing inside camps where they could live quietly. When the Nazis tried to exterminate these Jews, the Fascists simply moved them to another camp where they wouldn't be found.

Dude literally every campaign puts their face with a ‘si’ in it. They don’t say, ‘I’m boe jiden, I think you should vote for Donald trump’. Even that guy figured it out

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

Expecting someone to subscribe to your channel before they even watch your video is like a salesman expecting a prospect to buy his product before he even showed it to them.

File this under: Videos that could be either a historical essay or a Vlog

My grandfather was a blackshirt (he was a fascist) when Italy surrend in 43, he continue fight with fascist going back in Italian social republic and founght till the end

My dad was in Europe during WW2. He said it wasn't unusual for one GI to come with an entire Italian battalion. If they saw an American soldier, they would throw down their weapons and surrender. They really hated Mussolini so much that they would rather be a Prisoner of War than fight for him.

It's about time that this piece of History is being shown and taught. Especially now when we see it being repeated right here in the United States. Younger Generations don't realize what's happening because they don't have the history taught to them properly. This is not an accident. They've been raised to be politically ignorant of what happened in the early 20th century.

When he was there the trains arrived on time (these are some phrases of the old Italians) I know because my great-grandparents were soldiers at the time

My grandfather was born in 1930 in Italy. He told us that children of illegitimate birth had their last names changed under facsist rule. He and his siblings were thus renamed to a name starting with U. Does anyone know more about that rule? I couldn't really find anything on the internet about the treatment of illegitimate children and their mothers in Italy at the time.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out- Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out- Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me. Martin Niemöller

Drugs and their uses on soldiers to increase/decrease efficiency. The use of drugs was widespread and quite unknown this would be an awesome topic!

Every old Italian I ever met had a love for Mussolini. He saved Italy from the fate of eastern Europe, Bolshevik atheism and murder.

My dad was in primary school (1933-2019) and the boys had little uniforms with an M on it like little fascist Scouts😕 It wasn't exactly what you could choose to join, you were in! You really had to watch what you said in those times. My mum's still alive and it's crazy to think she actually lived through this alien world! (Yes, I started my comment early and I finally got a look at that ridiculous uniform!)