LibGuides: Primary Sources: World War II: Italy

Italy during World War 2

Italy's involvement in World War II was marked by its alliance with Nazi Germany, internal strife, and a dramatic shift from Axis power to a co-belligerent with the Allies. Led by Benito Mussolini, Italy joined the war in June 1940, seeking to expand its territories. However, Italian military campaigns in North Africa, Greece, and the Soviet Union met with limited success and significant setbacks.

By 1943, Italy faced severe economic strain and military defeats. The Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 catalyzed political upheaval. Mussolini was deposed and arrested, and Italy's new government, under Marshal Pietro Badoglio, signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943. This shift led to the occupation of Northern Italy by German forces, who installed Mussolini as the head of the Italian Social Republic, a puppet state.

Italy became a battleground between the Allies and German forces, with Italian partisans playing a crucial role in resisting the German occupation. The Italian Campaign, marked by brutal fighting in places like Monte Cassino and Anzio, was key to the Allied advance into Europe.

Italy's wartime experience ended with liberation in 1945. The post-war period saw the establishment of the Italian Republic in 1946, as Italians rejected the monarchy in a referendum, leading to a new era of reconstruction and democratic governance. Italy's involvement in World War II was a complex journey from Fascist ambitions to resistance and rebirth as a democratic nation.

Online Sources: Italy during World War 2

20th Century Documents : 1900 - 1999 (Avalon Project) Italian Documents of 1940s
Italian Campaign, July 1943 – May 1945 (Naval History and Heritage Command) Exhibits: Photography / World War II / WWII-Europe / Italian Campaign, July 1943 – May 1945
Italian captured documents collection, (Library of Congress) Unrelated materials captured by American forces during World War II. Includes ordnance record book; reports of various infantry regiments and divisions rendered to higher commands; detailed personnel record of army officer, Mattia Giglio; radio station logbooks; maritime radio record book; documents of the Italian supreme command (Esercito. Comando supremo) dealing with operations, courses of instruction, and personnel; register of publications relating to the western theater of war; and an economic warfare study concerned with the status and capacity of a munitions firm, Gruppo Bombrini Parodi-Delfino.
Italian Life Under Fascism: Selections from the Fry Collection The Fry Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison contains many hundreds of printed items, ranging from single broadsides to large volumes, along with hundreds of linear feet of archival material; many items date from the period 1922-1945.
Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica - Istat) Official statistics for Italy from 1926 to present including censuses, crime reports, economic accounts, surveys of protests, and much more.
Italy in the Second World War (Spartacus Educational) Second World War >Countries >Italy in the Second World War
Italy in World War II History Resources Although there are many great books and museums that cover Italy’s role in World War Two, the following selections should provide a good understanding of the Italian military and political actions.
Mussolini's Speech-Broadcast October 2, 1935 Mussolini's Speech-Broadcast October 2, 1935
The Personal Files of Benito Mussolini (Nation Archives) Today’s post comes from Sonia Kahn in the National Archives History Office. It is part five of a series on the history of some of the seized foreign records housed at the National Archives.
The Rise of Italian Fascism and Its Influence on Europe (DPLA) From the conclusion of World War I and the worldwide depression that followed rose a political and social movement that shaped world history. The name comes from fasces, a bundle of rods with a projecting ax blade, which was used as symbol by the early Etruscans and ancient Romans to indicate power and strength through unity. Political groups in nineteenth-century Italy were called fascio in a nod to the same idea. In 1919 Benito Mussolini, a veteran and former socialist who had broken with that party over the question of Italy’s intervention in World War I, founded the nationalist Fasci di Combattimento, or “fighting band.” Mussolini’s Fasci came to be known as the Fascist Party. Mussolini advocated for an extreme, right-wing nationalism and centralized, anti-democratic power. These elements also characterized fascist regimes that arose in Germany, Argentina, Spain, and other countries prior to or immediately following the Second World War. Fascism responded to what was perceived as the failures of both liberal and socialist ideologies. It is a kind of totalitarianism, demanding reverence for the state and its leader and an elimination of political opposition. Fascist regimes are also characterized by a reliance on propaganda, a focus on militarism, and a concern with indoctrinating youth, as well as by the persecution, ethnic cleansing, or genocide of minority groups. Adolf Hitler used Italian Fascism as a model for his own, though his version of fascism was more violent, racist, and genocidal. In 1936 Mussolini formally signed a treaty with Hitler to form a Rome-Berlin “axis.”
Timeline for World War II — Italy Timeline for World War II — Italy
Twentieth Century Italy Twentieth Century Italy
Twentieth Century Italy (Euro Docs) Italian Documents from the 20th Century
Ultime lettere di condannati a morte e di deportati della Resistenza italiana A database of the last letters members of the Italian Resistance who were sentenced to death or deported.
Vatican Diplomatic Files (1939-1942) The documents in the Vatican Diplomacy Files are original evidence. They are presented here in both original and text converted formats, although in general, Maps, Charts, Tables and Photographs were not converted into text. Text documents are "keyword" searchable, but have been edited from the original, meaning that handwriting and signatures has been deciphered, and OCR errors have been corrected. Original documents serve as snapshots in time, and also as touchstones by which the researcher can judge the text conversions.
Wartime Press - Digital Archive of WWII Publications Original books, booklets, magazines, manuals, newspapers, and documents relating to WWII, from many sides of the conflict. Includes US, British, Polish, German, Czech, Italian, Japanese, and Russian documents.
World War II : Documents (Avalon Project) Italian World War 2 Documents

Book Sources: Italy during World War 2

Click the title for location and availability information.

The Ciano diaries, 1939-1943; the complete, unabridged diaries of Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, 1936-1943. by Galeazzo Ciano
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection DG575.C52 A3
The fall of Mussolini : Italy, the Italians, and the Second World War by Pietro Badoglio
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection DG572 .M645 2007
ISBN: 019280247X
Publication Date: 2007
The battle for Rome : the Germans, the allies, the partisans and the Pope, September 1943-June 1944 by Robert Katz
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection D763.I82 R62719 2004
ISBN: 0743258088
Publication Date: 2004-07-01
Ciano's diary, 1939-1943. by Ciano, Galeazzo, conte, 1903-1944.; Muggeridge, Malcolm, 1903- ed.; Muggeridge, Malcolm, 1903-1990.
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection DG575.C52 A32
The six hundred days of Mussolini. by Deakin, F. W. (Frederick William), 1913-
Call Number: Boca Raton General Collection DG572 .D38 1966
Publication Date: 1966

Video Sources: Italy during World War II

Italy during World War II (Playlist)

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ProQuest's Alexander Street Video contains Alexander Street's streaming video content. Subject matter spans across the curriculum —in literature; music; social and cultural history; film; the performing arts; religion; sociology; and other areas. This platform contains our owned collections and our subscription to Academic Video Online: Premium.

World in action. The gates of Italy (Academic Video Online: Premium - United States) This short 1943 documentary from the World in Action series zooms in on Benito Mussolini, the politician and National Fascist Party leader who led Italy into World War II. Examining his confused dictatorship, the film reveals the political and military dilemma of the impoverished Italian people as Mussolini goes down to defeat and is finally ousted, on 25 July 1943.
Benito Mussolini (Academic Video Online: Premium - United States) A look at the life of Il Duce.
Report on Italy (Academic Video Online: Premium - United States) Release Date 1945 Duration 17 minutes Publication Type Serial Component Part Publisher Place New York, NY Field of Interest Newsreels, World History Specialized Area of Interest 1940s, War and Violence, Depression & World War II (1929-1945) Narrator Westbrook Van Voorhis Historical Event World War II, 1939-1945 Language of Edition English Person Discussed Benito Mussolini
World War II: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly - Part 1 (Academic Video Online: Premium - United States) The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy? Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in Western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill. David Reynolds reveals a Prime Minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940. A leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France. The film marks the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein in 1942.
World War II: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly - Part 2 (Academic Video Online: Premium - United States) The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy? Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in Western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill. David Reynolds reveals a Prime Minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940. A leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France. The film marks the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein in 1942.
Release 68, 1943 "Italy Surrenders" (Alexander Street Press FAU collection) Italy surrenders, 1943: Italians in New York City celebrate Italy's surrender. U.S. Troops land in North Africa. President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at Casablanca. Allied planes bomb islands off Italy. Sicily is invaded by allied troops. The 7th Army and Britain's 8th Army land on Italy's mainland. Italian warships speed to allied ports and are surrendered. President Roosevelt announces Italy's surrender. Other personages Gen. Eisenhower, Gen. Clark, Mussolini, Adm. Cunningham.