Mussolini supporter helped to lead historic march
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| De Vecchi served as Governor of Italian Somaliland |
De Vecchi was both a soldier and colonial administrator and he was accused of committing the first war crime of Fascist Italy when, under his leadership as Governor of Italian Somaliland, 100 civilians were killed while he pursued a ‘scorched earth policy’ between 1925 and 1927.
After graduating in jurisprudence, De Vecchi had become a successful lawyer in Turin. He took part in the final events of World War I, finishing with the rank of captain and decorations for valour.
On his return to Italy, he became a supporter of the National Fascist Party and went on to become head of his local Fascist squadre, or militia.
In 1921, De Vecchi was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and he later became under-secretary at the Treasury and under-secretary at the Finance Ministry during Benito Mussolini’s Government.
In October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march on Rome and, on October 28, Fascist demonstrators led by De Vecchi, Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo and Michele Bianchi approached the capital.
The Italian Prime Minister, Luigi Facta, wished to declare a state of siege, but this was overruled by King Victor Emmanuel III, who wanted to avoid bloodshed.
He persuaded Facta to resign and on October 30, 1922, he appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, transferring political power to the Fascists without armed conflict. On October 31 the Fascists paraded in Rome, while Mussolini formed his coalition government.
After becoming Governor of Italian Somaliland in 1923, De Vecchi left the Italian political scene for a while to serve abroad and he was made Count of Val Cismon, a new title created for him by Victor Emmanuel III.
He was made a Senator by the king in 1925 and, during the 1930s, he chaired the Piedmont committee for the history of the Risorgimento and organised events and lectures to celebrate the period.
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| De Vecchi (2nd right), with (from left) De Bono, Bianchi, Mussolini and Balbo, leaders of the March on Rome |
He reformed the education system by giving control of all high school education to the government, which could decide scholastic curriculums and apply censorship on textbooks before and after their publication.
While De Vecchi was serving as Governor of Rhodes, he enacted the Italian racial laws, which stripped Jews of their assets and restricted their rights. He forced Jews to move their cemetery and give up the tombstones of their ancestors to provide materials for the rebuilding of the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.
On March 6, 1940, Count Galeazzo Ciano, wrote in his War Diaries: ‘For the first time I found a person who wants to declare War with the Germans against France and England. This person is no less than the intrepid Cesare Maria de Vecchi di Val Cismon! The Americans say that a sucker is born every minute; one only has to look for him. This time I have found one. Cesare Maria is, above all, a man of pomposity and vain illusions, who dreams of obtaining a marshal's baton and decorations and hopes to gain them through the blood of others.’
After the announcement of the Armistice of Cassabile in September 1943, De Vecchi authorised German forces to enter the port of Piombino in southern Tuscany and forbade any act of resistance. However, units of the Royal Italian Navy and Royal Italian Army supported by local people prevented the Germans from landing at Piombino. They killed about 100 of them and captured more than 200 Wehrmacht soldiers.
The following day, De Vecchi ordered the freeing of the Germans and the returning of their weapons to them, after which he signed the surrender of his division to the Germans. On September 13, De Vecchi, with a pass given to him by German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, took refuge in Piedmont.
In early October 1943, De Vecchi went into hiding from Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, which had condemned him to death in his absence. After the war he escaped to Argentina on a Paraguayan passport.
After returning to Italy in 1949, De Vecchi supported the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement but refused to accept any political or institutional office within the movement. De Vecchi died in Rome in 1959.
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| Piazza Mazzini, the main square in Casale Monferrato, where Cesare De Vecchi was born |
Casale Monferrato in Piedmont, where Cesare Maria De Vecchi was born, is situated on the south bank of the Po river, about 60km (37 miles) east of the regional capital, Turin, at the foot of the Monferrato hills.. A town with around 36,000 inhabitants today, it was founded in Roman times and later turned into a major citadel by the Gonzaga family. At the heart of the historic centre is Piazza Mazzini, which grew on the site of the Roman forum. The square is dominated by an 1843 equestrian statue by Abbondio Sangiorgio of King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia. To the east of the square is the Lombard Romanesque cathedral of Sant'Evasio, founded in 742 and rebuilt in the early 12th century, occupying the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter. The Castello dei Paleologi, on Piazza Castello, is a hexagonal fortress that probably dates from 1000 and was rebuilt in the 15th century with corner towers and a moat. The town is famous for Krumiri Rossi, traditional curved dry biscuits created in the 19th century. Sitting in the heart of the Monferrato wine region, its local wines include Barbera and Grignolino.
Stay in Casale Monferrato with Hotels.com
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| The Alps provide a mountainous backdrop to Turin, the regional capital of Piedmont that was once Italy's capital |
Piedmont in northern Italy is the second largest region after Sicily. It borders France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley and a small part of Emilia-Romagna. Piedmont was acquired by Otto of Savoy in 1046 and its capital was established at Chambery, which is now in France. The Savoy territory became the Duchy of Savoy in 1416 and the seat of the Duchy was moved to Turin in 1563 by Duke Emanuele Filiberto. After Victor Amadeus II became King of Sardinia in 1720, Piedmont became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Turin grew in importance as a European capital city. It was at the centre of the fight for the unification of Italy and was the region of birth of the first prime minister of Italy, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. Turin was the first capital of the unified Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1865, before the capital moved to Florence in 1865 and later to Rome in 1871. The mountainous areas of Piedmont, which make up more than 40 per cent of the region, including several major sections of the Western Alps, play a vital part in the power production of the region and of northern Italy as a whole. The region’s hydroelectric plants supply energy for industry, transportation, and domestic use. The Alpine and sub-Alpine meadows afford excellent pasture for cattle as the base of a prosperous dairy industry, while the lowlands produce wheat and rice, vegetables and fruit. The hills south of the Po are noted for the production of some of Italy’s highest-quality wines, both of the sparkling and still varieties.
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Further reading:
Galeazzo Ciano, the son-in-law Mussolini had executed as a traitor
Italo Balbo, the former Blackshirt thug who was Mussolini’s ‘heir apparent’
The March on Rome - the insurrection that put Fascists in power
Also on this day:
1812: The birth of Maria Cristina of Savoy
1812: The birth of poet and patriot Aleardo Aleardi
1893: The birth of writer and novelist Carlo Emilio Gadda
1897: The death of soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, second wife of Giuseppe Verdi
1949: The birth of painter Enzo Cucchi