Italian Forces

Mussolini "en famille" ...

Unknown author (?Mussolini family)

Benito Mussolini with second wife (possibly bigamously) Rachele and children, in happier prewar times. Rachele was not dealt the best hand on the husband front. She bore him five children - two daughters and three sons - and remained loyal to him to the end. She also played the part of the ideal Fascist wife and mother; actually, with understandable conviction. However, the Duce was an inveterate womanizer, something that Rachele seems to have chosen to ignore. At the end, she was not permitted to be his companion in flight. That role went to his current mistress, Clara Petacci. Perhaps, for Rachele, that was just as well. She survived the war, went back to her native Lombardy, and ran a small pasta restaurant. All for that. JR.