Rodolfo Graziani

Rodolfo Graziani was born in Filettino in the province of Frosinone on August 11, 1882.[2] His father, Filippo Graziani, was the village doctor. He was educated in a seminary in the town of Subiaco and then went on to study in the Liceo Torquato Tasso in Rome. Due to economic restraints, Graziani could not apply to the Military Academy of Modena and so decided to study law at university instead, at the urging of the father.[3]

In 1900, he joined the Royal Italian Army as a reserve officer cadet whilst studying at university. In 1906, he passed a competitive examination for reserve officers to be made regular and became a second lieutenant, stationed at the 1st regiment of Grenadiers in Rome.[4] Graziani's first posting was to Italian Eritrea where he learned Arabic and Tigrinya. In 1911, whilst in the Eritrean countryside, he was bitten by a snake which resulted in him being hospitalized.[5] Because of this, he never served in the Italo-Turkish War. After his convalescence, he was repatriated to Italy where he was promoted to captain. In 1918, during World War I, Graziani in the Regio Esercito became the youngest Colonnello (Colonel) in Italian history.

German and Italian state officials attending the funeral of Rome police chief and prominent Fascist Party member Arturo Bocchini on 21 November 1940. From left to right, Karl Wolff, Reinhard Heydrich, Adelchi Serena, Heinrich Himmler, Emilio De Bono, Dino Grandi, and a German diplomat.

At the start of World War II, Graziani, now styled 1st Marquis of Neghelli, was still Commander-in-Chief of the Regio Esercito′s General Staff. After the death of Marshal Italo Balbo in a friendly fire incident on 28 June 1940, Graziani took his place as Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa.

The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had given Graziani a deadline of 8 August 1940 to invade Egypt with the 10th Army. Graziani doubted the ability of his largely-unmechanized force to defeat the British and put off the invasion for as long as he could.

However, faced with demotion, Graziani ultimately followed orders, and four divisions of the 10th Army invaded Egypt on 9 September. The Italians achieved only modest gains in Egypt and then prepared a series of fortified camps to defend their positions. In December 1940, in Operation Compass the British counterattacked and completely defeated the 10th Army. On 25 March 1941, Graziani was replaced by General Italo Gariboldi. Graziani remained mostly inactive for the next two years. During his time in Italy, he played a role in suppressing the Italian anti-fascist movement.[9]

Graziani was the only Italian Marshal to remain loyal to Mussolini after the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, and he joined Mussolini in the north after the Italian surrender (some say that he choose to adhere to Italian Social Republic for his dislike for Pietro Badoglio, who had signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the allies and because he was his worst enemy during the fascist period). He was appointed Minister of Defence of the Italian Social Republic by Mussolini[10] and oversaw the mixed Italo-German Army Group Liguria (Armee Ligurien). Graziani defeated Allied forces in the December 1944 "Battle of Garfagnana" and led a joint Italian-German force that included the "Monte Rosa" alpine division and the "San Marco" marine division.

When Mussolini fled northward on 25 April 1945, Graziani was left as the de facto leader of what remained of the Italian Social Republic. Mussolini was captured and executed on 28 April 1945. The following day, German forces in Italy surrendered, and Graziani's own surrender followed on 1 May 1945.

At the end of World War II, Graziani spent a few days in the San Vittore Prison in Milan before he was transferred to Allied control. He was brought back to Africa in Anglo-American custody and stayed there until February 1946. Allied forces then felt the danger of his assassination or lynching had passed (many thousands of fascists were murdered in Italy in the summer and autumn of 1945) and so moved Graziani to the Procida prison in Italy.

Graziani in 1940

Before the Second World War, the League of Nations did not prosecute Graziani and the Italian authorities for war crimes in Ethiopia. In one case, Graziani had ordered his troops to use chemical weapons against Nasibu Zeamanuel's troops in Gorrahei on 10 October 1935.[11] Although the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs gave the League of Nations irrefutable evidence of what the Italian military had done from within a few hours of its invasion on 3 October 1935 to 10 April of the following year, no action was taken. Incidents included the use of poison gas and the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and ambulances.[12]

In 1943, the United States proposed to the Allies replacing the League of Nations with a new body, the United Nations. The United Nations War Crimes Commission was created to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Axis powers in World War II. On 31 December 1946, Ambaye Wolde Mariam from The Ethiopian War Crimes Commission presented to the UN War Crimes Commission its preliminary findings against Graziani. This related, however, to the period before WWII. The Ethiopian government felt it would have no difficulty from the sufficient amount of evidence it had to justify a trial against Graziani, especially for the massacres he ordered in February 1937.[12] On 4 March 1948, charges against Graziani were presented to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. The commission was presented with evidence of the Italian policy of systematic terrorism and Graziani's self-admitted intention to execute all Amharas authorities and cited a telegram from Graziani to General Nasi, in which Graziani had written, "Keep in mind also that I have already aimed at the total destruction of Abyssinian chiefs and notables and that this should be carried out completely in your territories".[12] The UN Commission agreed that there was a prima facie case against eight Italians, including Graziani.[12]

However, the Allies questioned the veracity of Ethiopia's claim against the Italians on the grounds that it was impossible to identify which individuals in the Italian military hierarchy had actually issued the criminal orders. The British government was the firmest supporter of that stance, and the United States pursued a policy "largely characterized by ambivalence towards Italian aggression". The Ethiopian government made a direct request to the "Four Policemen", but that was immediately rejected on technical grounds. In addition, many in the Italian press firmly opposed any Italian officer being put on trial for war crimes. Faced with such resistance and indifference, Ethiopia had no choice but to back down from their requests, to the consternation of many Ethiopians.[13][14]

In 1950, an Italian military tribunal sentenced Graziani to 19 years in jail for collaborating with the Nazis, but he was released after only four months because his lawyers demonstrated that his actions had been only after he "received orders". He never faced any further prosecutions for any other specific war crimes.[15] Unlike the Germans and the Japanese, the Italians did not have their commanders subjected to prosecutions by Allied tribunals.

In the early 1950s, Graziani had some involvement with the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), and he became the "Honorary President" of the party in 1953.

He died, aged 72, of natural causes in Rome.

Graziani wrote several books,[18] the most important of which are:

• Ho difeso la Patria (una vita per l'Italia)
• Africa settentrionale 1940–41
• Libia redenta

also:

• Verso il Fezzan
• La riconquista del Fezzan
• Cirenaica pacificata
• Pace romana in Libia

• 1915-1918—Service in World War I
• 1921-1934—Service in Libya
• 1926-1930—Vice Governor-General of Italian Cyrenaica
• 1930-1934—Governor-General of Italian Cyrenaica
• 1935-1936—Governor-General of Italian Somaliland
• 1936-1937—Governor-General and Viceroy of Ethiopia; promoted to Marshal of Italy
• 1940-1941—Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa and Governor-General of Libya
• 1943-1945—Minister of Defense for the Italian Social Republic

Graziani was portrayed by British actor Oliver Reed in the 1981 war film Lion of the Desert. On its release, it was banned by the Italian government because, in the words of Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, it was "damaging to the honor of the army".[19]

Graziani was also portrayed by Rodolfo Dal Pra in the Italian film Last Days of Mussolini.

The Italian singer and composer Franco Battiato included a reference to Graziani in his song "Lettera al Governatore della Libia" (Letter to the governor of Libya) with the phrase "Lo sai che quell'idiota di Graziani farà una brutta fine" (You know that the idiotic Graziani will have a bad end).

• Frontier Wire (Libya)

• Canosa, Romano. Graziani. Il maresciallo d'Italia, dalla guerra d'Etiopia alla Repubblica di Salò. Editore Mondadori; Collana: Oscar storia. ISBN 9788804537625
• Cova, Alessandro. Rodolfo Graziani: Story of an Italian general. Fonthill Media, 2021, ISBN 9781781558515.
• Del Boca, AngeloNaissance de la nation libyenne, Editions Milelli, 2008, ISBN 978-2-916590-04-2.
• Pankhurst, Richard. History of the Ethiopian Patriots (1936-1940), The Graziani Massacre and Consequences. Addis Abeba Tribune editions.
• Rocco, Giuseppe. L'organizzazione militare della RSI, sul finire della seconda guerra mondiale. Greco & Greco Editori. Milano, 1998

• Italian War Criminal Rodolfo Graziani, Blaine Taylor, Warfare History Network, 21 February 2020

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Media related to Rodolfo Graziani at Wikimedia Commons

• Newspaper clippings about Rodolfo Graziani in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW