Original subtitles

In 1943, after three long years of war and devastating defeats, Italy was in turmoil.

On July 25th, the Grand Council of Fascism, the regime's highest authority, voted in favour of a motion put forward by party leader Dino Grandi calling for Mussolini's resignation.

The Duce was dismissed and arrested. King Victor Emmanuel III replaced him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio.

Mussolini's fall triggered mixed reactions across the country. Some mourned suffering endured under fascism.

Others cheered over the end of his rule. Fascist symbols were torn down all over Italy.

Then, on the evening of September 8th, 1943, Badoglio took to the radio.

"The Italian government has recognized the impossibility of continuing"

He announced that Italy had signed an armistice and surrendered unconditionally to the Anglo-American forces.

The King and his government fled to Rome for Brindisi without issuing any instructions to the military, leaving Italians, both civilians and soldiers, to face the chaos on their own.

The consequences were devastating. Civilians were left exposed to occupying forces. Italian soldiers stationed in France, Albania and other regions had no guidance, no clear path for retreat.

Around 186,000 troops stayed loyal to the alliance with the Nazis, but the rest were captured and sent to German concentration camps.

Those who refused to fight alongside the Germans were labelled military internees, a term that stripped them of prosecutions under the Geneva Convention. They received no Red Cross aid and were forced into labour.

The RSI later launched a campaign to recruit from these camps, promising better conditions and the chance to go home. But it didn't work. 85% of the internees choose to stay imprisoned rather than fight for the regime.

Most would only return after the war ended. The hardships they endured were captured in the haunting drawings of Marcello Tomadini, himself a military internee.

Just ten days after the armistice on September 18th 1943, Mussolini spoke to the Italian people from the radio in Munich. He urged them to rally around him.

That night, the Italian social republics, what some call the Republic of Salò, was born on the shores of Lake Garda.

For anti-fascists it was a puppet state controlled by Germany, but for fascists it was a necessary defence against German vengeance after Italy's betrayal on September 8th.

The country was now split in two, the South under the Anglo-Americans, the North under the Germans. The dividing line was the Gustav Line, Cutting from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian sea.

In the south, Badoglio's government tried to preserve the old state. In the north, fascism was revived.

Most Italians just hoped for the war to end, a war that now felt both lost and never-ending.

The new fascist state, set up close to Germany, where Hitler could keep an eye on things, was located on the shores of Lake Garda.

It was easy to find villas there to seize for government use. On October 8th, Mussolini, now reunited with his family, moved into Villa Feltrinelli in Gargnano.

The Presidency of the Council operates out of the former Ursuline Sisters Villa. Government offices, ministries and residences were spread between Gargnano and Salò.

The Monastery of Santa Cristina, now the Museum of Salò, became the headquarters of the Republic National Guard.

The nearby Stefani News Agency acts as the RSI's official press office. It would become simply known as Salò.

After some internal disputes, the RSI government took full shape by late September.

Mussolini held on to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Alessandro Pavolini became Secretary of the Republican Fascist Party.

In November 1943, he was chaired the Verona Congress, where the Manifesto of Verona was unveiled.

It laid out 18 points, though most were never enforced. One exception was point 7, which declared Jews to be foreign enemies.

By now, Mussolini was a shadow of his former self. He didn't have the power he once wielded. Living at Lake Garda felt more like an exile than leadership.

He was constantly watched by his SS guards. The Germans called the shots.

In a letter sent to his sister, Edvige, in August 1943, he wrote:

"As for me, I consider myself three-quarters dead. The rest is a pile of bones and muscles that has seen an organic decay for the past ten months. Not a word of the past. It is too dead. I regret nothing. I desire nothing."

For the 600 days of the Italian Social Republic, the regime clung tightly to control, just as it had for the past 20 years.

It regulated everything from education to propaganda. Already wrecked by war, Italy slipped deeper into poverty.

Substitutes were everywhere. Barley instead of coffee. karkade for tea. Clothes were turned inside out, patched, reused.

Soles were made from old tyres. Those who could afford it turned to the black market, paying steep prices just to get by.

War gardens sprouted on balconies. Town squares became wheat fields. Starting in October 1943, German propaganda took over media in Northern Italy.

Even the children weren't spared. A 1944 board game called Gioco delle oche, Game of Three Geese, had players hunt geese representing the Axis, enemies, Russia, US, Britain.

Propaganda covered everything. Allied bombings, fascist troops, partisan bandits, racial persecution. Bombings became part of everyday life.

Air raid sirens rang out constantly at night. Allied planes flew low, dropping bombs on any light they could see.

On the 20th of October 1944, US bombers struck a primary school in Milan's Gorla district. The blast killed 184 children, 14 teachers, a headmistress, four caretakers and a nurse.

That day, more than 600 bodies were recovered in Milan alone, not counting the wounded. Building a state also meant building an army. Four divisions were drafted:

The RSI created a navy, an air force, the Republican National Guard, and elite forces like the Decima Mass and the Black Brigades, many made up of volunteers.

The RSI's military grew to around 700,000. Civil war tore through the country. People had to pick a side. You were either with a regime or you were a rebel.

To fill the ranks, women were called to serve. On April 18th, 1944, the Women's Auxiliary Service was founded.

Around 6,000 women signed up for military and police duties. Many were abused, and about 300 were killed after the war.

Once adored by crowds, Mussolini now hid from the public. He made only one appearance in Milan between December 16th and 19th, 1944.

On the first day, he tried to inspire the crowd at Teatro Lirico, but the illusion was fading fast. After the September 8th armistice, the Italian army crumbled.

Some soldiers were captured, others went home. Many fled to the mountains to avoid arrest. That marked the start of the resistance.

It drew in 300,000 partisans and 3 million civilians. The RSI called them traitors and criminals. In reality, the resistance had a clear organisation.

The National Liberation Committee brought together Italy's anti-fascist parties. Several partisan brigades formed. The Catholic Fiamme Verdi, Socialist Matteo, Communist Garibaldi, and the Giustizia e Libertà, linked to the Action Party. They waged guerrilla war from the mountains.

Raiding, sabotaging, ambushing. Italy plunged into civil war. It was bitter and violent. On August 8th 1944, two GAP, communists, attacks in Milan killed 10 Italians and wounded 13, along with a Nazi officer.

In retaliation, 15 prisoners from San Vittore, unconnected to the attacks, were executed on August 10th. Their bodies were left on display in Piazza delle Loreto.

When the armistice was announced, many Italians thought war was over.

It wasn't. It dragged on, and it became a civil war. Many of the young men fighting had grown up under fascist rule.

Some believed in what they were doing, others fought to end tyranny and bring democracy. By April 1945, the Gothic line had collapsed.

On April 18th, Mussolini fled to Milan, hoping to organise a last stand in Valtellina.

He reached out to the Northern Liberation Committee, but his talks broke down, so he headed to Como.

He never made it. On April 27th, he was captured by the 52 Garibaldi Brigade in Musso. The next day, he was executed in Giulino delle Mezzegra.

His body along with Claretta Petacci and 18 fascist officials, he was hung upside down in the Piazza Loreto.

By April 25th, Allied forces and the Army of the South had crossed the Po River. Partisans launched a general uprising across the north.

Two days later, Allied troops entered Milan, Turin, Russia, where resistance fighters were pushing back against German retreats. Italy was finally free.

But would remain under Allied military rule until the end of the year. In June, the first post-liberation government was formed, under Ferruccio Parri of the Action Party.

It marked the beginning of Italy's transformation into a democratic republic, led by the very forces that had resisted fascism. After the liberation, a manhunt for the fascists began.

Between 10,000 and 20,000 were killed in the first few months. Another 60,000 were imprisoned in camps like Collateral, Laterina and Collescipoli.

The extraordinary courts of Assize sentenced 87 people to death between 1945 and 1947. Paris' government began purging fascists from public life and business, but most were reinstated later.

Under Prime Minister De Gasperi in June 1946, Togliatti ammnesty freed two-thirds of those in prison.

There were around 600,000 Italian prisoners of war scattered across the world. Those captured by the Allies were offered a chance to cooperate.

Those who refused were sent to camps like one in Hereford, Texas, which held around 3,000 non-cooperators.

Others were held in British-run camps in India, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, and the UK. Most weren't released until 1945 and 1947.