Rodolfo Graziani

Rodolfo Graziani was born in Filettino in the province of Frosinone in 1882.[2]

In 1903, 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.[3] 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.[4] 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. During World War I, Graziani became the youngest Colonnello (Colonel) in the Regio Esercito.

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 the Second World War, Graziani, now styled as The 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 Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa and as Governor General of Libya.

The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had given Graziani a deadline of 8 August 1940 to start to invade Egypt with the 10th Army. Graziani expressed doubts about the ability of his largely un-mechanized 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 elements 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 November 1940 the British counterattacked and completely defeated the 10th Army during Operation Compass, after which Graziani resigned his commission. On 25 March 1941, Graziani was replaced by General Italo Gariboldi, and 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.[8]

Graziani was the only Italian Marshal to remain loyal to Mussolini after Dino Grandi's Grand Council of Fascism coup. He was appointed Minister of Defense of the Italian Social Republic by Mussolini[9] and oversaw the mixed Italo-German Army Group Liguria (Armee Ligurien). Graziani defeated Allied forces in the December 1944 "Battle of Garfagnana", leading a mixed 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 RSI. Mussolini was captured and assassinated on 28 April 1945, and Graziani was only able to hold out for four more days before he surrendered on 1 May, a day after German forces in Italy surrendered.

At the end of the Second World War, Graziani spent a few days in the San Vittore Prison in Milan before being transferred to Allied control. He was brought back to Africa in Anglo-American custody, staying 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 returned Graziani to the Procida prison in Italy.

Graziani in 1940

Before WWII, 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 fr:Gorrahei on 10 October 1935.[10] 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.[11]

In 1943, the Allies agreed to replace the League of Nations with the United Nations. The "United Nations War Crimes Commission" was created to investigate war crimes. On 31 December 1946, Ato Ambay from The Ethiopian War Crimes Commission presented to the UN War Crimes Commission its preliminary findings against Graziani. 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.[11] 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.”[11] The UN commission agreed that there was a prima facie case against eight Italians, including Graziani.[11]

However, the British Foreign Office consistently opposed Ethiopia’s inclusion in the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the trial on Italian crimes committed during the 1935–1936 invasion, partly due to the Allies not wishing to antagonize a fellow European state.[12] Ethiopian efforts to bring Graziani to trial were frustrated by intransigence from both Italy[13] and Britain; the attempts were finally abandoned in a deal with the Foreign Office, whose support the Imperial Ethiopian Government considered essential for its Imperial claim on Eritrea.

In 1948, an Italian military tribunal sentenced Graziani to 19 years in jail for his collaborating with the Nazis. But he was released after serving only four months because his lawyers demonstrated that his actions were only after he had "received orders". He never faced any further prosecutions for any other specific war crimes.[14] Unlike German or Japanese commanders, the Italians were not subjected to prosecutions by Allied tribunals.

In the early 1950s, Graziani had some involvement with the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano and became the "Honorary President" of the MSI party in 1953.

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

Graziani wrote several books,[17] 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

• 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

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Rodolfo Graziani

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".[18]

• Canosa, Romano. Graziani. Il maresciallo d'Italia, dalla guerra d'Etiopia alla Repubblica di Salò. Editore Mondadori; Collana: Oscar storia. ISBN 9788804537625
• 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

• Frontier Wire (Libya)

Media related to Rodolfo Graziani at Wikimedia Commons

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