Galeazzo Ciano (1903–1944)

Plongée à la fois intéressante et effarante... Assurément, Ciano n'est pas n'importe qui et pourtant il raisonne n'importe comment... Certes il méprise (tardivement) les allemands après avoir défendu l'Axe... On ne peut pas tout vouloir et son contraire... Cette tragique dérive se termine par un mot de sympathie à l'égard de la Pologne... Écrit par un allié actif du IIIeme Reich... Fatuité? On accuse souvent les fascistes de machiavélisme... il étaient tout bonnement d'une effroyable stupidité.… (meer)

Count Ciano was Mussolini's Minister for Foreign Affairs and also his son-in-law, and these diaries recount the day-to-day life of the Italian government during the years of World War Two, including very interesting descriptions of his interactions with such figures as Hitler, von Ribbentrop and Goering. Ciano was against Italy's entry into the war and against making a signed alliance with Germany, as well. He is clear about this in his diaries even in the early going. His distrust of and dislike for the country's Nazi allies only grows over the years. Mussolini is showed as being far less than intellectually acute, open to hearing and believing what he wants to believe, rather than what the facts should be showing him. He insists in getting into the war, for matters of national glory and personal ego, essentially, despite the fact that Italy's armed forces and industrial capacity are both woefully inadequate in quality and numbers. And as the German and Italian armies are being routed in Russia and Africa, he continues to believe that the Axis fortunes are about to change. The day-to-day progressive layering of these factors make interesting, if not exactly compelling, reading. What comes through most clearly is the unintended sub-text of the diaries, the bankrupt nature of the Fascist system as a whole. Almost everybody but Mussolini can see what's happening, but, since he is the appointed leader, they all follow along nevertheless. Also, one cannot miss Ciano's blithe acceptance and approval of the Italian occupation of Albania and invasion of Greece, not to mention the earlier invasion of Ethopia that Ciano had taken part in as a bomber pilot. But, finally, in July, 1943, at Fascist Party Grand Council, Mussolini was voted out of power, with Ciano voting with the majority. That vote would soon cost Ciano his life when, returned to power by the Nazi's, Mussolini ordered Ciano's execution. In the diary's final entry, we find Ciano sitting in his Verona jail cell, awaiting death. He managed to get the diaries to his wife, Mussolini's daughter, Edda, who managed to smuggle them out of Italy despite the fact that the Nazi's were intent on finding and destroying the work.… (meer)