Un 'buco' nel diario della Petacci riaccende i sospetti sul medico del pontefice. Dall'agenda dell'amante di Mussolini qualcuno ha strappato le pagine dal 5 al 12 febbraio 1939, e il pontefice morì il 10. Sul tavolo del Papa era pronta l'enciclica contro l'antisemitismo
di Mauro Suttora
Sette (Corriere della Sera), 18 maggio 2012
Papa Pio XI morì veramente d'infarto, o fu ucciso? Qualcuno lo sospettò subito, dopo che all’alba del 10 febbraio 1939 Achille Ratti mancò all'improvviso. Certo, era un 82enne cardiopatico. Ma proprio il giorno seguente avrebbe dovuto pronunciare un discorso per il decennale del Concordato. E molti si aspettavano che avrebbe condannato le dittature nazista e fascista, dopo le roventi polemiche dei mesi precedenti sulle leggi razziali.
La scomparsa del pontefice - che aveva sul tavolo di lavoro anche la bozza di un'enciclica contro l'antisemitismo poi accantonata dal successore, Pio XII - fu provvidenziale per entrambi i regimi.
Vent'anni dopo papa Giovanni XXIII fece pubblicare solo in parte la bozza di quel discorso, in cui Benito Mussolini e Adolf Hitler venivano paragonati a Nerone. Nel 1972 il cardinale Eugène Tisserant, in un memoriale a lui attribuito, avrebbe affermato riguardo alla morte di Pio XI: "Lo hanno eliminato, lo hanno assassinato". E indicò anche la mano che, se non causò direttamente il decesso, almeno lo favorì o affrettò: quella del medico personale Francesco Saverio Petacci, padre dell'amante di Mussolini Claretta. Ipotesi incredibile, e ritenuta tuttavia plausibile dallo storico Piero Melograni, che ha studiato a fondo quel periodo: «Petacci era un personaggio ricattabile da parte del regime».
Si sperava che i diari di Claretta Petacci, sicuramente autentici e desecretati dall’Archivio centrale dello Stato settant'anni dopo la loro redazione, avrebbero gettato qualche luce in più sul mistero. Al contrario: dall'agenda 1939 qualcuno ha eliminato proprio le pagine su quei giorni di febbraio. Dopo avere controllato la copia originale, conservata negli uffici dell’Eur, abbiamo scoperto una settimana di buco: dal 5 al 12 febbraio. Dal diario sono state chiaramente sottratte una o più pagine.
La prova? Claretta non scriveva tutti i giorni, ma quando lo faceva terminava sempre il racconto della giornata. Invece, come si può vedere, il foglio del 5 febbraio s’interrompe bruscamente, nel mezzo di una frase ("Legge i biglietti e si inquieta per una cosa che segna. Poi dice: questi sanno..."). E riprende il 12 febbraio come se nulla fosse, con Mussolini che alle nove e tre quarti telefona a Claretta parlando della salma del papa che vuole andare ad omaggiare a San Pietro: “Vado con mia moglie. È bene anche per il mondo che lo faccia. Ma non farò tardi”. Quindi chi ha strappato i fogli ha lasciato involontariamente traccia della clamorosa manomissione.
Nei diari il duce parla di tutto con l’amante, anche di delicati argomenti politici. È sincero, si lascia andare come non fa neppure a casa propria. E lei riporta fedelmente, quasi maniacalmente, ogni sua frase.
Nelle settimane precedenti il dittatore si era scagliato più volte contro Pio XI, definendolo addirittura "una calamità, nefasto per la religione: peggio di questo papa in questo periodo non poteva capitare [...] Tu non sai il male che fa alla Chiesa. Fa cose indegne. Come quella di dire che noi siamo simili ai semiti. Come, li abbiamo combattuti per secoli, li odiamo, e [ora] siamo come loro. Abbiamo lo stesso sangue! Ah! Credi, è nefasto" (8 ottobre '38).
E il giorno dopo, ancora più chiaro: "Porci ebrei, li ucciderò tutti". Anche Galeazzo Ciano nel suo diario scrive che Mussolini il 14 dicembre 1938 ebbe uno scatto d’ira contro il papa, di cui si augurò la morte.
Ma è possibile che Mussolini abbia fatto sopprimere Pio XI tramite il dottor Petacci? Quel che è quasi impossibile, è che nei diari di Claretta non si accenni mai alla vicenda. Soprattutto dati il ruolo di archiatra pontificio ricoperto dal padre e la familiarità che si era instaurata con Mussolini, al quale a sua volta Claretta raccontava le proprie vicende domestiche. Il duce s’interessava a Petacci, lo faceva scrivere sul Messaggero, voleva nominarlo senatore.
L’eliminazione delle pagine scottanti è quindi sicura. Difficile invece stabilire quando avvenne: prima che Claretta in fuga dal lago di Garda nell’aprile ‘45 consegnasse i diari all’amica contessa Rina Cervis? O dopo che furono ritrovati dai carabinieri, cinque anni più tardi, sotterrati nel giardino della contessa a Gardone (Brescia)?
E chi li purgò dei fogli ritenuti imbarazzanti? Claretta stessa, oppure le autorità italiane, oppure i servizi segreti alleati (americano, inglese), ai quali erano stati fatti leggere prima di seppellirli di nuovo per sette decenni nell’Archivio romano in nome della privacy.
L’unico e ultimo erede Petacci è il 70enne Ferdinando, figlio di Marcello (il fratello di Claretta ucciso a Dongo). Vive in Arizona e difende la memoria del nonno: “Perché avrebbe dovuto uccidere un amico che curava da quand’era cardinale, e che per lui era una gallina dalle uova d'oro, la massima referenza? Per fare un favore a Mussolini?”.
Mauro Suttora
Showing posts with label piero melograni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label piero melograni. Show all posts
Friday, May 18, 2012
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Associated Press: 'Mussolini segreto'
MISTRESS' DIARY: MUSSOLINI WAS FIERCE ANTI-SEMITE
ROME (AP) _ Benito Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite, who proudly said that his hatred for Jews preceded Adolf Hitler's and vowed to «destroy them all,» according to previously unpublished diaries by the Fascist dictator's longtime mistress.
According to the diaries, Mussolini also talked about the warm reception he received from Hitler at the 1938 Munichconference - he called the German leader a «softy» - and attacked Pope Pius XI for his criticism of Nazism and Fascism.
On a more intimate note, Mussolini was explicit about his sexual appetites for his mistress and said he regretted having affairs with several other women.
The dairies kept by Claretta Petacci, Mussolini's mistress, between 1932 and 1938 are the subject of a book
coming out this week entitled «Secret Mussolini.» Excerpts were published Monday by Italy's leading daily
Corriere della Sera and confirmed by publisher Rizzoli.
Historians said the diaries appeared to be convincing and reinforced the image that Mussolini was strongly
anti-Semitic, even though early on there was some Jewish support for his Fascist movement. But they cautioned that these are the diaries of the dictator's lover - not Mussolini himself - and therefore must be taken with an
extra grain of salt.
Corriere said the diaries shed new light on Mussolini, who had been seen as more obsequious toward the pope and «dubious» over Italy's racial laws, which led to widespread persecution of Italian Jews.
Many of the excerpts that were published date to 1938, a crucial year during which Mussolini's Fascist regime passed the racial laws and Europe sealed its appeasement toward Nazi Germany at the Munich conference.
«I have been a racist since 1921. I don't know how they can think I'm imitating Hitler,» Mussolini is quoted as boasting in August 1938. «We must give Italians a sense of race.»
Italy's racial laws restricted the rights of Jews and expelled them from government, university and other fields.
In 1943, German troops occupied northern and central Italy, and thousands of Jews were deported. According to some researchers, there were 32,000 Jews in 1943 in Italy, of whom over 8,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps.
«These disgusting Jews, I must destroy them all,» Mussolini was quoted as saying by his lover in October 1938. At another point he calls them «enemies» and «reptiles,» according to the excerpts.
Mussolini also denounced Pius XI, who saw the rise of anti-Semitism in the last years of his 1922-39 papacy, as harming the Catholic Church. Pius commissioned an encyclical to denounce racism and the violent nationalism of Germany, but he died before releasing it and it was never published.
The Fascist dictator said that «there never was a pope as harmful to religion» as Pius XI and accused him of doing «undignified things, such as saying we are similar to the Semites,» according to the excerpts.
For years, the Vatican has struggled to defend Pius' successor _ the wartime Pope Pius XII _ against claims he
didn't do enough to save Jews from the Holocaust.
Mussolini had kind words for Hitler, whom he said was «very nice» and had tears in his eyes when he met the Italian dictator in Munich. «Hitler is a big softy, deep down,» Mussolini is quoted as telling Petacci on Oct. 1, 1938, shortly after the conference.
Mussolini also wrote to Petacci about his «mad desire» for her «little body» and his regret over having had relations with other women. «I adore you and I'm a fool. I mustn't make you suffer,» he was quoted as saying.
Mussolini and Petacci were shot by partisans on April 28, 1945, and their bodies were displayed to a jeering crowd hanging upside-down from a gas station in a Milan square.
Piero Melograni, a historian who has written several books on Fascism and World War II, said the excerpts were «convincing in terms of the character that emerges and therefore the authenticity of the diaries.»
He said the diaries appear to strengthen the notion of a strongly anti-Semitic Mussolini, as demonstrated by the 1938 laws and several speeches. But he said the personal quotes almost «humanize» him.
Another prominent historian, Giovanni Sabbatucci, said that while he has no reason to doubt the authenticity of the diaries, he is less sure of their historical significance because they might not reflect Mussolini's real thoughts.
«We must not forget that, even when authentic, we are reading what a mistress was writing about what her lover told her,» he said in a phone interview.
Sabbatucci said that while there is no doubt that Mussolini had developed a strong anti-Semitism in the later
years of his life, historians are split as to when these sentiments began. The diaries appear to show he developed
them earlier rather than later, but Sabbatucci was doubtful.
«We must not take for granted that she correctly wrote what she was told. And we must not take for granted that what she was told was the truth and not some lover talk,» said Sabbatucci, who teaches contemporary history at Rome's Sapienza University.
16.11.2009 h 20:25
ROME (AP) _ Benito Mussolini was a fierce anti-Semite, who proudly said that his hatred for Jews preceded Adolf Hitler's and vowed to «destroy them all,» according to previously unpublished diaries by the Fascist dictator's longtime mistress.
According to the diaries, Mussolini also talked about the warm reception he received from Hitler at the 1938 Munichconference - he called the German leader a «softy» - and attacked Pope Pius XI for his criticism of Nazism and Fascism.
On a more intimate note, Mussolini was explicit about his sexual appetites for his mistress and said he regretted having affairs with several other women.
The dairies kept by Claretta Petacci, Mussolini's mistress, between 1932 and 1938 are the subject of a book
coming out this week entitled «Secret Mussolini.» Excerpts were published Monday by Italy's leading daily
Corriere della Sera and confirmed by publisher Rizzoli.
Historians said the diaries appeared to be convincing and reinforced the image that Mussolini was strongly
anti-Semitic, even though early on there was some Jewish support for his Fascist movement. But they cautioned that these are the diaries of the dictator's lover - not Mussolini himself - and therefore must be taken with an
extra grain of salt.
Corriere said the diaries shed new light on Mussolini, who had been seen as more obsequious toward the pope and «dubious» over Italy's racial laws, which led to widespread persecution of Italian Jews.
Many of the excerpts that were published date to 1938, a crucial year during which Mussolini's Fascist regime passed the racial laws and Europe sealed its appeasement toward Nazi Germany at the Munich conference.
«I have been a racist since 1921. I don't know how they can think I'm imitating Hitler,» Mussolini is quoted as boasting in August 1938. «We must give Italians a sense of race.»
Italy's racial laws restricted the rights of Jews and expelled them from government, university and other fields.
In 1943, German troops occupied northern and central Italy, and thousands of Jews were deported. According to some researchers, there were 32,000 Jews in 1943 in Italy, of whom over 8,000 were deported to Nazi concentration camps.
«These disgusting Jews, I must destroy them all,» Mussolini was quoted as saying by his lover in October 1938. At another point he calls them «enemies» and «reptiles,» according to the excerpts.
Mussolini also denounced Pius XI, who saw the rise of anti-Semitism in the last years of his 1922-39 papacy, as harming the Catholic Church. Pius commissioned an encyclical to denounce racism and the violent nationalism of Germany, but he died before releasing it and it was never published.
The Fascist dictator said that «there never was a pope as harmful to religion» as Pius XI and accused him of doing «undignified things, such as saying we are similar to the Semites,» according to the excerpts.
For years, the Vatican has struggled to defend Pius' successor _ the wartime Pope Pius XII _ against claims he
didn't do enough to save Jews from the Holocaust.
Mussolini had kind words for Hitler, whom he said was «very nice» and had tears in his eyes when he met the Italian dictator in Munich. «Hitler is a big softy, deep down,» Mussolini is quoted as telling Petacci on Oct. 1, 1938, shortly after the conference.
Mussolini also wrote to Petacci about his «mad desire» for her «little body» and his regret over having had relations with other women. «I adore you and I'm a fool. I mustn't make you suffer,» he was quoted as saying.
Mussolini and Petacci were shot by partisans on April 28, 1945, and their bodies were displayed to a jeering crowd hanging upside-down from a gas station in a Milan square.
Piero Melograni, a historian who has written several books on Fascism and World War II, said the excerpts were «convincing in terms of the character that emerges and therefore the authenticity of the diaries.»
He said the diaries appear to strengthen the notion of a strongly anti-Semitic Mussolini, as demonstrated by the 1938 laws and several speeches. But he said the personal quotes almost «humanize» him.
Another prominent historian, Giovanni Sabbatucci, said that while he has no reason to doubt the authenticity of the diaries, he is less sure of their historical significance because they might not reflect Mussolini's real thoughts.
«We must not forget that, even when authentic, we are reading what a mistress was writing about what her lover told her,» he said in a phone interview.
Sabbatucci said that while there is no doubt that Mussolini had developed a strong anti-Semitism in the later
years of his life, historians are split as to when these sentiments began. The diaries appear to show he developed
them earlier rather than later, but Sabbatucci was doubtful.
«We must not take for granted that she correctly wrote what she was told. And we must not take for granted that what she was told was the truth and not some lover talk,» said Sabbatucci, who teaches contemporary history at Rome's Sapienza University.
16.11.2009 h 20:25
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