Rodolfo Graziani

Rodolfo Graziani (1882-1955), Italian Fascist administrator and military commander, born in Filettino, Italy. He headed Italian forces in Libya in the early 1930s and subsequently became governor of Italian Somaliland, viceroy of Ethiopia, and honorary governor of Italian East Africa. As commander in Libya in 1940, at the beginning of World War II, Graziani suffered crushing defeats and resigned his command in 1941. After the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy in 1943, he retreated with Benito Mussolini, the founder and leader of Italian Fascism, to the north of Italy. There Graziani commanded the remnants of the Fascist armies. Graziani was captured by partisans of the new Italian government in 1945, but released in August 1950 because of ill health. He then became an active leader in the Italian neo-Fascist movement.