Benito Mussolini Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (, RSI), informally known as the "Salò Republic". In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was
Magda Fontanges for life, as well as being exiled her from Paris and any other "large French town" for 20 years. Fontanges was quoted as saying upon the conclusion of the trial: My only regret is that I wasn't hanged with the Duce instead of his last mistress, Clara Petacci. Fontanges was then imprisoned in the women's prison in Mauzac from 1948 to 1952. Due to health reasons, in 1952 she is released to house arrest in Melun, however Fontanges moved to Paris with the intention of managing a bar, and was arrested again for not respecting the terms of her parole.