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
Clara (Mirbeau) need to unburden himself, and becomes his mistress. She takes him with her to China, where both the narrator and Clara share a lover, Annie. Two years later, the narrator, who had fled from Clara's pernicious embraces and went to Annam, returns. Clara regains her power over him and is pleased to dominate and humiliate him. She takes him to visit the torture garden of the prison, where they wander around. During a "crescendo" of horror, Clara experiences waves of ecstasy and has a hysterical fit. She then feels almost purified after climaxing. The scene takes place in a "flower