European theatre of World War II major German forces in the west were encircled and trapped in the Ruhr. On April 27, 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan, Mussolini was captured by Italian Partisans. He was trying to flee Italy to Switzerland and was traveling with a German anti-air battalion. On April 28, Mussolini and several of the other Fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo and executed by firing squad. The bodies were then taken to Milan and unceremoniously strung up in front of a filling station. Hitler, learning of Mussolini's death, realized that the end had finally come. He remained in
Looted art prevent the resale, and speed up the return of the war booty. Berlin's State Museum alone lost around 400 artworks during World War II. The German state (Land) of Saxony-Anhalt still maintains a list entitled "Beutekunst" ("Looted Art") of more than 1000 missing paintings and books believed confiscated by the US or the Soviet Union. Poland is also in possession of some collections that Germany evacuated to remote places in Eastern Germany (the Recovered Territories that are part of Poland since 1945) as well as in occupied Poland. Among those there is a large collection from Berlin, which in Polish