The story of this place
After his arrest in July 1943 and dramatic rescue by German commandos that September, Mussolini was installed by Hitler as head of a rump Fascist state in German-occupied northern Italy. Officially the 'Italian Social Republic,' it became known as the Republic of Salò after the small town on Lake Garda that hosted several of its ministries. From here, from September 1943 until April 1945, the puppet regime waged a brutal civil war against Italian partisans, deported Jews to death camps, and served as a German client. Mussolini himself lived mostly at nearby Gargnano. The regime collapsed as the Allies advanced; the name 'Salò' endures as shorthand for Fascism's grim, collaborationist final chapter.