--- ---  # Read an Eye-Witness Account of Mussolini's Final Moments  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 28, 2015 1:07 PM UTC  Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini giving a speech in 1935 Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini giving a speech in 1935Fox Photos / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 28, 2015 1:07 PM UTC Seventy years ago on this day, April 28, 1945, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was executed after a failed attempt to flee Italy with his mistress. In his report on Mussolini’s last days, TIME correspondent Reg Ingraham recalled one of the dictator’s famous lines from earlier in World War II: “If I retreat, kill me!” Ingraham’s report shows how that instruction played out in ways that Mussolini surely did not mean. A timeline presented in TIME’s May 7, 1945, issue begins on April 22, with the first wave of strikes against the fascists and their German allies. By April 25, the dictator’s retreat had begun, when the Swiss denied an asylum request for Mussolini’s family. Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, attempted to escape to the north. They were foiled when a partisan known only as Eduardo found Mussolini in the town of Dongo and sent men to arrest him and sentence him and Petacci to death by firing squad. After the execution — and before his body was hung from a scaffold to give the crowds a better view — Mussolini’s corpse was laid out on the ground in the Piazzale Loreto. TIME described the moment as “one of history’s raw spectacles,” and Ingraham described what he saw thus: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Death in Milan](http://time.com/vault/issue/1945-05-07/page/39/) ### Ghosts in the Sun: Hitler's Personal Photographer at Dachau, 1950  Dachau 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Memorial, Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Oven, Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crematorium, Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dachau, 1950. Hugo Jaeger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Benito Mussolini at the End of WWII: Read an Eye-Witness Account ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3825940/mussolini-report-1945/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3825940/mussolini-report-1945/"},"headline":"Read an Eye-Witness Account of Mussolini's Final Moments","datePublished":"2015-04-28T13:07:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:31.940Z","description":"\"In death, Mussolini seemed a little man\"","url":"https://time.com/3825940/mussolini-report-1945/","keywords":["conflict","Italy","World War II","WWII"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82caf52194fc3c4a/6987eb9ce53aba5bc74db603/mussolini.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82caf52194fc3c4a/6987eb9ce53aba5bc74db603/mussolini.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Benito Mussolini Speech","caption":"Benito Speech","creditText":"Fox Photos / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/conflict/","name":"conflict"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3825940/mussolini-report-1945/","name":"Read an Eye-Witness Account of Mussolini's Final Moments"}}]}] ```