Elena Curti, the last illegitimate daughter of Benito Mussolini, was almost a hundred years old.
The woman died in her home in Acquapendente, in the province of Viterbo.
It was born from the Duce's brief relationship with Angela Cucciati, a Milanese seamstress who met Mussolini when she asked him to intercede for the release of her squadron husband Bruno Curti.
Only when she turned 18 did Elena learn from her mother that she was the Duce's secret daughter. Mussolini wanted to meet her, and during the Social Republic he received her every Thursday in Salò. Elena worked in the secretariat of the fascist minister Alessandro Pavolini.
On April 27, 1945, during Dongo's escape, Elena Curti sat in the armored car next to her father, before he moved into the German truck where he was arrested. For years he was the only living witness of those moments. After the war he emigrated to Spain and returned to Italy about twenty years ago. He wrote a memoir: "The three-pointed nail" (2003).
(Unioneonline / D)
