Filippo Anfuso

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Filippo Anfuso (January 1, 1901—December 13, 1963) was an Italian writer, diplomat and Fascist politician.

Anfuso was born in Catania. His writing career was cut short by the lack of interest in the volume of short stories and poetry he published in 1917. Anfuso subsequently joined irredentist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio in his attempt to seize Fiume for Italy (1919-1921). He returned to write for La Nazione and La Stampa, then worked for the Italian diplomatic missions in Germany and Poland. A friend of Galeazzo Ciano, he passed the exam for a career in diplomacy at the same time as he (in 1925).

He was appointed to the legation in Munich (1927), then to the missions in Hungary (1929), Germany (1931), the Republic of China (1932), and Greece (1934). In November 1936, Anfuso departed for Spain, volunteering as an artillery lieutenant on Francisco Franco's side during the Civil War. He was decorated for merit. The next year, after Ciano was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anfuso became Ministry head of staff.

Although he had opposed Italy's entry into World War II as an Axis Power, he was one of the Grand Council of Fascism members who refused to vote against Benito Mussolini during the session of July 25, 1943. After Mussolini escaped to Northern Italy with Nazi backing, Anfuso served as a diplomat for his newly-founded Italian Social Republic, representing it in Berlin. In 1945, he replaced the deceased Serafino Mazzolini as undersecretary for the Republic's Foreign Affairs Ministry; in the same year, a Rome tribunal sentenced him in absentia to death, for his participation in the 1937 murder of Carlo Rosselli by the French Cagoule.

When war ended in defeat, Anfuso made his way to France, but was soon recognized and arrested. He spent three years in prison, and then exiled himself to Madrid. In 1957, he returned to Rome and adhered to the Neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, representing it in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Anfuso died during a session in the Parliament in Rome.