Temistocle Testa

Temistocle Testa (b. 1897 - d. 1949) was an Italian Fascist politician.

Testa was one of the toughest exponents of Fascism in Modena.[1]

On October the 16th 1932 he become prefect of Udine,[2] a post he held up to end February 1938 when he was nominated Prefect of the Province of Carnaro centered at Fiume. The five years of his rule overlap with the beginnings of World War II and the Italian attack and Invasion of Yugoslavia. Testa showed extreme aggressiveness in the fight against the Yugoslav Partisans operating in the surroundings of Fiume.

On January the 24th 1943 he was sent to Rome, replaced by Agostino Podestà. Testa was initially employed at the Service Directorate for War Intendancy of the Italian ministry of Interior. Soon he was nominated High Commissar for Sicily.[3]

After the Allied invasion of Sicily Testa became the Prefect of Rome. There, in Fall 1943 he had contacts with Giuseppe Castellano the general who negotiated the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces at Cassibile on September 8, 1943.[4]

After the fall of Rome, Testa was again employed at the Service Directorate for War Intendancy of the Italian Social Republic Minister of the Interior in Milano with the specific task of controlling all the motorized traffic in northern Italy.[5] Reportedly he was in close contact with Eugen Dollmann, German ambassador to the Holy See and later adjutant of Karl Wolff. Dollmann was also a family friend of Testa. [6]

After WW2, Testa with his family settled in Porretta Terme, where he died in 1949, apparently committing suicide.

References

  1. ^ Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi, "La repubblica necessaria": il fascismo repubblicano a Roma, 1943-1944, 2004, p. 173.
  2. ^ "I Prefetti della provincia di Udine". http://www.prefettura.it/udine/index.php?f=Spages&nodo=49028. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
  3. ^ "Rosario Mangiameli ''L'invasione della Sicilia e la crisi del vecchio regime''". http://www.italia-liberazione.it/it/60moliberazione/RELATORI/MANGIAME.PDF. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
  4. ^ "Tutte le trame di Castellano l' uomo che voleva rifare l' Italia". Repubblica — pagina 8 sezione: PALERMO. 07 settembre 2003. http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2003/09/07/tutte-le-trame-di-castellano-uomo.html. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
  5. ^ Maurizio Barozzi, Le ultime ore di Mussolini e della RSI, Edizioni Effedieffe, 2008.
  6. ^ G. Paolo Testa, Igor Taruffi, Il compagno e la camicia nera. Istanti di storia italiana, Editrice Compositori, Bologna, 2010.