Women in the RSI

25/4/2025

by Eugenio Battaglia

The RSI didn't recruit women as fighters
maybe because Mussolini, "the tender
heart," loved the "gentle sex" too much
and wanted to preserve their grace and
lives from the horrors of direct combat.

However, with the founding of the
Repubblica Sociale Italiana, not only did
many young males voluntarily join the new
army, but also young ladies demonstrated
in various public squares to be enrolled
in the new, much more democratic army than
the previous one under the king.

Already in February 1944, many young
ladies were enrolled in the "Guardia
Nazionale Repubblicana" for auxiliary
work. Also, the Decima Flottiglia Mas, of
Prince Valerio Borghese, enrolled women
for auxiliary work.

Renato Ricci, leader of the Fascist Youth,
was a strong supporter of enrolling women.

Before being assigned to the various
military groups the young ladies were
required to attend a special course. At
the end of the war, the women enrolled in
the Army numbered about 5,000, but they
were also present in the X-Mas, the Air
Force, and the Black Brigades for a total
of about 10,000 in all.

Despite being Auxiliaries, the women had
one of the highest rates of casualties.
After 25 April 1945, 90 Auxiliaries were
tortured and then killed, and the total
number of casualties was more than 280.
One Auxiliary in Savona, Rosa Amodio, 23
years old and just released from a prison
camp, was killed on 14 August 1947 with
the same silenced gun that killed a police
officer, Amilcare Salemi, who was
investigating other political killings
with the same "silenced gun." The killer
was never found or rather, they never
wanted to find him.

On 30 April 1945, near Biella, a group of
nine Auxiliaries was trying to go north,
and a male officer told them that if
captured they should say they were
prostitutes to be spared by the partisans.
Seven of them followed the advice and were
more or less saved, but the other two,
Batacchi Marcella and Spitz Jolanda,
refused and when captured they proudly
stated that they were Auxiliaries. Both
were raped, beaten and then killed.

The surviving Auxiliaries at the end of
the war were placed in the concentration
camp of Scandicci (Florence) run by the US
Army and later by the Italians.

Anyone who kills one minute after the end
of hostilities is an assassin. Those who
kill a surrendering enemy or a prisoner is
committing an unpardonable crime.

The civilian women killed during the Civil
War due to being fascists or so accused,
numbered at least 2365, 925 of them after
25 April 1945.