My Great grandfather was with the Italian army in WW2, and for some reason went with the n**i party?

Question

My grandmother told me she never knew where he went after that, and he said he would leave a note, but never did. Does anyone know about any event in history of when people did this and why?

Answer 1

Everyone seems to have forgot the word "dead" he may have been killed. There was a war going on.

Answer 2

Well, my best guess is that he didn't want to stay with his family, so he left to Germany when the opportunity arose.

Answer 3

Italy was allies with Germany in WWII.  The Facist party in Italy was in control.  The allies (US, UK, etc.) invaded Italy, and at one point, Italy surrendered.  The Germans, however, had sent troops to help the Italians fight, and when Italy surrendered, they setup their own puppet government in northern Italy (which they still controlled).  At this point, members of the Italian military kind of had to decide.  Some surrendered their tanks, guns, airplanes, etc. to the allies.  Some went north and joined up with the Germans.  I'm not sure that they were allowed to continue to fight alongside the Germans or if the Germans just took over their weapons like the Allies did.

It's possible that your grandfather was one of the Italians soldiers who went north and joined up with the Germans (the n**i's).  He may have subsequently been killed (either flighting or bombed by allied bombers attacking behind the lines - even if he was not fighting).

Before you get too judgemental, many Italians saw surrender as defeat, and didn't like the idea of being defeated, even if they did not back the Facists or n***s.  Some who went north and linked up with the Germans did so out of pride for Italy rather than any sort of allegence to the ideals of the n***s.  So maybe he did believe in the racists n**i ideas, maybe not.  Hard to say.

As someone else pointed out, however, it's also entirely possible that he used this turmoil as an excuse to run off and start a new life, etc.  Again, hard to say.