His Final Request Was a Cigarette and No Blindfold – The Execution of Italo Palesse

 

image

His final request was simple: a cigarette, and no blindfold.

Palesse was not one of the loud faces of fascism.
He did not deliver fiery speeches or pose for propaganda photographs.
But behind closed doors—
in dark interrogation rooms and ruined villages—
his presence was felt through fear, pain, and silence.

He was born in Italy at the dawn of the twentieth century and grew up alongside the rise of Mussolini’s regime.
As fascism tightened its grip on the country, Palesse joined the Blackshirts, the paramilitary enforcers of Italian fascist control.
While many wore the uniform for status or opportunity, Palesse wore it out of conviction.

He believed in order.
In discipline.
In the elimination of opposition at any cost.

As World War II escalated, Palesse operated primarily in northern Italy, working closely with Fascist police units and German SS detachments.
His duties included hunting down partisans, interrogating resistance members, and carrying out executions in occupied towns.

Survivors later testified that Palesse was merciless.
After brief, sham trials, he often delivered the fatal shot himself.
He became especially feared in remote mountain communities, where villagers were dragged from their homes, families torn apart, and houses set ablaze.

In one documented act of retaliation for partisan activity, Palesse ordered the execution of ten civilians in a public square—a deliberate message to anyone who dared resist the regime.

But by 1945, the Axis world was collapsing.

German forces withdrew.
Mussolini fled north.
The resistance grew stronger with each passing day.

The hunter became the hunted.

Palesse attempted to escape across the Alps, but local resistance fighters captured him just days before Germany’s surrender.
He was taken to a partisan-controlled town and subjected to a swift investigation.

Unlike formal postwar trials, this judgment did not take weeks or months.
Eyewitness accounts and direct testimony sealed his fate.

The list of crimes attached to his name was long:

Summary executions

Torture

Forced labor

Collaboration with Nazi occupiers

The sentence was clear: death by firing squad.

Palesse did not appeal.
He did not cry.
He did not beg.

When the moment came, he made only two requests:

A cigarette.
And that his eyes remain uncovered.

Witnesses later said his face was calm—almost defiant.
Some claimed he smiled before the final command was given.

On a cold morning in 1945, in a small courtyard enclosed by stone walls, Italo Palesse was executed.
The rifles fired in unison.
The bullets struck his body at once.

He collapsed without a sound.