Oro alla Patria

Those who donated their gold wedding band received a steel replacement from Mussolini commemorating their contribution

Oro alla Patria ("Gold for the Fatherland" ^{[2] [3] [4]} ) was a 1935 Italian fascist campaign that asked Italians to donate their gold assets to fundraise for their fatherland. Faced with League of Nations sanctions for its Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Fascist government collected 250,000 wedding rings from Rome and 180,000 from Milan, amid other personal gold jewelry and objects totaling 57,114,395 kilograms of gold and 360,618,470 of silver. ^[5] In acts of sacrifice for the state, prominent figures donated items of great symbolic value: the Queen's wedding ring, the Prince's collar of the Annunciation, the dramatist Luigi Pirandello's Nobel Prize, Guglielmo Marconi's senator medal, and Mussolini's Rocca delle Caminate castle statue busts. ^[6]

See also

• Dongo Treasure

References

1. "New steel bands replace rings donated to Duce". The Patriot. Indiana, Pennsylvania. June 6, 1936. p. 8. Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
2. Principe, Angelo (1999). The Darkest Side of the Fascist Years: The Italian-Canadian Press 1920-1942. Toronto: Guernica Editions. p. 121. ISBN   9781550710830 . Retrieved December 1, 2024.
3. Segrè, Gino (2016). The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age. New York: Henry Holt & Co. ISBN   9781250143792.
4. Williamson, Peter (2023). Duce: The Contradictions of Power / The Political Leadership of Benito Mussolini. London: C.Hurst & Co. p. 224. ISBN   9780197696132.
5. Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Rome), Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione Generale della Pubblica Sicurezza (1861–1986), Divisione Affari Generali (versamenti, fascicoli del personale fuori servizio, 1861–1973), b. 1952, fasc. 2.
6. Innocenti, Marco (December 14, 2007). "Storie dalla storia / L'oro alla Patria". Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2022.

Further reading

• Terhoeven, Petra (2006). Oro alla patria: donne, guerra e propaganda nella giornata della fede fascista. Biblioteca storica / Il mulino (in Italian). Bologna: Il mulino. ISBN   978-88-15-11416-7. OCLC   799492207.
• Quirico, Domenico (2002). Squadrone bianco: storia delle truppe coloniali italiane. Le scie. Milano: Mondadori. ISBN   978-88-04-50691-1
• Petacco, Arrigo (2005). Faccetta nera: storia della conquista dell'impero (in Italian). Mondadori. ISBN   978-88-04-54761-7