Italian woman is hanged by soldiers of the fascist Italian Social Republic

pic/caption via Bag of Dirt Tumblr Page.

An Italian woman is hanged by soldiers of the fascist Italian Social Republic as German soldiers look on with curiosity. On her skirt is pinned a sign with the charges of helping the partisans for which she was summarily executed. The Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana, or RSI) was the second and last incarnation of the Fascist Italian state, a puppet state created by Germany. After the Italians overthrew Benito Mussolini and began negotiations to change sides during the war, the Germans freed him from arrest and placed him as head of the puppet state in the German-occupied north. Rome, Lazio, Italy. Summer 1944.