What did Hitler do when he learned that Mussolini had been captured and executed by his own people during World War 2?

 

When Adolf Hitler learned of the capture and execution of Benito Mussolini by Italian partisans on April 28, 1945, he was deeply affected. Mussolini's death, along with that of his mistress Clara Petacci, was a significant and symbolic blow to Hitler, as Mussolini was both an ally and an ideological counterpart in fascism.

Hitler received the news in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His reaction was one of shock and dismay, reinforcing his resolve not to be captured alive and to avoid a fate similar to Mussolini's. The brutal manner in which Mussolini was treated-being executed and then hung upside down in Milan for public display-convinced Hitler that he must ensure his own death rather than risk capture by the advancing Allied forces or Soviet troops.

As a result, Hitler finalized his own plans for suicide. On April 30, 1945, just two days after Mussolini's death, Hitler committed suicide in the bunker alongside his wife, Eva Braun, who took cyanide. Hitler shot himself, while Braun ingested poison. Their bodies were subsequently carried out of the bunker, doused with petrol, and set on fire by his staff to prevent them from falling into enemy hands and being subjected to the same indignities as Mussolini's remains.