Princess Mafalda of Savoy was a member of the Italian royal family who was believed to be against Adolf Hitler during Germany's rise to fascism and in World War II. The animosity between them ultimately resulted in her death at a concentration camp after being arrested by the Gestapo. Here's everything to know about the royal and her place of ella in history...
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The royal was born in 1902, and was the second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Elena of Montenegro. She had some dealings with the British royal family while growing up, as she likely met Edward VIII, who was later to become the Duke of Windsor, during a trip to Paris, France.
Aged 23, the royal tied the knot with Prince Phillipp of Hesse in 1925. Despite her husband and his brother Christopher being members of the Nazi Party, which Phillipp acting as an intermediary between Hitler and the Italian dictator, Mussolini, Mafalda was greatly disliked by Hitler, who believed that she was working against the Nazis. He described her as the "blackest carrion in the Italian royal house" while her chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, called her the "biggest [expletive] in the Italian royal house."
In 1943, Prince Phillipp attempted to resign from his position working with Hitler after their relationship soured, but his request was refused. Meanwhile, Mafalda was visiting Bulgaria for her brother-in-law's funeral when she discovered that her husband ella was under house arrest following Italy's surrender to the Allied Powers. Their four children were being kept safe in the Vatican.
Mafalda was then tricked into visiting the German embassy after receiving a phone call from them claiming that they had a message from her husband. Upon her arrival, she was arrested for subversive activities and placed in Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. While there, she was told to be recognized by her fellow Italian prisoners.