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 in history...
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 his 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 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 said to be recognised by her fellow Italian prisoners.
In August 1944, an ammunition factory at the camp was bombed, killing 400 hundred prisoners. Mafalda was badly hurt after being buried in the rubble and received severe burns. Her arm became infected after the attack and she tragically bled to death after it was amputated. She was 41.
Meanwhile, her husband was sent to Flossenburg concentration camp and Dachau concentration camp. He was arrested by US troops in 1945 before being released after two years in 1947. He passed away in 1980.
Her four children all survived the war. Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse passed away in 2013, while Heinrich Wilhelm died in 1999, and Otto Adolf died in 1998. They are survived by their sister, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse, Countess von Oppersdorff, who celebrated her 80th birthday in 2020.