Italian Scout History: Fascist Era (1924-1944/45)


Figure 1.--This is a photo of Aquile randagie Boy Scouts taken in 1935. Notice it is an indoors photograph. The boys could not wear their Scout uniforms openly in Fascist Italy. Andrea Ghetti is the fourth from left in the back row. In 1939 he became a Catholic priest and later participated in the Resistance. There were no Cubs because it would have been difficult for the younger boys to keep their particupstion secret, but groups as the Aquile randagie preserved the Scouting idea.

Musolini's Fascist Government ordered the Scout and Guide units in 1927 to close. The Fascist regime substituted its own youth program, the National Balilla Organization as part of an overall national effort to control all organizations and institutions which influenced children. Similar steps were taken in other totalitarian countries such as Germany an Russia. Even so, the spirit of Scouting was not completely extinguished. An Italian reader wrirtes, "After the Fascist regime banned the boys scouts (1927), some groups continued the activities underground, especially in northern Italy." In many villages and cities, groups were secretly formed, whose members wished to remain faithful to Baden Powell's original movement. This time in Italian Scouting history became known as the "Silent Jungle". The Boy Scouts group "Milano 2" of the Catholic ASCI Assiciation continued to pursue Scouting surepticiously. There were other groups from Milan and Monza, a little town near Milan. They could not call themselves Scouts and took the name of "Aquile randagie" (Stray Eagles). The leaders were Andrea Ghetti and Giulio Cesare Uccellini. After the Allied invasion (September 1943), some boy scouts leaders reportedly participated in the Resistance. Both Ghetti and Uccellini became partisans in Catholic Resistance groups after Italy surrendered to the Allies and the Germans seized control. The Stray Eagles participated to the reconstitution of ASCI after the War (1945).






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Created: 8:33 AM 12/7/2010
Last updated: 8:33 AM 12/7/2010