Princess Mafalda of Savoy
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Princess Mafalda Maria Elisabetta Anna Romana of Savoy (English: Matilda Maria Elizabeth Anna Romana) (November 2, 1902 – August 27, 1944) was the second daughter and child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and of his wife Princess Elena Nikolaievna of Montenegro. She was the elder sister of Umberto II of Italy.
[edit] Biography
Mafalda was born in Rome. In childhood she was close to her mother, from whom she inherited a love for music and the arts. During World War I she accompanied her mother, Queen Elena (known Elena of Montenegro), during her visits to Italian military hospitals.
On September 23, 1925, at Racconigi Castle, she married Philip of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.
Mafalda's husband was a party loyalist of the German National Socialist (Nazi) political movement. His brother Christoph was part of the party hierarchy and was married to Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, sister to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.
The marriage to Princess Mafalda resulted in her husband being in a position to act as intermediary between the National Socialist government in Germany and the Fascist government in Italy. However, during World War II Adolf Hitler (head of the National Socialist party and Chancellor of Germany) believed Princess Mafalda was working against the war effort, referring to her as the "blackest carrion in the Italian royal house."
In early September of 1943, Princess Mafalda traveled to Bulgaria to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law, King Boris III. While there, she was informed of Italy's surrender to the Allied Powers and that her husband was being held under house arrest in Bavaria and that her children had been given sanctuary in the Vatican. The Gestapo ordered her arrest, and on September 23 she received a telephone call from Karl Hass at the German High Command who informed her there was an important message from her husband. On her arrival at the German embassy she was arrested, ostensibly for subversive activities, but it is generally assumed more as a threat to keep her father, the king of Italy, in line. Princess Mafalda was transported to Munich for questioning, then to Berlin and was finally deported to Buchenwald concentration camp.
On August 24, 1944 an ammunitions factory inside Buchenwald was bombed by the Allies. Some four hundred prisoners were killed and Princess Mafalda was seriously wounded. She had been housed in a unit adjacent to the bombed factory and when the attack occurred she was buried up to her neck in debris and suffered severe burns to her arm. The conditions of the labour camp caused her arm to become infected and the medical staff at the facility performed an amputation. She bled profusely during the operation and never regained consciousness. She died during the night of August 26-27, 1944. She was reburied after the war at Kronberg Castle in Hesse.[1]
The Royal family were not notified of her death although rumors began to circulate towards the end of 1944. Her death was not confirmed until after Germany had surrendered to the invading Allied armies in 1945.
In 1997, the Italian government honored Princess Mafalda with her image on a postal stamp.
[edit] Children
Mafalda and Philip of Hesse had the following children:
