Achille Starace
Illustration, not an archive object
Secretary of the National Fascist Party · Italy
On the regime page: Fascist Italy under Mussolini
2 quotes, oldest first. Filter with other speakers.
Content note: Threat against those who break the oath. The words are shown as they were said or written. Why
“When your older comrades fought and shed their blood in battle in order to achieve victory, you could not yet be among them. Today they welcome you with open heart and with most profound sympathy. In pronouncing your oath you will accomplish one of the most solemn acts of your life. Remember that those who betray the oath will be stricken by the swords of Fascism as traitors. Remember that Fascism promises you neither honors nor jobs nor profits-but only duty and combat.”
English: Associated Press (translator not named), as printed in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 October 1934. Original-language text not found.
About 250,000 men aged 18 to 21 took their oath in Italian cities on the fourth anniversary of the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento, the Party's organisation for young adults. The wire report says the message was written by Starace and read at each gathering.
Message of the Secretary of the National Fascist Party to the Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento, 7 October 1934, as reported in an Associated Press dispatch from Rome, 7 October 1934, in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 8 October 1934 (also printed in the Washington Post, 8 October 1934) Source
“Our so-called Society people, [...] instead of going in for sport, persist in holding conversations in their drawing rooms, generally in a foreign tongue. They engage nurse maids, personal maids and governesses of all nationalities except Italian. They play poker and bridge with the accompanying drinks, certainly not Italian brands!”
English: Unnamed (as printed in Time, 5 August 1935). Original-language text not found.
Time reported that Italian society in general and Party officials in particular had read a Party bulletin in which Starace criticised them. The passage concerns the social habits of wealthy Italians.
Party bulletin issued by the Secretary of the National Fascist Party, summer 1935, quoted in "Italy: Activist on Society", Time, 5 August 1935 Source
Often attributed, not verified
These words circulate under Achille Starace’s name but could not be traced to a source. They are listed so readers can check them, not as Achille Starace’s words.
“He is a God.”
Farrell gives the scene as the 9 May 1936 balcony speech and cites Richard Collier, Duce! (1971), p. 175, for it. No contemporary record or Italian source for the remark was found, and Collier's book was not available to check.
“It is absurd to believe in the possibility of perpetual peace [...] Fascist education must be education for battle. Fascism believes in sanctity and heroism.”
Koon's page was not seen and the occasion is not known. The ideas and some wording match Mussolini's 1932 'Dottrina del fascismo' (which rejects perpetual peace and says Fascism believes in 'santità' and 'eroismo'), so the sentence may be a paraphrase or a quotation of the Doctrine rather than Starace's own words.