Princess Mafalda of Savoy

Princess Mafalda of Savoy (19 November 1902 – 28 August 1944) was the second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro.

Mafalda Maria Elisabetta Anna Romana was born on 19 November 1902 in Rome, and was nicknamed "Muti".

She was the second child born to King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena of Italy.

She was baptized at the Quirinal Palace on 15 December 1902.

She had four siblings: Yolanda, Umberto, Giovanna, and Maria Francesca.

During her childhood, she was closest to her mother, from whom she inherited a love for music and the arts.

During World War I, she accompanied her mother on her visits to Italian military hospitals.

In 1919, she accompanied her mother, her sister Yolanda, and the Duchess of Aosta to Paris, France, where the Prince of Wales was also there.

In 1925, at the age of 22, she married the Landgrave of Hesse, Philipp.

In 1925, Mafalda married Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse.

They had four children together.

On 23 September 1925, at Racconigi Castle, in the presence of the whole royal family, Mafalda married Prince Philipp of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and grandson of German Emperor Frederick III, whom she met at a garden party earlier in 1925.

Prince Philipp and his brother Christoph were members of the Nazi Party.

Prince Philipp's marriage to Princess Mafalda put him in position to act as intermediary between the National Socialist government in Germany (ruling since 1933) and the Fascist government in Italy, ruling since 1922.

On the evening of 26 March 1935 she was present at an informal diplomatic dinner given by Adolf Hitler in the Reich President's House in Berlin.

She sat next to Anthony Eden.

However, during World War II, Adolf Hitler believed Princess Mafalda was working against the war effort; he called her the "blackest carrion in the Italian royal house".

So did Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who called her "the biggest bitch (grösste Rabenaas) in the entire Italian royal house".

In 1943, during World War II, she was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp, where she died.

The future King Umberto II of Italy was her younger brother.

Mafalda was born a princess of Savoy.

She was the second child and daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Elena of Montenegro.

She was very close to her mother, and went with her mother to visit Italian military hospitals during World War I.

In 1943, during World War II, Mafalda was tricked into going to the German Embassy, under the impression that her husband needed to speak to her.

However, her husband was already imprisoned in a concentration camp, while her children were in Rome.

When she arrived in Nazi Germany, Mafalda was arrested.

She soon was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

The relationship between Prince Philipp and Hitler was beginning to sour by the spring of 1943.

Although he initially worked for Hitler, Prince Philipp tried to resign, but he was prevented.

He, reportedly, provided passports for Jews to allow them to flee to Holland.

Early in September 1943, Princess Mafalda travelled 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, 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 23 September she received a telephone call from Hauptsturmführer Karl Hass at the German High Command, who told her that he had an important message from her husband.

On her arrival at the German embassy, Mafalda was arrested, ostensibly for subversive activities.

Princess Mafalda was transported to Munich for questioning, then to Berlin, and finally to Buchenwald concentration camp.

The Italian prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp recognized her, and stated that she shared her food with other prisoners.

On 24 August 1944, the Allies bombed Buchenwald’s ammunition factory.

Mafalda suffered from burns on her left arm and face, and was found covered up to her neck in debris.

Her arm soon became infected, and she had an operation done.

The operation resulted in her death from blood loss during the night of 28 August.