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Principessa Mafalda Maria of Italy
(1902–44)

Other names: Mafalda Maria Elisabetta Anna Romana

Biographical

Dame of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus [Italy]
Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross [Austria]
Dame of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta [Vatican]

Mafalda was close to her sister, Giovanna. She was arrested by the Germans at St Peter's Square in 1943 after she had returned from Bulgaria where she attended Boris' funeral, and was interned at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Hitler and Goebbels had developed an intense hatred of her, and even accused her of possibly being sent by the Italians to poison Boris. She was kept in isolated and her health deteriorated rapidly, and is said to have died five days after being severely injured during an air raid.

Place of birth: Rome
Place of marriage: Racconigi Castle
Place of death: Buchenwald
Place of burial: Kronberg

Daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy, and Princess Elena of Montenegro (Petrovic-Njegos). She married Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse in 1925, and had issue.

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