Carmine Senise (

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, 28 November 1883 –

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, 24 January 1958) was the chief of the Italian police from November 1940 to September 1943, except for a brief period from April to July 1943.

Biography

He was born in 1883 in Naples from a family of

Lucan Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial ...

origin, son of Tommaso Senise, physician and senator of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

; his uncle, who bore the same name, was

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of Naples. After graduating in law, in 1908 Senise started working for the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

; his first assignment was in the sub-prefecture of

Pozzuoli Pozzuoli (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Naples, in the Italian region of Campania. It is the main city of the Phlegrean Peninsula. History Pozzuoli began as the Greek colony of ''Dicaearchia'' ( el, Δικα� ...

. From 1911 to 1922, he was secretary and later head of the

press office Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

of the Ministry of Interior. Subsequently, he was assigned to the General Directorate of Prisons and then to the Directorate of Health. In 1930, he was transferred to the General Directorate of Public Security and became head of the Division for General and Confidential Affairs. In 1932, he was promoted to prefect and appointed deputy chief of the police. After the sudden death of police chief

Arturo Bocchini Arturo Bocchini (; 12 February 1880 – 20 November 1940) was an Italian civil servant, who was appointed Chief of the Police under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.

on 22 November 1940, Senise was appointed his successor, on the proposal of Undersecretary of State

Guido Buffarini Guidi Guido Buffarini Guidi (17 August 1895 – 10 July 1945) was an Italian army officer and politician, executed for war crimes in 1945. Biography Buffarini Guidi was born in Pisa in 1895. When Italy entered World War I, he volunteered in an ...

, on the same day of Bocchini's death. He held this post for most of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, until on 14 April 1943,

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

, displeased with his "weak" repression of the workers' strikes that had taken place in

northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

in March, dismissed him, replacing him with MVSN General Lorenzo Chierici. Senise participated in the "conspiracy" of 25 July 1943, when the

Grand Council of Fascism The Grand Council of Fascism (, also translated "Fascist Grand Council") was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy, that held and applied great power to control the institutions of government. It was created as a body of the ...

voted a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

against Mussolini, resulting in his forced resignation; it was Senise who proposed to have Mussolini arrested in

Villa Savoia Villa Ada is a park in Rome, Italy, with a surface of it is the second largest in the city after Villa Doria Pamphili. It is located in the northeastern part of the city. History The wooded expanse was owned by the Italian royal House of Savoy ...

, the private residence of King

Victor Emmanuel III The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

. On 26 July 1943, Marshal of Italy

Pietro Badoglio Pietro Badoglio, 1st Duke of Addis Abeba, 1st Marquess of Sabotino (, ; 28 September 1871 – 1 November 1956), was an Italian general during both World Wars and the first viceroy of Italian East Africa. With the fall of the Fascist regime ...

, the new head of the government, reinstated Senise in his position of Chief of the Police; after the

Armistice of Cassibile The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brig ...

and the start of

Operation Achse Operation Achse (german: Fall Achse, lit=Case Axis), originally called Operation Alaric (), was the codename for the German operation to forcibly disarm the Italian armed forces after Italy's armistice with the Allies on 3 September 1943. S ...

, while the King, Badoglio and most of the government and military leaders fled to

Brindisi Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Histo ...

, Senise remained at his post in Rome. On 23 September 1943, he was arrested by SS Captain

Erich Priebke Erich Priebke (29 July 1913 – 11 October 2013) was a German mid-level SS commander in the SS police force (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy, for commanding the unit which was responsible for the Ar ...

in his office at the Viminale Palace, and was then transferred to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and imprisoned in the

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

. From there he was later transferred to

Hirschegg Hirschegg was a municipality in Austria, merged in 2015 into Hirschegg-Pack, in the district of Voitsberg in the Austrian state of Styria, in south central Austria. Geography Hirschegg is an alpine village that lies about west of Voitsberg. It ...

, being liberated on 2 May 1945. After his return to Italy, Senise was accused of

aiding and abetting Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime (or in another's suicide). It exists in a number of different countries and generally allo ...

Fascism, but was acquitted by the Special

Court of Assize The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ...

in Rome. In 1946, he published his memoirs, ''Quando ero Capo della polizia, 1940-1943'', claiming he had tried to preserve the autonomy of the police with respect to the regime. He died in 1958, at the age of seventy-four, in his modest home in a working-class neighborhood of Rome, from

cerebral arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis, which ...

.È morto Carmine Senise capo della polizia nel 1943, La Stampa, 25 January 1958, p. 22

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Senise, Carmine 1883 births 1958 deaths Italian police officers People from Naples