The Italian Social Republic, known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy, but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò, was a Nazi-German puppet state with limited diplomatic recognition that was created during the latter part of World War II. It existed from the beginning of the German occupation of Italy in September 1943 until the surrender of German troops in Italy in May 1945. The German occupation triggered widespread national resistance against it and the Italian Social Republic, leading to the Italian Civil War.
Benito Mussolini rescued by German troops from his prison in Campo Imperatore on 12 September 1943
Mussolini inspecting fortified positions, 1944
RSI soldiers, March 1944
RSI soldiers deployed to the Battle for Anzio
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet governments, by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 and 1945, during World War II, administered by the Nazi regime under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
Head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, inspects captured prisoners in German occupied Minsk, August 1941.