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Description:
This recording belongs to a repertoire of hymns and marches representing the Fascist youth institution Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), founded in 1926 and replaced by the "Gioventù Italiana del Littorio" in 1937. The ONB's various branches divided up young Italian boys and girls aged 8 to 18, providing them with Fascist cultural, political, physical and military training. Regarded as the future of the regime, especially from a military perspective, the children had to be exemplary in their devotion to Italy and to Benito Mussolini, in order to form a united patriotic and Fascist community. It is probably to achieve this goal that the songs representing the various male and female branches of the ONB are often performed by children's choirs, trained in schools mostly located in Milan, the city from which the Fascist movement developed (see Antonio Gibelli, "Opera Nazionale Balilla", in Victoria De Grazia & Sergio Luzzatto (eds), Dizionario del fascismo. Vol. 2, L-Z, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2019, p. 267-271).