Benito Mussolini was the dictator of Fascist Italy during World War II. Mussolini started a war with Ethiopia to expand the Italian Empire and allied himself with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during the war. He also got in knife fights with other students as a boy. He was also less racist than most at the time although he was racist against Slavs, saying "Race is a feeling, not a reality. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today." When he became the leader of Italy he said that a small group of Jews have been in Italy since the days of the Roman Empire and "should remain undisturbed."
He fought the Mafia to the point where in the 30's the mafia in Italy was almost completely crushed with their members either executed, imprisoned, in hiding or having immigrated. When he invaded and conquered Ethiopia he put an end to slavery. In the mid 1930's slavery was still being practiced in Ethiopia against the rules set out by the League of Nations and International Law. When Hitler began the extermination of the Jews Mussolini turned Italian occupied Europe into a safe haven for Jews. It got to the point where leading Nazis complained about his leniency with the Jews. After Italy surrendered in late 1943 he expressed regret for his actions and the mistakes that he made in his life. He died in 1945.