Princess Mafalda of Savoy (19 November 1902 – 28 August 1944) was the second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro.

[3] On her arrival at the German embassy, Mafalda was arrested and transported to Munich for questioning, then to Berlin,[4] and finally to Buchenwald concentration camp.

[6] On 23 September 1925, at Racconigi Castle, in the presence of the whole royal family,[7][page needed] Mafalda married Prince Philipp of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and grandson of German Emperor Frederick III, whom she met at a garden party earlier in 1925.

[10] The couple were also frequent guests at Hermann Göring's country residence and had links to many important people in Italian society, including royals, politicians and the papacy.

[1] So did Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who called her "the biggest bitch (grösste Rabenaas) in the entire Italian royal house".

[4] Early in September 1943, Princess Mafalda travelled to Bulgaria to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law, King Boris III.

[7][page needed] While there, she was informed of Italy's surrender to the Allied Powers, that her husband was being held under house arrest in Bavaria, and that her children had been given sanctuary in the Vatican.

[3] The Gestapo ordered her arrest, and on 23 September she received a telephone call from Hauptsturmführer Karl Hass at the German High Command, who told her that he had an important message from her husband.

[13] Some four hundred prisoners were killed and Princess Mafalda was seriously wounded: she had been housed in a unit adjacent to the bombed factory, and when the attack occurred she was buried up to her neck in debris and suffered severe burns to her left arm.

"[1] The conditions of the labour camp caused her arm to become infected as a result,[1] and the medical staff at the facility amputated it;[2] she bled profusely during the operation and never regained consciousness.

[citation needed] Eugen Kogon, author of The Theory and Practice of Hell – The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them (1950), adds more details of Mafalda's death – some of it in conflict with the previous account.