The Tyrants` Children

The Tyrants’ Children
reading
Who do you think are history’s most notorious tyrants?
A new book looks at the children of tyrants. According to the book, which of these
statements are true?
Adolf Hitler had only one confirmed child, a man now living in
France called Jean-Marie Loret.
Mussolini fell out with his favourite child because he allowed
her husband to be executed.
Mussolini’s youngest son married Sophia Loren’s sister.
Francisco Franco had only one daughter, whom he did not
agree with politically.
Franco’s daughter died during the Spanish civil war.
B Read the first part of the article and check your ideas.
September 2015
The Mail
The tyrants’
children
T
he children of mankind’s
greatest tyrants are
left to wander in the evil
shadows of their parents.
Now, thanks to the efforts
of one man, we can see
fascinating insights into the
lives of many of the offspring
of these megalomaniacs in a
gripping new book entitled:
Monsters’
of
‘Children
by American author Jay
Nordlinger.
Here are some of them:
ADOLF HITLER
The book begins with Hitler.
Officially he had no children,
but there is Frenchman
who
Loret
Jean-Marie
claims he is the son of Hitler
spawned after his mother
had an affair with him
during WWI - a claim which Rachele turned a blind eye.
With Rachele, Mussolini
has never been taken with
had two daughters, Edda,
great seriousness.
born in 1910 and Anna
Maria, born 19 years later.
His favourite daughter
was Edda. But she married
Count Ciano, who was
sentenced to death for a
plot to overthrow Italian
begged
Edda
Fascism.
Jean-Marie Loret
Mussolini to save his life,
but he did not intervene
and Ciano was executed in
January 1944. Edda never
spoke to her father again.
Mussolini also had three
sons; Vittorio, Bruno and
brother,
younger
their
Romano.
Romano became a jazz
BENITO MUSSOLINI
pianist, painter and film
But Hitler’s partner in
producer, who married
was
Fascism,
wartime
Sophia Loren’s sister.
different. Mussolini fathered
He toured the world with
officially
children
five
‘The Romano Mussolini
with his wife, Rachele, but
All Stars’, playing with Ella
probably had more from a
Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington,
string of mistresses to which
1/3
The Tyrants’ Children
reading
and Dizzy Gillespie. Romano Marquise of Villaverde.
She was born in 1926,
was the last of Mussolini’s
surviving children. He died exactly ten years before the
in 2006 aged 78 at a hospital brutal civil war which her
father won.
in Rome.
dictator
fearsome
A
Franco was soft when it
came to Carmen, with those
closest to him saying that
her birth was the happiest
day of his life.
He was happy too when
playboy
married
she
u,
z-Bordi
Cristabel Martine
a heart surgeon, when she
was 24 and produced seven
children.
Mussolini and Edda
Their first son was named
after her father, a man she
honoured by attending farFRANCISCO FRANCO
Franco had only one right rallies in his memory
daughter, Carmen Franco y after his death in 1975.
In 1978 Carmen was
Polo, 1st Duchess of Franco,
Grandee of Spain, Dowager accused of trying to smuggle
jewels into Switzerland,
found guilty and fined
£50,000, but the conviction
was overturned a year later
and the fine repaid to her.
Carmen is now 89 and still
reveres the memory of her
father.
Romano Mussolini
with his wife, daughter
and sister-in-law Sophia
Lauren.
b Which of the stories surprises you the most?
B Now read the extract from the article that you are given and report back to the other
members of the class in your own words.
VComplete the following sentences with words from the article. The section the words
are in is indicated.
Introduction
1 Watching the documentary about migrants coming to Europe gave me an
_____________________ into the reasons for their arrival.
2 The series was so __________________ that I bought the box set so I could watch it all at
once.
HITLER
3 Many people say JF Kennedy had an __________________ with Marilyn Monroe.
BENITO MUSSOLINI
4 When Frank and Keith started arguing in the meeting, Grace _____________________ and
told them to calm down.
FRANCISCO FRANCO
5 Some people have been stopped ________________________ animals into the country
hidden in their clothes.
6 The police gave me a ______________ for driving too fast on the motorway.
2/3
The Tyrants’ Children
reading
VWrite sentences of your own with the words.
E What does the highlighted expression in this extract from the article mean?
September 2015
The Mail
Mussolini fathered five children officially with his wife, Rachele, but probably had more from a string
of mistresses to which Rachele turned a blind eye.
VThere are a number of idioms with ‘eye’ in English. Match these to their definitions:
1 to be able to do something
with one's eyes closed
__ to be famous and written about in newspapers
and magazines and seen on television
2 to be up to one’s eyes in __ to not show any shock or surprise
3 to not bat an eye
__ to be extremely busy with (something)
4 to have an eye for detail
__ to keep under careful observation
5 to be in the public eye __ to be attentive to small but important points
6 to keep an eye on
__ to be able to do something very easily
VComplete these sentences with the idioms above:
1 Can you ______________________________ my bag while I go to the toilet?
2 Three of my colleagues are off sick, so I'm _____________________________ work.
3 Don't worry, the job is very easy. Within a week you will ____________________________
_____________________________________.
4 We aren’t supposed to surf the net at work, but our boss ________________________
if we don't spend too long online.
5 I thought everyone would be surprised, but they _______________________ when I
told them I was getting married.
6 Many celebrities complain about invasion of their privacy, but people ____________
_________ should expect at least some coverage of their private lives in the press.
VWrite sentences of your own with the idioms:
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The Tyrants’ Children
Teacher’s notes 1/3
week of 05.10.15
reading
mid-intermediate+ (B2+)
student pages 3
VComplete the following sentences with words from the article. The section the words
are in is indicated.
1 insight 2 gripping 3 affair 4 intervened 5 smuggling
6 fine
E What does the highlighted expression in this extract from the article mean?
turn a blind eye = pretend not to notice
VThere are a number of idioms with ‘eye’ in English. Match these to their definitions:
5 to be famous and written about in newspapers and magazines and seen on television
3 to not show any shock or surprise
2 to be extremely busy with (something)
6 to keep under careful observation
4 to be attentive to small but important points
1 to be able to do something very easily
VComplete these sentences with the idioms above:
1 keep an eye on 4 turns a blind eye 2 up to me eyes in
5 didn’t bat an eye
3 be able to do it with your eyes closed
6 in the public eye
B Now read the extract from the article that you are given and report back to the other
members of the class in your own words.

Cut up and share out the sections among the students. They should read them
and report back to the other members of the class.
JOSEPH STALIN
The hard man ruler of the
Soviet Union had at least
five children, and quite
possibly more. The first was
Konstantin Kuzakov, born
in 1910 to Maria Kuzakova,
with whom he had an affair.
Maria was Stalin’s landlady
during his 1911 internal
exile in Czarist Russia.
The great dictator never
met Konstantin, but he
paved the way for him to
enjoy a privileged life in the
country.
Konstantin ended up as a
Ministry of Culture official
where he was still employed
in 1996, five years after the
collapse of the communist
system his father worked
unceasingly to entrench.
Dzhugashvili,
Yakov
Stalin’s son with his first
wife tried to kill himself
with a pistol. He survived
and all his father said was:
‘He can’t even shoot straight.’
Yakov served as an
artillery officer in the Red
Army and was captured
on 16 July 1941 in the
early stages of the German
invasion of USSR at the
Battle of Smolensk.
later
Germans
The
offered to exchange Yakov
for Friedrich Paulus, the
Marshal
Field
German
captured by the Soviets after
the Battle of Stalingrad.
Stalin turned the offer
down, saying, ‘I will not trade
a Marshal for a Lieutenant.’
The Tyrants’ Children
week of 05.10.15
reading
mid-intermediate+ (B2+)
Teacher’s notes 2/3
in 1986 when a revolution
in Haiti toppled him and he
fled to exile in France.
Bebe Doc died aged 63
in the Haitian capital last
year from a heart attack.
He had lived in great
luxury in France during
exile, but returned home
in 2011, a year after Haiti
was devastated by a major
earthquake.
When he finally appeared
in court in February 2013,
he denied responsibility for
abuses carried out during
his time as president.
FRANCOIS ‘PAPA DOC’
DUVALIER
Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier
ruled the impoverished
island of Haiti by fear
and voodoo. His Ton-Ton
police
secret
Macoute
butchered thousands while
he skimmed millions in
donated aid programmes
and put the cash into his
overseas accounts.
His son, Jean-Claude
‘Bebe Doc’, was, if anything,
even more corrupt than
him. He ascended to power
after his father died in 1971.
He paid off the military to
protect him and spent six
months a year living in
places like Paris and Monte
Carlo.
The spell was only broken
MAO ZEDONG
Mao had three sons with his
second wife, Yang Kaihui,
who was murdered in the
streets aged 29 for failing to
renounce him.
The boys ‘were moved
to Shanghai, where they
lived with the communist
underground and simply on
the streets.’ The youngest
died of dysentery at age
four, and the others sold order to make him ‘a better
proletariate man.’
newspapers to survive.
They eventually pitched
up in the Soviet Union
where Joseph Stalin used
them as pawns in a power
game against Mao for 10
years.
Anying,
eldest,
The
reunited with his father
when he was 23, but Mao
sent him to a labour camp, in
KIM JONG-IL
North Korea is still a place
of misery, now ruled by Kim
Jong-un, who is every bit
as brutal as his father, Kim
Jong-il.
In 2009 Jong-un was
put forward as the ‘Great
Successor.’ He was also
dubbed ‘Brilliant Comrade’
and in 2010, he was made a
general, with four stars.
‘In December 2013, Kim
Jong-un left no doubt about
who was in charge: He
had his uncle arrested and
executed. He then killed all
relatives he could get his
hands on, no matter how
old they were or where they
lived.
The Tyrants’ Children
Teacher’s notes 3/3
MUAMMAR GADDAFI
Colonel
ruler
Libyan
Muammar Gaddafi ran
his oil-rich nation as a
to
tribute
permanent
himself and his family.
Alternately The Great
One, The All Powerful
One, The Mighty One,
The Merciful One and The
Just One, he was in reality
none of these things. He
was an egotistical thief and
scoundrel. And the children
were, by and large, chips off
the old block.
Three of his sons were
killed in the popular
Zola-Elena
NICOLAE CEAUSESCU
Nowhere over the rotting
carcass of the eastern bloc
in the late 1980s was the
stench greater than in
Ceausescu’s Romania.
The cunning peasant
ruled, together with his
mean-spirited, hard-faced
wife Elena, for nearly three
decades.
His people lived lives of
degradation, poverty and
week of 05.10.15
reading
mid-intermediate+ (B2+)
by
supported
uprising,
NATO war planes, which
ended his rule and his life in
October 2011.
National Security Adviser
Mutassim Gaddafi died at
the hands of the rebels on
the same day as his father.
He was the fourth
child of the dictator and
a playboy who used to fly
‘himself and an entourage
every Christmas to St. Barts,
the ritzy and enchanting
said
island,’
Caribbean
Nordlinger.
‘They partied raucously
through to New Year. To
entertain himself and his
guests, Mutassim would hire
the biggest pop stars of the
day to perform in concerts,
like Beyonce or Usher.’
Italian model and actress
Vanessa Hessler admitted
to a four-year relationship
with him, and she continued
to defend him after his
death.
terror, while for Ceausescu
and children, life was sweet.
Take his daughter, ZolaElena, one of three children
sired by the ‘mother and
father of the nation’.
Her lavish apartment
was the first to be entered
by revolutionary forces
after the collapse of the old
regime.
There were gems, old
masters pilfered by her
father from state museums,
prime meat shipped from
Vienna for her two poodles
- while most meat fed to her
countrymen was pickled
or simply rotten. They also
found cash, leather sofas,
perfumes, fine wines and
high-end electronic goods.
been
had
Everything
of
bought at the expense her
suffering fellow Romanians.
From his mid-teens,
Ceausescu’s son Nicu was
an out-of-control drunk.
He was the kind who could
run red lights and kill people
in the process with total
impunity. He was a picture
of almost comic-book evil.
represented
Nicu
Romania in meetings with
North Korea and China,
was
inexplicably,
and,
named head of the UN’s
International Youth Year in
1985.
Nicu was sentenced to 20
years’ jail, but served only
three and died of cirrhosis
of the liver at 45.