Italian concentration camps include camps from the Italian colonial wars in Africa as well as camps for the civilian population from areas occupied by Italy during World War II. Memory of both camps were subjected to "historical amnesia". The repression of memory led to historical revisionism in Italy[1] and in 2003 the Italian media published Silvio Berlusconi's statement that Benito Mussolini only "used to send people on vacation".[2][3]

Colonial wars

There were numerous war crimes conducted by the Italian Army in the colonies. In Cyrenaica alone between 1929 and 1933 over 40,000 people were killed and 80,000 locked up in concentration camps,[4] out of a total population of just 193,000. According to the historian Ilan Pappé, the fascist regime between 1928 and 1932 killed half the Bedouin population either directly or by starvation in the fields.[5] According to the historian Angelo Del Boca, in 1933, of the approximately 100,000 Libyans deported from Jebel Achdar and Marmarica, more than 40,000 died in the camps.[6]

Name of the camp Location of camp Present-day country Date of establishment Date of disestablishment Estimated number of prisoners Estimated number of deaths
Nocra Nocra Eritrea 1930s 1941   1,500[7]
Abyar Abyar Libya 1930 1933 3,123[8]  
Agedabia Ajdabiya Libya 1930 1933 10,000[8] 1,500[9]
El Agheila El Agheila Libya 1930 1933 10,900[8]  
Marsa Brega Brega Libya 1930 1933 21,117[8]  
Sid Ahmed el Maghrun El Magrun Libya 1930 1933 13,050[8] 4,500[9]
Soluch Suluq Libya 1930 1933 20,123[8] 5,500[9]
Derna Derna Libya 1930 1933 145[8]
Apollonia Apollonia Libya 1930 1933 1,354[8]
Barce Barce Libya 1930 1933 538[8]
Driana Driana Libya 1930 1933 225[8]
Nufilia Nufilia Libya 1930 1933 375[8]
Danane Mogadishu Somalia 1935 1941 6,000[8] 3,175[10]
Total ~44 675[11]

World War II

Name of the camp Location of locality Present-day country Date of establishment Date of disestablishment Estimated number of prisoners Estimated number of deaths
Bakar Bakar Croatia 31 December 1942 1 July 1943 893[12] 100-120[13]
Bolzano South Tyrol Italy September 8, 1943 April 29 and May 3, 1945 11,000  
Campagna Salerno Italy 15 June 1940 19 September 1943    
Chiesanuova Padua Italy June 1942      
Ferramonti di Tarsia Cosenza Italy summer 1940 4 September 1943 3,800  
Giado Jadu, Libya Libya January 1942 24 January 1943 3,146[14] 562
Gonars Palmanova Italy March 1942 8 September 1943 7,000 453; >500
Mamula Mamula island Montenegro 30 May 1942 14 September 1943 2,322 200[15]
Monigo Treviso Italy 1 July 1942 May 1945 10,000 187-225
Molat Molat Croatia 28 June 1942 8 September 1943 20,000[16] c. 1,000[16]
Rab, separate camps for Slovenes/Croats and Jews Rab (Arbe) island Croatia July 1942 11 September 1943 10,000; 15,000 2,000; >3,500; 4,000
Renicci di Anghiari Arezzo Italy October 1942      
Risiera di San Sabba[17] Trieste Italy October 1943 April 1945 > 11,500 4,000–5,000[18]
Visco Palmanova Italy winter 1942      
Zlarin Zlarin Croatia March 1943 June 1943 2,500 26
Campo di Fossoli Carpi Italy May 1942 March 1944    

References

  1. ↑ Alessandra Kersevan 2008: (Editor) Foibe – Revisionismo di stato e amnesie della repubblica. Kappa Vu. Udine.
  2. ↑ Survivors of war camp lament Italy's amnesia Archived 2008-10-20 at the Wayback Machine, 2003, International Herald Tribune
  3. ↑ Di Sante, Costantino (2005) Italiani senza onore: I crimini in Jugoslavia e i processi negati (1941–1951), Ombre Corte, Milano. (Archived by WebCite®)
  4. ↑ L'Africa del Duce: i crimini fascisti in Africa
  5. ↑ Ilan Pappé, The Modern Middle East. Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-21409-2, p. 26.
  6. ↑ Del Boca, Angelo (11 January 2011). Italiani, brava gente. Neri Pozza Editore. ISBN 9788854504950. Gli ultimi lager sarebbero stati smantellati nel settembre 1933. Dei 100.000 libici che erano partiti dal Gebel Achdar e dalla Marmarica, ne sarebbero tornati a casa 60.000.
  7. ↑ Ottolenghi, Gustavo (1997). Gli italiani e il colonialismo: i campi di detenzione italiani in Africa. p. 174. ISBN 9788871983974.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Michael R. Ebner. Geoff Simons. Ordinary Violence in Mussolini's Italy. New York, New York, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2011. P. 261.
  9. 1 2 3 "I campi concentramento per i civili nell'Africa italiana". criminidiguerra.it. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.
  10. ↑ Donatella Strangio. The Reasons for Underdevelopment: The Case of Decolonisation in Somaliland. Springer, 2012. P. 5.
  11. ↑ Sum among the estimates of the deaths in the Danane camp (source Donatella Strangio), the deaths of all the camps in Italian Libya (source Angelo Del Boca), and the deaths in the Nocra camp (source Gustavo Ottolenghi).
  12. ↑ Bakar concentration camp, Online Research project
  13. ↑ "Talijanski koncentracioni logor Bakar 1941-1943". Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  14. ↑ Maurice M. Roumani: The Jews of Libya. Sussex Academic Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-84519-137-5, p 34.
  15. ↑ Dizdar, Zdravko (2005). "Italian Policies Toward Croatians In Occupied Territories During The Second World War". Hrvatski institut za povijest. p. 196.
  16. 1 2 Bašić 2008, pp. 196.
  17. ↑ "English - Risiera di San Sabba – Monumento Nazionale – Comune di Trieste". risierasansabba.it. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03.
  18. ↑ "Trieste ebraica » La Risiera di San Sabba". moked.it.

Works cited

  • campifascisti.it, Online Research project
  • "The Last Witnesses", 2013 Exhibition at National Museum for Contemporary History (Slovenia) documenting photos and interviews with survivors
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