It’s not something you hear much about, Abruzzo, hosting 1/3 of Mussolini’s internment camps, it goes against the forte e gentile stereotype, so how did it get there, thank the Race Law of 1938.

Where it Started

First came a press campaign followed by the  ‘Manifesto of Race’, a quasi-report put together by the National Fascist Party that declared Italians to be descendants of the Aryan race.  Mussolini’s pure race law, Regio Decreto 17 November 1938, Nr. 1728. followed soon after restricting the civil rights of Italian Jews, banning books written by Jewish authors, and excluding Jews from public offices and higher education.  Additional laws stripped Jews of their assets, restricted travel, and finally, provided for their confinement in internal exile, as had been done for political prisoners.  Under the Racial Laws, sexual relations and marriages between Italians, Jews, and Africans were forbidden.

The Camps

One asks the question why did Abruzzo have 15 of Mussolini’s 48 camps, why did it hold the record for the highest number of deportees between 1940-1943 and earn the title of elective territory for the ‘concentration system.’

The fascist Interior Ministry picked Abruzzo for its camps due to its inaccessible locations, low population density, low politicisation of its inhabitants, poor communication routes and the absence of militarily important areas.  In many ways similar to the reasons Italy’s new internment camp for migrants and refugees is housed in Albania.  These camps in Abruzzo were housed either in pre-existing buildings and rented from locals or newly built and were located in:

• Casoli – a concentration camp for Jews and dissidents
• Chieti – a concentration camp
• Chieti – internment camp
• Vasto – The camp for “dangerous” Italians in Istonio Marina
• Lama dei Peligni – sorting camp
• Lanciano – Women’s Prison
• Tollo – camp for Yugoslav communists
• Città S.Angelo – Convent of S. Chiara -concentration camp
• Civitella del Tronto – concentration camp in the fortress
• Corropoli – Badia Celestina – a concentration camp for political dissidents
• Isola Gran Sasso – Basilica of S. Gabriele in Isola del Gran Sasso –  internment camp for Chinese
• Nereto  – concentration camp
• Notaresco – concentration camp
• Tortoreto Stazionn (Alba Adriatica) and Tortoreto Alto – concentration camps
• Tossicia – Concentration Camp – Roma and Jews
• Avezzano – Concentration Camp
• Badia Morronese – Secure Prison
• Sulmona – pow internment camp
• Teramo – San’Antonio Pyschiatric Hospital – internment camp

The camps were entrusted to the ‘Public Security’ officials and the local mayor.   All prisoners had to hand over their documents and belongings on arrival.  They were closed in with a perimeter fence, controlled by police or the army.  We know many families in Abruzzo were ‘forte e gentile’ as they endangered their own lives to help look after and hide Italian and foreign Jewish families, POWs and political dissidents.  After the war, this became a national characteristic when dealing with difficult questions of those detained and deported to certain death from Italy, it was the Nazis rather than the Italians that had committed the crime. The Primo Levi Center states “Although there may be a kernel of truth to the myth of the “kind Italian”—as in the case with every stereotype—, this cannot justify only praising one’s merits when faced with much graver responsibilities. One needs a more equitable meter of evaluation”.

The camp in Casoli held 200 people and was open from 1940 to September 1943, its maximum capacity was supposed to be 90 people. First, Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria were held, and then ‘foreigners’ from what was known as ‘Yugoslavia’ at the time.  The holding and escape of  ‘Slavic’ prisoners in Abruzzo explains why the famous partisans, The Majella Brigade were commandeered by the Slavic Stanislao Roc.

The Maiella Brigade

In 1943 after the Nazis had freed Mussolini from his Abruzzo prison on Campo Imperatore to be their puppet ruler in their new Italian Social Republic and declared its scorched earth policy, 7,680 Italian Jews were killed in the space of 19 months.  Their deaths were aided by the fastidious documentation required by the Race Law and their ‘sitting duck’ internment.

Today most of the buildings of these former camps have been dismantled or are being used for other purposes like the headquarters of the Maiella National Park. There are 27 pietre FF d’inciamp (Stolperstein) in Abruzzo, the 10 cm (3.9 in) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.   It means ‘stumbling stone’ and they are in place to make you remember those lost and how it can so easily happen again when communities become scapegoats and divisive language is used to criminalise and penalise them.

Casoli

Read More

• From Internment to Deportation, Concentration Camps in Abruzzo (1940-1944), by Costantino Di Sante
• The Fascist Concentration Camps by the Primo Levi Center
• The Story of the Hain Family Tracing their Family’s Internment at Giulianova, Tossicia and Civitella del Tronto
• The 27 Pietre d’inciampo locations in Abruzzo
• Winter in the Abruzzi by Natalie Ginzberg – a short story of her exile in Pizzoli, L’Aquila during the 2nd World War
• Italy Resumes its Policy of Sending Unwanted Migrants to Albania

Author: Sam Dunham

Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 13 and juggles working as a freelance SEO copywriter & teaches IGCSEs at Istituo Cristo Re in Rome. She is the founder of the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, co-founder of Let's Blog Abruzzo and 'English in the Woods' initiative.