Monigo concentration camp
Monigo concentration camp | |
---|---|
Concentration camp | |
Coordinates | 45°40′54″N 12°12′28″E / 45.6816°N 12.2078°E |
Location | Monigo |
Operated by | Italy |
Original use | Military barracks |
Operational | July 1942 |
Inmates | Civilian, military |
Number of inmates | 10,000 total |
Killed | from 187 to 225 |
The Monigo concentration camp was a prison camp opened during World War II aimed at civilian prisoners (mostly Slovenes and Croats). It was located in Monigo, a suburb of the town of Treviso. The camp was active between 1942 and 1943.[1] The total number of inmates is not certain, but is estimated in a total of around 10,000, with an average number of 2,582 prisoners at a time (maximum 3,374). The camp often surpassed its full capacity of 2,400 (as stated by Italian military authorities).[2]
Structure and use
The camp was located inside the "Cadorin" military base, just north-west of Treviso. The inmates occupied five brick barracks, with an additional one reserved to guards and soldiers. In addition to the prisoner accommodations, two small rooms were used for the bathrooms and the canteen, and a seventh cabin served as a kitchen and hosted the command. The camp opened on July 1, 1942. Initially, the camp was populated by Slovenian prisoners, followed in autumn by Croatian individuals (most of them from Rab concentration camp). Due to its relatively small size and the cold weather of early 1943, diseases such as tuberculosis spread through the inmate population. Starting from March 1943, POWs from South Africa and New Zealand (around 500 and 100 respectively) were also assigned to Monigo in a subsection called camp 103.[1] Prisoners came from a transit camp in Benghazi, after being captured during the Fall of Tobruk.
The camp remained active until the
The camp under Italian administration
New prisoners were subjected to a "bonifica",
Prisoners were organized following the "Circolare 3C"
Living conditions were bad from the start, since dorms had no heating and diet included as low as 911 calories per day. Prisoners were fed with a cup of tea in the morning and later with a loaf of bread. At lunch prisoners were given rice and during the late afternoon, a slice of cheese. Around the end of 1942, only a few months after the camp's opening, inflation further lowered the available budget.[7] In addition to this, guards used to steal supplies in order to resell them in the rampant black market.[8] In November 1942, there were 3,122 prisoners in Monigo: 1,058 men, 1,085 women and 466 children including 42 infants. With the arrival of winter, food supplies dwindles and disease decimated the weakest. Professor Menemio Bortolozzi, pathologist at Treviso hospital, noted the widespread presence of tuberculosis, pneumonia, scabies, muscular atrophy and dysentery. "They were not normal corpses," he declared to the press later, "they looked like mummies or exhumed bodies".[9] In particular, women and children from Rab suffered the most.
Camp casualties were reported by different lists, averaging around 200 (187, 192 and 225).[10] 53 children under 10 years of age died; infant mortality rate was about 300 per thousand.
Despite the difficult living conditions, Slovenian prisoners organized a choir, chess tournaments and even the publication of a newspaper, Novice izza žice (news from behind the barbed wire).[6]
The camp under German administration
Just after the Armistice was declared, Italian personnel was in a state of complete disarray due to lack of clear orders. Soldiers were either captured by the Germans and
During the night between 5 and 6 December 1943 the great sweep up of the Jews of Venice took place, but there is no indication of Jews in the camp. However, due to the close vicinity of the camp from Venice (40 km) this cannot be excluded, as captured individuals could have stationed there before being transferred to Polish or German extermination camps.
Use as a DP camp and termination
After the end of the war and the deportation of the remaining German/Italian personnel, the whole structure briefly became a camp for
After the termination of all DP activities, the barracks returned to exercise their usual military function. Today they stand at the disposal of the Italian Army, housing the 33rd EW Regiment.
Memorial
On November 9, 2019, a civil ceremony was held in memory of the deportees and the refugees of the camp.[12] The ceremony included the unveiling of two memorial plaques, affixed on its boundary walls right next to the military base gates. During the event, civil and religious authorities from Italy, Croatia and Slovenia highlighted the importance of tolerance, human dignity and international cooperation.
See also
- Holocaust in Italy
References
- ^ a b Meneghetti, Francesca (2019). "Di là del muro - The other side of the wall". ISTRESCO - Istituto per la storia della Resistenza e della società contemporanea della Marca trevigiana. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ISBN 978-88-94919-09-7.
- ^ Basic decontamination procedure
- OCLC 1130775033.
- ^ "Circolare N.3 C". crimini di guerra. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
- ^ OCLC 455973000.
- OCLC 1130775033.
- OCLC 1130775033.
- OCLC 1130775033.
- OCLC 1130775033.
- OCLC 1130775033.
- ^ "Treviso: una targa in ricordo di deportati e profughi rinchiusi a Monigo". TgR Veneto. November 10, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
Sources
- Belco, Victoria (2010). War Massacre and Recovery in Central Italy, 1943-1948 (Toronto Italian Studies). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-9314-0
- Gombač, Metka. "I bambini sloveni nei campi di concentramento italiani (1942-1943)". DEP: 49–63. Retrieved 18 September 2012
- Marcus Ferrar; John Corsellis (2005). Slovenia, 1945 : Memories of Death and Survival after World War II. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-840-4.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - This article was initially translated from the Italian Wikipedia.