{{Short description|WWII concentration camp in Italy}} {{Infobox concentration camp | type = Concentration camp | name = Fossoli camp | image = Panoramica del Campo di Fossoli.gif | image size = 250px | caption = Panorama of the camp | alt = | location map = Italy | map alt = | map caption = | coordinates = {{coord|44|49|42|N|10|54|10|E|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | other names = | known for = | location = Carpi, Italy | built by = | operated by = | commandant = Domenico Avitabile{{Clear}}Mario Taglialatela{{Clear}}Karl Friedrich Titho | original use = | construction = | in operation = 1942 | gas chambers = | prisoner type = | inmates = | killed = | liberated by = | notable inmates = Primo Levi | notable books = The Periodic Table | website = }}
The '''Fossoli camp''' ({{langx|it|Campo di Fossoli}}) was a concentration camp in Italy, established during World War II and located in the village of Fossoli, Carpi, Emilia-Romagna. It began as a prisoner of war camp in 1942, later being a Jewish concentration camp, then a police and transit camp, a labour collection centre for Germany and, finally, a refugee camp before closing in 1970.
It is estimated that 2,844 Jews passed through this camp, 2,802 of whom were then deported.
==History== ===Prisoner of war camp=== The camp was established by the Royal Italian Army on 30 May 1942 for the British, South African and New Zealand military personnel captured in military operations in North Africa and originally called ''Campo PG 73''. On 22 July 1942 1,800 prisoners of war were moved to the camp and accommodated in 191 tents in what was called the "Old camp", the ''Campo Vecchio''. With the surrender of Italy on 8 September 1943, the camp was evacuated and all prisoners of war were moved to Germany.<ref name="Terror" >{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZVHDs9POg4C&q=Karl+Friedrich+Titho&pg=PA299 |title=Der Ort des Terrors: Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager Bd. 9: Arbeitserziehungslager, Durchgangslager, Ghettos, Polizeihaftlager, Sonderlager, Zigeunerlager,Zwangsarbeitslager |trans-title=The Place of Terror: History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps Vol. 9: Labor education camps, transit camps, ghettos, police detention camps, special camps, gypsy camps, forced labor camps |publisher= Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel |date=2009 |access-date=9 September 2018 |language=de |isbn=978-3406572388 }}</ref><ref name="Deportatifossoli" >{{cite web |url=http://www.deportati.it/e_lager/en_fossoli/?lang=en |title=FOSSOLI|publisher=ANED – National Association of Italian political deportees from Nazi concentration camps |access-date=10 September 2018 }}</ref>
===Concentration camp=== After the surrender, the camp was enlarged by 60 wooden and 20 stone barracks which became the "New camp", the ''Campo Nuovo''. In December the camp was renamed Fossoli di Carpi and became the "national concentration camp" for the Jews in the Italian Social Republic, following the issue of RSI Police Order No. 5. The camp was operated by fascist Italian militias.<ref name="Terror" /> Police captain Domenico Avitabile was the first Italian commandant of the concentration camp, succeeded by Mario Taglialatela. Avitabile was described by former inmates as a kind but corrupt man,<ref name=Pezzetti1>{{Cite news |title=Primo Levi nel limbo di Fossoli |trans-title=Primo Levi in Fossoli's limbo |last=Pezzetti |first=Marcello |work=la Repubblica |date=21 February 2024 |url=https://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2024/02/20/news/primo_levi_da_fossoli_ad_auschwitz_storia_marcello_pezzetti-422172158/ |access-date=22 February 2024 |language=it }}</ref> while Taglialatela was described as cruel and as mistreating the prisoners.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8nBTDwAAQBAJ&q=Mario+Taglialatela+fossoli&pg=PA430 |title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos|date= 2018|access-date=21 September 2018 |isbn=978-0253023865|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=White|first2=Joseph R.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8DphDwAAQBAJ&q=Domenico+Avitabile+fossoli&pg=PA53 |title=The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy|date= 2018|access-date=21 September 2018 |isbn=978-0691184104|last1=Sullam|first1=Simon Levis}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GHQZVVaV9msC&q=Domenico+Avitabile+fossoli&pg=PA152 |title=Primo Levi|access-date=21 September 2018 |isbn=978-0099515210|last1=Thomson|first1=Ian|year=2003}}</ref>
In March 1944, owing to the camp's strategic location close to the Modena–Verona railway line, the ''Campo Nuovo'' came under German control and was renamed Transit camp Carpi. It now fell under the jurisdiction of the German Commander in Chief of the Security Police, Wilhelm Harster, who was based in Verona, while the ''Campo Vecchio'' remained under Italian control. SS-Untersturmführer Karl Friedrich Titho was appointed as commander of the German part of the camp, with SS-Hauptscharführer Hans Haage as his deputy, while the guards consisted of 40 Italians, later reinforced by five Ukrainians.<ref name="Terror" />
The purpose of the camp was to act as a transit camp and it was to be filled to capacity with Italian Jews and, once full, these were to be deported predominantly to Auschwitz for extermination. It was during this period that the first two trains left on 19 and 22 February 1944, intended for Anglo-Libyan prisoners heading to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, with the camp still under Italian control.<ref name=Pezzetti1 /> The second convoy left with 650 other prisoners (which Primo Levi recalls on the first few pages of the famous book ''If This Is a Man'').<ref name="Terror" />
During Titho's time as camp commander at Fossoli di Carpi, 67 prisoners were executed in the Cibeno massacre as a reprisal for a partisan attack on German soldiers at Genoa. On 12 July 1944 70 prisoners were selected on the pretext of being taken to Germany and their names read out by Titho, moved on trucks to a local shooting range and 67 of them executed, while three managed to escape.<ref name= "Poligono" >{{cite web |url=http://www.straginazifasciste.it/?page_id=38&id_strage=2931&lang=en |title=Poligono del Cibeno, Fossoli, Carpi, 12.07.1944 |publisher=Atlas of Nazi and Fascist Massacres in Italy |access-date=10 September 2018 |language=it }}</ref> For his role in the execution of the prisoners, the Italian media later referred to him as the ''Executioner of Fossoli''.<ref name= "Henker" >{{cite news |last=Schwarzer |first=Marianne |date=17 February 2016|title=Dem "Henker von Fossoli" blieb ein Prozess auf deutschem Boden erspart |trans-title=The „Executioner of Fossoli“ is spared from a trial on German soil |url=https://www.lz.de/lippe/kreis_lippe/20711476_Dem-Henker-von-Fossoli-blieb-ein-Prozess-auf-deutschem-Boden-erspart.html |language=de |work=Lippische Landes-Zeitung |access-date=9 September 2018 }}</ref>
During its existence as a transit camp, the camp had a total of 5,000 inmates, of which around half were Jewish. The last transport for Auschwitz left the camp on 26 June 1944,<ref name="Terror" /> Fossoli having become too insecure because of the proximity to the front line, and was replaced with the Bolzano Transit Camp, with Titho and Haage as the commander and deputy commander as well. Following the final deportation of Jews, the camp was used for the deportation of forced labour to Germany with as many as 800 to 1,000 people transiting through the camp daily. In November 1944 the camp ceased operations.<ref name="Deportatifossoli" />
===After the Second World War=== From November 1945 to May 1947 the camp was once more in use, now for foreign refugees,<ref name="Terror" /> some of them Jewish Holocaust survivors.<ref name="Deportatifossoli" />
In 1947 the camp was converted into a refuge for war orphans, by Father Zeno Saltini. The Church ordered Saltini to leave in February 1952, and the community was closed with huge debts. There was a satellite community in Maremma which today comprises the intentional community of Nomadelfia.<ref>''Utopian Dreams'', Tobias Jones, 2007, Faber and Faber Ltd, pp. 58–59.</ref>
The camp reopened once more from 1954 to 1970 to serve as accommodation for ethnic Italian refugees from Yugoslavia before it finally closed.<ref name="Terror" /><ref name="Deportatifossoli" />
==Commemoration== In 1996 a foundation was formed to preserve the former camp. From 1998 to 2003 volunteers rebuilt the fencing around the ''Campo Nuovo'' and, in 2004, one of the barracks that used to house Jewish inmates was reconstructed.<ref name="Terror" />
==Notable inmates== {{div col|colwidth=20em}} * Roberto Angeli * Nedo Fiano * Mario Finzi * Odoardo Focherini * Primo Levi * Liana Millu * Teresio Olivelli * Raimondo Ricci * Francesco Venturelli * Riccardo Di Luca * Armando Vezzelli * Jerzi Sas Kulczycki * Carlo Bianchi * Leopoldo Gasparotto {{col div end}}
==Gallery== <gallery widths="150"> File:Fossoli.jpg|Camp today File:Campo di transito di Fossoli 6.jpg|Barracks File:Campo attendato per prigionieri inglesi 1942 - PG73.jpg|Allied POW camp File:Pianta del Campo di Fossoli.jpg|Camp's plan </gallery>
==See also== * Holocaust in Italy * The Holocaust
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== * {{Cite book|last1=Sacchi|first1=Danilo|title=Fossoli: transito per Auschwitz : quella casa davanti al campo di concentramento|year=2002|publisher=Giuntina|location=Firenze|isbn=978-8880571384}} * {{Cite book | last1 = Lallo | first1 = Angelo. | last2 = Toresini | first2 = Lorenzo. | title = Psichiatria e nazismo : la deportazione ebraica dagli ospedali psichiatrici di Venezia nell'ottobre 194 | year = 2001 | publisher = Nuova dimensione | location = Portogruaro (Venezia) | isbn = 978-8885318601 }} * {{cite book|last=Castelli|first=Enrico|title=Musei territori percorsi|year=2005|publisher=Morlacchi Editore|pages=408}} * {{cite journal|last=Sanfilippo|first=Matteo|title=Per una storia dei profughi stranieri e dei campi di accoglienza e di reclusione nell'Italia del secondo dopoguerra|journal=Centro Studi Emigrazione|year=2006|volume=164|pages=535–566|hdl=2067/751}} * {{cite journal|last=Steinacher|first=Gerald|title=L'Alto Adige come regione di transito dei rifugiati (1945–1950)|journal=Centro Studi Emigrazione|year=2006|volume=43|issue=164}}
==External links== * [https://www.academia.edu/1351730/The_Police_Transit_Camps_in_Fossoli_and_Bolzano The Police Transit Camps in Fossoli and Bolzano] * {{in lang|it}} [http://www.fondazionefossoli.org/it/ The Fossoli Foundation] * {{commons category-inline|Campo di transito (Fossoli)|Fossoli concentration camp}}
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Category:Fossoli camp Category:Italian fascist internment camps in Italy Category:World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Italy Fossoli Concentration Camp Category:History of Emilia-Romagna Category:1940s in Italy Category:1942 establishments in Italy Category:1970 disestablishments in Italy Category:The Holocaust in Italy