Fossoli concentration camp

History

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.

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. 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, while Taglialatela was described as cruel and as mistreating the prisoners.

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.

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. 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). …

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.