Campagna internment camp, located in

Campagna Campagna (Italian: ) is a small town and ''comune'' of the province of Salerno, in the Campania region of Southern Italy. Its population is 17,148. Its old Latin name was Civitas Campaniae (City of Campagna). Campagna is located in one of the v ...

, a town near

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

in Southern Italy, was an

internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

for Jews and foreigners established by

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

in 1940. The first internees were 430 men captured in different parts of Italy. Most of them were Jewish refugees came from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

, there were also some British citizens and a group of 40 French and Italian Jews. The number of inmates during the three years varied considerably, ranging between 230 (February 1941) and 150 (September 1943). The camp was never a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

in the German sense of the term. Internees were allowed to receive food parcels and visit sick relatives. In addition, there were no mail restrictions. None of the internees was killed or subjected to violence. In fact, the internees were constantly protected from deportation to Germany, as the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

requested. Prisoners were allowed to organisee a library, school, theatre and a synagogue. All of the prisoners were free to move through the streets and houses of the town, as they were welcomed by the inhabitants of Campagna as friends. Such bonds of friendship were created that many prisoners had lunch at the home of local friends. That also involved Mayor Carlino D'Ambrosio and the local fascist authorities, who kept the activities hidden from the higher authorities. An essential role was played by the Bishop of Campagna, Giuseppe Maria Palatucci, and his nephew

Giovanni Palatucci Giovanni Palatucci (31 May 1909 – 10 February 1945) was an Italian police official who was long believed to have saved thousands of Jews in Fiume between 1939 and 1944 (current Rijeka in Croatia) from being deported to Nazi extermination camps. ...

, Quaestor of

Fiume Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

, who, by sending as many Istrian Jews as possible into the Campagna camp, saved thousands from the death camps.Palatucci
/ref> In September 1943, Italy capitulated and the Allied troops invaded Southern Italy. In response, the German troops invaded Italy from the North. However, when they got to the Campagna concentration camp, all the inmates had already fled to the mountains with the help of the local inhabitants.

References

External links

Campagna e gli Ebrei di Monsignor Palatucci

Official web site af Associazione Giovanni Palatucci

{{Coord, 40.6670, 15.1068, display=title 1940s in Italy Italian fascist internment camps in Italy

See also

References

External links