Corropoli internment camp, in Corropoli, in the province of

Teramo Teramo (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Tèreme ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo. The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines (Gran Sasso d'Italia) ...

, was one of several internment camps set up by the

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

government following the entry of Italy into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, to sit foreigners and anti-fascists. It operated from January 1941 to May 1944, with a maximum capacity of 150 people. Irredentist Slavic and Italian communists were interned and after September 8, 1943 it also served as a concentration camp for Jews.

History

In June 1940 the ''convent of the Fathers of Celestini Abbey'' (owned by the City of Corropoli, about a mile away from the village) was approved as a location for the camp. Between 1940 and 1943, the Commissioners of Public Safety: Guido Trevisani, Mario Maiello, John Santamaria, Carmine Medici, Francesco Alongi, Carmine Sanzo and Mario Gagliardi, administered the camp. The supervision was entrusted to the police and health matters to Dr. Gaetano D'Aristotle. The camp was not active immediately since the building required major renovations. During February 1941 the first inmates arrived. Before becoming an internment camp, the structure was identified as a TB health centre. There was pressure to restore the building to its original destination, therefore on May 4, 1942 the building was cleared and its occupants transferred to other camps. However, on June 16, 1942 the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

imposed the reopening of the camp, which housed inmates with various nationalities: Slavic, Greek, English, etc. reaching a capacity of 165 units. As with a few other Italian camps, this one received complaints about the excessive freedom the inmates enjoyed. This meant among other things that in June 1943 the camp was enclosed with barbed wire. After 8 September 1943 several inmates were freed by

Yugoslav partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...

. In December of that year, however, 130 people were still in the camp, now controlled by authorities of the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

and inserted as a link in the complex system of Nazi deportation. On February 1, 1944, 69 Jews arrived from Nereto internment camp. In May 1944, 60 of them were to be transferred to the

Servigliano prison camp Servigliano prison camp began as a POW camp for Austrian soldiers of World War I. Following Italy's entry to World War II, the fascist government used it as a concentration camp for civilian and military prisoners between October 1940 to Septem ...

to be deported. Corropoli finally closed at the end of May 1944 with the allied approach and its last inmates were transferred to other camps in

northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

References

* *{{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 *''This article was initially translated from the Italian Wikipedia.'' 1940s in Italy Italian fascist internment camps in Italy

History

See also

References