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.
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).
Structure and use
The camp was located inside the "''Cadorin''" military base, just north-west of Treviso. The inmates occupied five brick
barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
, 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.
Prisoners came from a transit camp in
Benghazi
Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...
, after being captured during the
Fall of Tobruk
The Axis capture of Tobruk, also known as the Fall of Tobruk and the Second Battle of Tobruk (17–21 June 1942) was part of the Western Desert campaign in Libya during the Second World War. The battle was fought by the ( in Italian), a German ...
.
The camp remained active until the
Armistice of Cassabile between the
Kingdom of Italy and the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
on September 8, 1943. The
German Army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
assumed control of the camp soon after, remaining until the end of the War in May 1945. Afterwards, the camp served for a brief period of time as a
DP camp and was later reinstated to its original military use.
The camp under Italian administration
New prisoners were subjected to a "''bonifica''", that included shower and clothes disinfection. No uniform was provided (differently from German-managed
lagers) and prisoners initially only used their personal summer clothing (even during colder seasons). Inmates were given three blankets, a spoon, a tin and a bit of straw. Bunk beds were placed on each wall, where inmates slept in pairs. No
forced labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
was theoretically imposed; however, drawings made by Slovenian interned Vladimir Lamut show maintenance activities were required.
Prisoners were organized following the "Circolare 3C" (Memo 3C) by General
Mario Roatta, distinguishing "repressivi" (to repress,
partisans) from "protettivi" (to be protected, usually target of Slavic partisans repercussions). In practice, limited resources and frequent influx of new prisoners prevented this separation, causing cohabitation issues. Inmates were subject to strict discipline, and invasive inspections were frequent. Violence was not systematically practiced; however, the
Carabinieri camp commander
tenente colonnello Alfredo Anceschi was known for his strictness. Prisoners recalled the episode of a woman tied in the middle of the camp's grounds for an entire day.
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. In addition to this, guards used to steal supplies in order to resell them in the rampant
black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
. 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
Scabies (; also sometimes known as the seven-year itch) is a contagious skin infestation by the mite ''Sarcoptes scabiei''. The most common symptoms are severe itchiness and a pimple-like rash. Occasionally, tiny burrows may appear on the skin ...
,
muscular atrophy and
dysentery. "They were not normal corpses," he declared to the press later, "they looked like mummies or exhumed bodies". In particular, women and children from Rab suffered the most.
Camp casualties were reported by different lists, averaging around 200 (187, 192 and 225). 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).
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
deported as POW out of Italy, enlisted in the new
Republican Army or forced into joining other German units. Those who successfully fled their posts either went back home or joined partisan formations. The Monigo barracks were left without guards: civilian prisoners, POW of Camp 103 and Italian soldiers left the camp. There is no clear indication of the fate of the majority of the prisoners after September 1943, or Monigo's immediate use. Around the end of 1943, German units seized the camp and installed a driving school for Italian Republican military forces, together with a small garrison of
Organisation Todt members.
During the night between 5 and 6 December 1943 the great sweep up of the
Jews of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
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
Displaced Persons, administered by the
Allied Military Government. From late May 1942 to August 1945, around 20,000 individuals passed through the camp: 8,000 Poles, 4,700 French, 2,000 slavs and a large number of Italian POWs returning from Germany.
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.
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
Sources
*Belco, Victoria (2010). War Massacre and Recovery in Central Italy, 1943-1948 (Toronto Italian Studies). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
*Gombač, Metka. "I bambini sloveni nei campi di concentramento italiani (1942-1943)". DEP: 49–63. Retrieved 18 September 2012
*
*''This article was initially translated from the Italian Wikipedia.''
{{Authority control
1940s in Italy
Italian fascist internment camps in Italy