Danane concentration camp

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The Danane concentration camp was a concentration camp in Italian Somaliland and Italian East Africa operated by fascist Italy from 1935 to 1941 . It was located around 40 km south of Mogadishu and from 1936 onwards, alongside the Nocra concentration camp, it was one of two penal camps that were used to intern political prisoners from the East African colonies as a result of the Abyssinian War. Due to its high death rate, historians also refer to Danane as a death or extermination camp .

history

The Danane concentration camp was opened in the Italian colony of Somalia by order of Governor Rodolfo Graziani when fascist Italy began its war of aggression against Ethiopia in October 1935 . Danane was originally intended to be a prisoner-of-war camp, but remained inactive as such. Instead, the Italian leadership gave the aim of the complete annihilation of the Ethiopian enemy.

After the end of the war, which ended with the occupation of Ethiopia by Italy, there were 191 prisoners in Danane in June 1936. The number of camp inmates increased significantly when Graziani intensified the repression in Ethiopia after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on him in February 1937. In the months that followed, he had over 1,500 men, women and children associated with the overthrown Ethiopian government, which he held responsible for the attack, transported from Addis Ababa to Danane. At the end of 1937 the camp had reached its intended capacity limit with 2,500 inmates.

The inadequate equipment of the camp, inadequate nutrition and medical care led to a high death rate. From June 22 to July 18, 1937 alone, 28 people died, over half of them allegedly of heart problems, which, however, appears doubtful, since the men and women concerned were only between 20 and 45 years old. According to the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry official Micael Tesemma, who was in Danane for three and a half years, 3,171 of 6,500 Ethiopian and Somali prisoners were killed in 1936–1941. Around 400 of them died of ill-treatment, torture or were executed.

On March 18, 1941, British troops occupied Danane. They liberated around 1,000 Ethiopians and 300 Somalis and interned around 3,000 Italian and local prisoners of war. Most of these were transferred to India ; about 300 Italians remained imprisoned in Danane until the end of World War II .

For the Ethiopians, who were used to the mild climate of the highlands, the tropical conditions in Danane turned out to be unbearable, with the condition of the prisoners rapidly deteriorating. Malaria became the predominant disease, and almost all of the inmates suffered from gastrointestinal disorders . In addition, because the people of Danane lacked portable drinking water, many were forced to drink seawater. Former concentration camp prisoners were questioned as part of the securing of evidence for the United Nations war crimes tribunals that took place after the Second World War. These survivors of the Danane concentration camp stated that the killing of sick inmates and forced medical operations by the camp doctor were practiced in the concentration camp. According to historian Ian Campbell (2017), the sworn testimony of survivors suggests a death rate of around 51% in the Danane concentration camp.

evaluation

The Italian historian Mariana de Carlo (2013) states in her study on the Danane concentration camp that, due to the extraordinarily high death rate, Danane can be viewed as "an instrument of death rather than an internment". The Swiss historian Aram Mattioli also speaks of a “ death camp ” in connection with the Danane concentration camp , while the Italian historian Angelo Del Boca (2004) even classifies it as an “ extermination camp ”. The British historian Ian Campbell (2017) judges that although Danane was not conceived as an extermination camp, it nevertheless became a grave for thousands of innocent Ethiopian men, women and children due to the terrible conditions in which it was detained.

literature

  • Rainer Baudendistel: Between Bombs and good Intentions. The Red Cross and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936. Berghahn, New York NY 2006, ISBN 1-8454-5035-3 , pp. 232f. ( Human Rights in Context 1).
  • Ian Campbell: The Massacre of Debre Libanos. Ethiopia 1937. The Story of One of Fascism's Most Shocking Atrocities. Addis Ababa University Press, Addis Ababa 2014, ISBN 978-99944-52-51-4 , pp. 185-191.
  • Ian Campbell: The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame. Hust & Company, London 2017, ISBN 978-1-84904-692-3 , pp. 233 f.
  • Angelo Del Boca: Fascism and Colonialism - The Myth of the "decent Italians". In: Irmtrud Wojak, Susanne Meinl (ed.): Genocide and war crimes in the first half of the 20th century. Published on behalf of the Fritz Bauer Institute. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2004, ISBN 3-593-37282-7 , p. 196 ( Yearbook on the history and effects of the Holocaust 2004).
  • Mariana De Carlo: Colonial internment camps in Africa Orientale Italiana - The Case of Dhanaane (Somalia) . Published in: Themes in Modern African History and Culture . Ed .: Lars Berge and Iram Taddia, Libreriauniversitarai 2013, ISBN 978-88-6292-363-7 , p. 193 ff.
  • Alberto Sbacchi: Italy and the Ethiopian Aristrocracy, 1937-1940. In: Ders .: Legacy of Bitterness: Ethiopia and Fascist Italy, 1935–1941. The Red Sea Press, Lawrenceville 1997, ISBN 978-0932415745 , pp. 123-162, here pp. 131-135 and 178.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mariana De Carlo: Colonial internment camps in Africa Orientale Italiana - The Case of Dhanaane (Somalia). In: Lars Berge, Iram Taddia (ed.): Modern African History and Culture. Libreriauniversitarai 2013, p. 202.
  2. ↑ Angelo Del Boca: Fascism and Colonialism - The Myth of the "decent Italians" . P. 196
  3. ^ Mariana De Carlo: Colonial internment camps in Africa Orientale Italiana - The Case of Dhanaane (Somalia) . Published in: Themes in Modern African History and Culture . P. 206
  4. ^ Ian Campbell: The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame. London 2017, p. 233 f.
  5. ↑ Angelo Del Boca: Fascism and Colonialism. The myth of the "decent Italians". In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): Genocide and war crimes in the first half of the 20th century. Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 193–202, here p. 196; Mariana de Carlo: Colonial internment camps in Africa Orientale Italiana. The case of Dhanaane (Somalia). In: Lars Berge, Irma Taddia (ed.): Themes in African Modern History and Culture. Festschrift for Tekeste Negash. Libreriauniversitaria.it, Padua 2013, pp. 193-208, here pp. 203 f; Aram Mattioli: A Veritable Hell. In: Die Zeit , No. 51/2001, December 13, 2001.
  6. ^ Ian Campbell: The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame. London 2017, p. 234.