Rab concentration camp

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Italian flag over the concentration camp.

The Rab concentration camp ( campo di concentramento Rab ) near Kampor on the Croatian island of Rab ( isola de Arbe-Fiume ), therefore sometimes also called Kampor concentration camp or Arbe concentration camp , was established during the Second World War in June 1942. It was dissolved in September 1943 after the Italian armistice in Cassibile .

It was the main Italian camp for Slavs during World War II . The concentration camp's death rate was 19% higher than that of the German Dachau concentration camp .

history

Victim
Male inmate.

According to Giacomo Scotti, the camp opened in June 1942 on the northern Dalmatian island of Rab offered space for 6,000 prisoners; Expansion work should create space for over 10,000 prisoners. The maximum number of prisoners was 13,000. Since the camp had practically no permanent buildings, the camp inmates stayed in small army tents (6 people each in a two-man tent). There was also a lack of sanitary facilities, apart from the primitive latrines that the inmates dug themselves. Between the end of June 1942 and the beginning of September 1943, 3,000–4,500 people are said to have died in the camp, of whom 1,506 are known by name.

Prisoner Numbers
July 1942 August 1942 December 1, 1942 December 29, 1942 February 1943 April 1943 June 1943 July 1943
Prisoners 198 2,532 6,577 5,562 2,853 2,628 2,232 3,296

Repression against Slovenes

From the end of 1941 the Italian army began to deport the Slav population from the rural partisan areas and to imprison the intellectuals in the cities. At the same time, the Italian government under Mussolini carried out a population policy that would be called ethnic cleansing today. As a result, 30,000 people (10% of the population) were interned from the province of Ljubljana alone. Two of the largest camps were Rab and Gonars . The prisoners were not treated as prisoners of war, but as hostages, which were used to suppress partisan activity. As many internees had been arrested as part of fighting partisans while harvesting in the fields in the summer, they only wore light clothing that was unsuitable for the harsh winter.

Preservation of the Jews

In order to protect Jews from access and extradition to Germany or the Independent State of Croatia , the Italian army interned around 3,000 Jews in Italian-occupied Yugoslavia by order of October 1942. In the concentration camp Kraljevica most were interned with about 1,160 people. General Mario Roatta visited the camp at the end of November and promised the internees that the Italian army would protect them. The internees from all places were transferred to the Rab concentration camp on June 19, 1943 against the background of the looming defeat of Italy for security reasons. There, the camp commandant wanted to limit the preferential treatment of Jews interned "for protection" over the Slovenes imprisoned for "repression" in order to avoid unrest. Mortality in the Jewish part of the camp was probably only low because the internment on Rab only lasted two summer months. In September 1943, after the Cassibile armistice and the prisoners' self-liberation, the majority of the Jews joined Tito's partisans . A smaller group that did not want to return to Yugoslavia was able to reach the island of Vis , which was occupied by England, with the help of local fishermen . 204 old people, women and children who remained on Rab were deported to Auschwitz by the Gestapo and SS via the Risiera di San Sabba in Trieste.

liberation

A CPJ organization was also active in the Rab concentration camp , which organized the self-liberation of the prisoners after September 8, 1943 . After taking the weapons from the Italian guards in Rab, the prisoners from Rab disarmed the Italian occupation of the island of Cres on September 13, 1943. With the start of the German offensive, the armed prisoners were distributed among various partisan units.

The arrested by the partisans camp commander of Rab, Lieutenant Colonel Vincenzo Cuiuli, committed suicide in Slovene prison suicide .

Work-up

Memorial plaque for the victims
Part of the plant 2019

In 1953, a memorial was built according to the plans of Edvard Ravnikar . The names of 1433 victims are listed on an 18 m long metal plaque. The work was carried out by prisoners from the Yugoslav prison camp from the nearby island of Goli Otok .

In 2003 the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi claimed that during the time of Italian fascism there were no concentration camps, that Mussolini did not have anyone killed and that he sent 'people into internal exile on vacation'.

In the Slovenian weekly newspaper Dolenjski list , the contemporary witness Milena Kambič Vukovič reported on her experiences as a child when she and her relatives were abducted from the Slovenian village of Gradac to Rab. Although she had already been pronounced dead and was lying in a mass grave, she survived the camp with the help of an interned nurse.

Prisoners

Among the prisoners were

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Rab KZ  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jörg Echternkamp, ​​Stefan Martens: The Second World War in Europe: Experience and Memory. Schöningh 2007, p. 165.
  2. ^ Rolf Wörsdorfer: Adria hot spot 1915–1955. Construction and articulation of the national in the Italian-Yugoslav border area. Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70144-4 , pp. 342f., Note 134.
  3. ↑ Carlo Spartaco Capogreco: I Campi del duce . Giulio Einaudi 2004, ISBN 88-06-16781-2 , p. 270.
  4. ^ Luigi Reale: Mussolini's Concentration Camps for Civilians: An Insight Into the Nature of Fascist Racism. P. 112.
  5. ↑ Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi and Constantino di Sante: The history of the concentration camps in Fascist Italy. in: Fascism in Italy and Germany. Contributions to the history of National Socialism, Volume 21, Eds. Reichardt and Nolzen, Wallstein 2004, ISBN 3-89244-939-2 , p. 189.
  6. ^ Luigi Reale: Mussolini's Concentration Camps for Civilians: An Insight Into the Nature of Fascist Racism. P. 113.
  7. ^ Daniel Carpi: The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia . P. 23 ff.
  8. ^ Klaus Voigt: Refuge on Revocation - Exile in Italy 1933-1945 . P. 233 f.
  9. ^ Klaus Voigt: Refuge on Revocation - Exile in Italy 1933-1945 . P. 238 f.
  10. ^ Daniel Carpi: The Rescue of Jews in the Italian Zone of Occupied Croatia . P. 35 ff.
  11. ^ Klaus Voigt: Refuge on Revocation - Exile in Italy 1933-1945 . P. 239 f.
  12. ^ Luigi Reale: Mussolini's Concentration Camps for Civilians: An Insight Into the Nature of Fascist Racism. P. 112.
  13. ^ Rolf Wörsdorfer: Adria hot spot 1915–1955. Construction and articulation of the national in the Italian-Yugoslav border area. Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-70144-4 , pp. 342f., Note 134.
  14. ↑ ORIS: Concentration Camp Inmate Cemetery on the Island of Rab ( Memento of the original dated February 12, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oris.hr
  15. ↑ International Herald Tribune: Survivors of war camp lament Italy's amnesia (October 29, 2003)
  16. ↑ M. Bezek-Jakše, "Živo dekletce v jami z mrtvimi" (German: A living girl in a pit with dead people), Slovenian weekly newspaper Dolenjski list, May 15, 2012, p. 20

Coordinates: 44 ° 46 '48 "  N , 14 ° 43' 8.4"  E