San Giovanni concentration camp

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pentcho Memorial, Rhodes

The San Giovanni concentration camp ( campo di concentramento Rodos ) was a provisional internment camp on the island of Rhodes, then part of Italy, for the "Jewish" Pentcho group rescued from distress on the way to Palestine .

history

The Zionist youth organization Betar organized the departure of “Jewish” refugees from Bratislava on the Danube paddle steamer Pentcho on the Danube to the Black Sea and from there through the Aegean to Palestine . After an engine failure, the ship, completely overloaded with more than 500 people, ran aground on October 9, 1940 on the uninhabited island of Kamilonisi . After ten days, the shipwrecked group was rescued by the Italian Navy and brought to Rhodes. As "Jews" of non-Italian citizenshipthey were treated like nationals by enemy powers and interned. Initially, they were temporarily accommodated in tents on a sports facility guarded by the fascist militia and later in the garage of a military barracks.

With the beginning of the Greco-Italian War on October 28, 1940, Rhodes was cut off from supplies and the destitute internees were not adequately fed in the general famine. Only after some time did the internees receive financial support from Jewish aid organizations such as the Italian DELASEM and the American Joint Distribution Committee . Nevertheless, some died because of poor care and housing. On February 12 and March 16, 1942, a total of 494 people were taken by ship to Italy to the Ferramonti di Tarsia internment camp .

Papal audience of Heinz Wisla

Heinz Wisla, one of the internees, received a transit visa in the summer of 1941 , which enabled him to leave the country. During his stopover in Rome he could Pope Pius XII. speak, so stand up for his fellow prisoners and later submit a written report about the camp. Heinz Wisla later attributed the transfer of the prisoners to Ferramonti di Tarsia to the intervention of the Pope.

literature

  • Klaus Voigt: Refuge on Revocation - Exile in Italy 1933-1945 . Klett-Cotta 1993, Volume 2, ISBN 3-608-91160-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stumbling blocks in Berlin, Leo Blitzer
  2. ^ Klaus Voigt: Refuge on Revocation - Exile in Italy 1933-1945 . P. 44 f.
  3. ^ Klaus Voigt: Refuge on Revocation - Exile in Italy 1933-1945 . P. 46.
  4. ↑ William Doino: Pope Pius XII: Friend and Rescuer of Jews . Inside the Vatican, accessed March 28, 2017.

Coordinates: 36 ° 26 ′ 45.9 ″  N , 28 ° 13 ′ 26.2 ″  E