From
30 October 1922 Italy was under fascist rule. During WW2 Germany
and Italy became allies and German troops were stationed in Italy. Since
1936
anti-Semitism had increased until finally discrimination and terror against Italian Jews became the order of the day.
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| SS at the Rice Mill #1 |
After the landing of the Allies in southern Italy in
July 1943 and the Italian
surrender on
8 September,
the southern parts of the country were liberated, but northern Italy remained under German control. The majority of the
Jews who had decided against leaving the country, lived here. The Italian army disbanded and German forces ruled
the new fascist satellite "Republica Sociale Italiana". The Germans established some of the coastal areas of
the Adriatic Sea (
Fiume, Trieste, Udine, Pula, Gorizia and
Ljubljana) as German territory, named
OZAK (
Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland).
Odilo Globocnik (born in
Trieste) was
promoted
Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF) Adriatisches Küstenland and arrived in
Trieste in
mid-September 1943.
He resided at
Via Nizza 21. Under his command the SS persecuted Jews, political
opponents and partisans. The code name for the operation was
Einsatz R, a logical successor to the former
Aktion Reinhard in Poland.
92 persons, experienced in mass murder in Poland and the former
euthanasia killing programme,
followed
Globocnik, including some Ukrainian SS men and women.
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| SS at the Rice Mill #2 |
 |
| SS-Men in Italy, 1944 |
One of the Italian concentration camps was the Risiera di San Sabba, a former rice mill on the outskirts
of
Trieste. The buildings were constructed in
1913
and had already been empty for years, when the Germans confiscated
them. The facility was first used as a prison. In
October 1943, it was converted
into a
Polizeihaftlager
(police concentration camp). The premises were well suited for such a camp. Three high buildings (3, 4
and 6 storeys) included cells, storage rooms, dressmaking and shoe-making shops and SS quarters. The high
old chimney, in combination with the enlarged old oven, was used for cremating thousands of victims. The crematory
installations were planned and built under the supervision of
Erwin Lambert,
the "flying architect" of T4. He had already built the gas chambers at the six euthanasia centres in Germany
and Austria and the three extermination camps of
Aktion Reinhard in Poland. The crematory was tested
on
4 April 1944 by the burning of 70 corpses. From
20 October 1943 until early 1945 around 25,000 partisans and
Jews were interrogated and tortured within the camp. 3,000-5,000 of them were killed, either by
shooting, beating or in gas vans.
 |
| Wirth |
 |
| Allers |
Globocnik's
staff mainly consisted of mainly Germans.
From October 1943 until May 1944 SS-Obersturmbannführer
Christian Wirth was camp commander. As he was killed by
partisans on
26 May 1944,
SS-Obersturmbannführer
Dietrich Allers became commandant until the dissolution of the camp in
April 1945.
In
late April 1945 Yugoslav partisans prepared to conquer
Trieste. As a consequence, on
29 April the
Germans blew up
the chimney and the crematory in order to cover up the traces of their crimes. The staff went into hiding.
Some of them were sentenced in absence but never faced justice in a "San Sabba Trial".
Books:
Carnier, Pier Arrigo.
Lo sterminio Mancata 418 pages in Italian, Copyright 1982 Gruppo Ugo Mursia Editore S.p.A
Coslovich, Marco.
I percorsi della sopravvivenza: storia e memoria della deportazione dall'Adriatisches
Küstenland, in Italian, Mursia, Milano 1994
Di Giusto, Stefano.
Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland -
Udine Gorizia Trieste Pola Fiume e Lubiana durante l’occupazione tedesca 1943 – 1945, 800 pages in Italian,
Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (IFSML), Udine, 2005
See the website
www.panzer-ozak.it
Foelkel, Feruccio.
La Risiera di San Sabba, Italian, Mondadori ed., Milano 1979
Scalpelli, Adolfo (ed.).
San Sabba. Istruttoria e processo per il lager della Risiera,
Ed. Lint Trieste 1995, 2 voll., 694 pages in Italian, ISBN: 88-86179-56-1
© ARC 2005
From 30 October 1922 Italy was under fascist rule. During WW2 Germany
and Italy became allies and German troops were stationed in Italy. Since 1936
anti-Semitism had increased until finally discrimination and terror against Italian Jews became the order of the day.
