Bolzano Police Transit Camp

Campo di Concentramento di Bolzano/Lager di Bolzano

The police transit camp Bolzano was one of four German concentration camps on Italian territory. The SS conducted selections of political prisoners and Jews at the camp prior to deporting them to concentration and extermination camps north of the Alps. Today, various artworks located at the historic sites commemorate the fate of the prisoners.

History

Following the First World War, Austria had to cede South Tyrol to Italy. During the interwar period, severe nationality conflicts took place in the provincial capital Bolzano: the local German-speaking population vehemently resisted the »Italianization« policy of the fascist Italian government. In 1943, the German-speaking population of South Tyrol enthusiastically greeted the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. Many hoped that the region would soon be annexed to the German Reich, this did not happen however. Nevertheless, the German influence on the region of Bolzano - since September 1943 referred to as »Prealpine Operations Zone« - was more significant than anywhere else in occupied Italy.
In July 1944, a police transit camp was established in the Gries district of Bolzano, in close vicinity to the road leading to the Brenner Pass. It was meant to replace the Fossoli transit camp, which had been deemed unsafe due to the advance of the Allies. Both the camp administration under SS-Untersturmführer Karl Titho and the entire guard personnel were transferred from Fossoli to Bolzano; in August 1944, the inmates from Fossoli too were moved to Bolzano. The camp had been built to hold 1,500 prisoners, yet an average of 4,000 were held there at one time. They had to conduct forced labour in the camp and outside: in the ball bearing factory IMI in the Virgl Tunnel, harvesting fruit or clearing rubble following air raids in the region. Just as Fossoli had, the Bolzano transit camp mainly served as a collection camp for compiling transports headed for concentration and extermination camps north of the Alps. Most of the approximately 13 transports went to the Mauthausen concentration camp, others were destined for Auschwitz, Dachau, Flossenbürg and Ravensbrück. The camp was dissolved on May 3, 1945, four days after the German troops in Italy had surrendered. A previously planned prisoner uprising did not take place.

Bolzano, undated, Police transit camp Bolzano, Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea Milano

Bolzano, 2004, Perimeter wall and new blocks of houses on the former camp premises, Marcello Pezzetti

Victims

About 11,000 prisoners passed through the Bolzano camp. Most of them were political prisoners, though several hundred Jews, Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war and hostages - frequently relatives of draft resistors and resistance fighters - were among those imprisoned. They came from all of northern and central Italy, some even from the south. Apart from Italian inmates, 150 foreigners from a total of 29 countries were held at the camp.
3,500 prisoners were liberated when the camp was dissolved. 44 prisoners died in the camp, of those 20 were killed during a mass execution on September 12, 1944. The victims were most probably soldiers who had cooperated with Allied intelligence services. Approximately 2,050 people who were deported from Bolzano to concentration camps in the German Reich did not return.

In 1922 the Kingdom of Italy became a dictatorship under the »Duce« (leader) Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) and his fascist party. Until the mid-1930s there was barely any evidence of public anti-semitism in Italy; discriminatory measures were not introduced until 1938. At the time, around 46,000 Jews were living in Italy. During this period, the Italian state also included the Istrian peninsula and a number of islands that are now part of Greece, such as Rhodes, which had a Jewish community rich in tradition. The Italian government was a close ally of the German Reich but was not involved in the mass deportations of Jews to German extermination camps until autumn 1943. It was only following the occupation of the north of the country by the German Wehrmacht (the south had already been liberated by American and British troops) that the German SS and police began to implement plans to systematically deport the Italian Jews. The Jews were initially held in detention camps and then transported halfway across Europe to Auschwitz, where many were killed in the gas chambers on arrival. Between 7,000 and 8,500 Jews from Italy (excluding Italian-occupied territory) were murdered or died as a result of brutality. Tens of thousands of Italian Jews and Jewish refugees were able to survive by emigrating or going into hiding with the help of non-Jews. The Allied liberation of southern Italy spared over 2,000 Jews from deportation by the German regime. The period 1943 to 1945 saw violent conflicts between the German occupation forces and Italian partisans from the communist-dominated resistance movement »Resistenza«. German troops responded with horrific reprisal measures and massacres, for example in Marzabotto and in the Ardeatine Caves near Rome. More than 400,000 Italians – soldiers, civilians and partisans – died during the Second World War. Once the war was over, the partisan campaign became a key feature of Italian national identity and the Italian culture of memory cultivated the myth that the country had liberated itself from fascism. There was barely any confrontation with the widespread Italian support for Mussolini. The best-known sites of memory such as the former concentration camp at Risiera di San Sabba near Trieste or the memorials at Marzabotto and the Ardeatine Caves are dedicated to the resistance, as are many museums. However, there are few memorial sites at former detention camps for Jews and where these do exist they tend to commemorate the liberators rather than the victims. One example is Villa Emma in Nonatola, where Jewish children were able to survive in hiding. One feature linking many of these sites is their focus on human rights education for the present and future. In recent years, the memory of the deported and murdered Jews has become more prominent. In 2013, the Memoriale de la Shoah di Milano opened in Milan’s central railway station, and in 2023, the decision has been made to create a central holocaust memorial in Rome.

Remembrance

After the war, the former transit camp briefly served as an internment camp for German prisoners of war, later it was a resort and training location. Until 1968, the barracks were inhabited by families from Bolzano who had lost their homes in the war. Today, only a part of the wall surrounding the former camp premises remains. In 2003, it was placed under landmark protection laws and in 2004, six information boards were set up on it.
Today, the municipal archive tends to the remains of the camp and runs a project it initiated entitled »History and Remembrance. The Bolzano Camp«. The project entails historical research as well as artistic and educational forms of commemoration.
In April 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Bolzano, four artworks by local artist Christine Tschager, who had won an international competition, were unveiled. Her works honour the victims at three historic sites: at the former camp premises, at the Virgl Tunnel, where many prisoners had to conduct forced labour, and at Pacinotti street, from where the prisoners were sent off to board deportation trains.

Bolzano, undated, Cell block at the Bolzano camp, Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea Milano

Bolzano, 2005, Monument at the starting point for many deportations, designed by Christine Tschager, Carla Giacomozzi

Possibilities

Municipal archive Bolzano: Guided tours by appointment, publications, travelling exhibition, conferences, audiovisual archive of remembrance

Open

The remains of the perimeter wall and the monuments are accessible at all times.

Contact

http://www.gemeinde.bozen.it/cultura_context.jsp?ID_LINK=739&area=11

carla.giacomozzi@comune.bolzano.it

+39 0471 997 391

Via Resia 80
39100 Bolzano

Bolzano, 2005, Monument by Christine Tschager on the former camp premises, Carla Giacomozzi

Bolzano, 2005, Monument at the Virgl Tunnel by Christine Tschager, Carla Giacomozzi

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