»Villa Oliveto« – Documentation Centre on Concentration Camps in Italy

Centro di documentazione sui campi di concentramento in Italia »Villa Oliveto«

Italian fascists held foreign Jews – most of them from Libya – at the »Villa Oliveto« internment camp. The German occupying forces deported some of them to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. The »Villa Oliveto« documentation centre has since 2001 tended to preserving the historical site and teaching about its past.

History

»Villa Oliveto«, located 16 kilometres from Arezzo, was one of four internment camps for civilians in the region of Tuscany under the rule of the Italian Fascists. Prior to that, followers of the Croatian Ustaša movement were trained here from 1934 on. Beginning June 1940, when Italy joined the war as Germany's ally, foreign Jewish men were held at the camp. In 1941, the »Ministry for Italian Africa« decided to evacuate all foreigners living in Libya – which had been an Italian colony since 1911 – and intern them in Italy. Of the approximately 7,000 foreigners, 870 were Jews with British citizenship. Most of them were taken from Tripoli to Naples and then transferred to various internment camps. On January 16, 1942, 51 of them arrived at Villa Oliveto. They were exhausted from the long journey, some had to be hospitalised immediately. A Swiss delegation which visited Villa Oliveto in January 1942 reported hazardous hygienic conditions at the camp. Food supplies were insufficient and the internees could only survive thanks to aid packages from the Red Cross. Following Italy's armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943, the internees who had been held at Villa Oliveto were released. Feeling safer at the camp and fearing that the escape of entire families with small children might be impossible, about 70 Jews from Libya decided to voluntarily remain at Villa Oliveto. However, the German Wehrmacht soon invaded northern Italy and the camp was once again sealed off. On February 5, 1944, the inmates were transferred to the Fossoli transit camp via Florence. From Fossoli they were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After four months they were released in exchange for German prisoners of war.

Civitella in Val di Chiana, 1943, »Villa Oliveto« at the time of internments, Biblioteca comunale di Civitella in Val di Chiana

Civitella in Val di Chiana, 2003, Survivor Gabriel Burbea speaking at the opening of the documentation centre, Biblioteca comunale di Civitella Val di Chiana

Victims

German, French, English and Polish Jewish men aged between 26 and 58 as well as Libyan Jews with British citizenship were interned at »Villa Oliveto«. There were at least 9 families among the internees from Libya, including 27 women and children. 7 more children were born at the camp. In June 1942, all of the single men were transferred to other camps, and only the Libyan families remained at Villa Oliveto. About 70 of them were taken to Florence on February 5, 1944, from where they were transferred first to the Fossoli transit camp, then to Bergen-Belsen on February 19, 1944. Since they were supposed to be released in exchange for German prisoners of war, they were then taken to the French camp Vittel, until they were finally brought to Tripoli via Portugal, Casablanca and Algeria. They arrived in Tripoli on November 10, 1944.
In Libya itself, at least 500 Jews died in the Italian camp Giado between 1942 and 1943.

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

The »Villa Oliveto« documentation centre was established in 2001 on initiative of the »Association for the History and Remembrance of the Republic« and the community of Civitella. The centre administers the preservation of the former camp premises and teaches about the history of internment camps in fascist Italy.
The documentation centre moreover commemorates 250 civilians who were murdered on June 29, 1944, in Civtella as part of German »reprisal measures«, probably by members of the 1st Paratroop Panzer Division Hermann Göring.

Tripoli, 1945, Libyan Jews with British citizenship returning home, Yad Vashem

Civitella in Val di Chiana, 2003, Villa Oliveto is located on the hilltop, Biblioteca comunale di Civitella in Val di Chiana

Possibilities

Archive, library, video archive with eyewitness testimonies, exhibition

Open

By prior appointment

Contact

http://www.storiaememorie.it/villaoliveto

biblio@civichiana.it

+39 0575 445 303

Via del Chiesino, 70
52041 Albergo AR

Civitella in Val di Chiana, 2009, Memorial to the victims of the massacre of June 29, 1944, Alessio Undini

Civitella in Val di Chiana, 2003, The documentation centre is on the second floor of the building, Biblioteca comunale di Civitella in Val di Chiana

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