Bolzano Transit Camp

The Bolzano transit camp ( _de. Polizei und Durchgangslager Bozen) was a Nazi concentration camp active in Bolzano between 1944 and the end of the Second World War. It was one of the four largest Nazi "lager" in Italy with those ones of Fossoli, Borgo San Dalmazzo and Trieste.

History

Bolzano, after September 8th, became the head-quarter of the Prealps Operating Zone and was under Nazi army's control. When the Fossoli's internment camp was considered as unsafe and dismantled, Bolzano became the transit camp for prisoners headed for Mauthausen, Flossenbürg, Dachau, Ravensbrück and Auschwitz.It began operative in summer 1944, in erstwhile buildings belonged to the Italian Army, and during almost ten months of activity passed there over 11,000 prisoners coming from middle and northern Italy. They were mainly political opponents, though there were also Hebrew and Gypsy deportees.A part of deportees was transferred in the Reich's "lager", while another part was employed "in loco", as free labour, either in camp laboratories and in the firms of the neighbourhood or in the apple orchards.As the Allied advanced, deportees were freed between 1945 April 29th and May 3rd, when the camp was closed. SS took care of destroying the entire documentation related to camp before withdrawing.

The camp

Originally the camp was projected for 1,500 people. For this reason two shed were divided in six blocks, one of which reserved to women. Afterwards the camp was enlarged until it reached a capacity of 4,000 prisoners.The blocks were marked by letters. In the block A there were fixed labourers, treated better than others because they were necessary for the regular camp functioning; in blocks D and E were maintained political prisoners, considered as the most dangerous ones, separated from other deportees; in block F there were women and children. Hebrew male deportees were crammed in the block L. There was a block working as jail with 50 posts.The camp was directed by Verona SS department. The German chief of Gestapo and security service in Italy was the "Brigadeführer" (brigade general) Wilhelm Harster, while the camp executive directors were the tenent Titho and the marshal Haage, who headed a garrison of German, Swiss and Ukrainian soldiers.

ub-camps

Bolzano camp was the unique in Italy to have dependent forced-labour camps. The most important ones were in Merano, Senales, Sarentino, Moso in Passiria and in Vipiteno. Truly the definition of sub-camps in quite improper: they were sheds or barracks.

Resistance

There was a resistance organisation based on inner and outer branches in the camp and it was divided in three parallel forms:
* the political resistance, organised by the CLN and partigians;
* the resistance organised by priests (most of them were accused to help prisoners and deported);
* the spontaneous resistance, made by citizens that helped deportees.This organisation involved many people and managed to communicate news from the camp outside and vice versa.The internal net permitted several fugues.

Processes

On November 2000 the military court of Verona condemned to life sentence Michael Seifert, Ukrainian SS active in the camp with the nickname of Misha, who committed horrible atrocities against deportees, especially against those ones folded in the jail block.It's one of those cases hidden for decades which resurfaced by the discover of the so called "armadio della vergogna" (shame's wardrobe) in 1994. Among the Seifert's prisoners, and his accomplice Otto Sein, there was the young Mike Bongiorno.Seifert, who took refuge in Canada after the war, had to response to 15 accusations and 18 murders. He was tracked by a journalist of the Vancouver Sun few days before the process.His story has been reconstructed by two Italian historians, Giorgio Mezzalira and Carlo Romeo, in the book entitled "Mischa, the jailer of the Bolzano lager".In 1999 were processed the camp directors too, Titho and Haage: the first one was absolved by profs lack while the second was already died.

References

#cite book
last = Agosti
first = Giannantonio
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1968
chapter =
title = Nei lager vinse la bontà. Memorie dell'internamento nei campi di eliminazione tedeschi.
publisher = Edizioni missioni estere dei padri Cappuccini
location =
id =
#cite book
last = Fergagni
first = Enea
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1945
chapter =
title = Un uomo, tre numeri
publisher = Speroni
location = Milan
id =
#cite book
last = Giacomozzi
first = Carla
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1945
chapter =
title = L'ombra del buio
publisher =
location = Comune di Bolzano
id =
#cite book
last = Mezzalira
first = Giorgio
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 1995
chapter =
title = "Mischa". L'aguzzino del Lager di Bolzano
publisher =
location = Bolzano
id =
#cite book
last = Mezzalira
first = Giorgio
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2002
chapter =
title = Anche a volerlo raccontare è impossibile
publisher = Circolo ANPI di Bolzano
location = Bolzano
id =
#cite book
last = Ratschiller
first = Ludwig
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2005
chapter =
title = Autobiografia di un partigiano
publisher = Circolo ANPI di Bolzano
location = Bolzano
id =
#cite book
last = Venegoni
first = Dario
authorlink =
coauthors =
year = 2004
chapter =
title = Uomini, donne e bambini nel Lager di Bolzano. Una tragedia italiana in 7,982 storie individuali
publisher = Mimesis
location = Milan
id = ISBN 9788884832245
#cite book
last = Villani
first = Cinzia
authorlink =
coauthors =
year =
chapter =
title = Va una folla di schiavi. Lager di Bolzano e lavoro coatto (1944-1945)
publisher =
location =
id =