1940-1943 I campi di concentramento fascisti per rom e sinti

On the 11th of September, 1940 Arturo Bocchini issued the final order aimed at fighting the so-called “gypsy plague” through the eradication, detention and deportation of all Roma and Sinti (including the Italian nationals) and their reclusion in specific places. This represented a fundamental tightening of the screw: the definition of “gypsy” in fact erased all references to Italian citizenship. The heads of the police proved particularly keen on arrests and the regime began to prepare a network of concentration camps in Italy that were uniquely reserved to the “gypsies”. The first camp was located in a former tobacco factory in Bojano (in the province of Campobasso): between 1940 and 1941, 58 Roma and Sinti were taken here from different parts of the country; however, due to the requirement to identify the building as a concentration camp where prisoners could work on broom, the camp had to be transferred to the near town of Agnone (today in the province of Isernia), together with its 58 prisoners. These were later joined by a further 100 people, who were registered in the camp lists at the beginning of 1943. Agnone became the main collection point for “gypsies” deported by the Fascist regime; however, the hundreds of Roma and Sinti that were arrested were distributed among the nearby provinces: new concentration camps for Roma and Sinti therefore arose in Berra (Ferrara), Prignano sulla Secchia (Modena), Torino di Sangro (Chieti), Chieti, Fontecchio negli Abruzzi (Chieti); in 1942, a new concentration camp ordered by the government began its activity in Tossicia (Teramo), with the sole aim of detaining the Roma of Postumia and allowing the Head of the police, Berti, to declare that Istria was finally “gypsy-free”; in the past, other Roma prisoners from the Eastern border had also been confined to the camp of Gonars (UD).

Besides the new concentration camps, prisons also became a waiting area for “gypsies” waiting to be deported to Fascist camps; many prisoners were in fact initially transferred from many Italian detention centres, which between 1940 and 1943 were invaded by Roma and Sinti that had been detained and were waiting to be moved to Agnone (like the prisoners of Cento, province of Ferrara).

Documenti:

Internamento a Vinchiaturo 1940

Invio alle isole tremiti 1940

Invio alle tremiti 1940

Se nulla risulta inviare al campo di concentramento1940

Carovane di zingari e invio ai campi di concentramento1943

Luogo internamento negli abruzzi

Famiglia reinardi (reinhardt) fermata

Documenti Agnone::

Documenti Boiano::

Documenti Gonars::

Documenti Prignano::

Documenti Tossicia::