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:
ORDINE D'INTERNAMENTO DEGLI ZINGARI ITALIANI 11 settembre 1940Internamento a Vinchiaturo 1940
Se nulla risulta inviare al campo di concentramento1940
Ambasciata italiana a Berlino parla di zingari equiparati a ebrei
Carovane di zingari e invio ai campi di concentramento1943
Luogo internamento negli abruzzi
Famiglia reinardi (reinhardt) fermata
Documenti Agnone::
Affitto ex convento 1940Agnone campo concentramento per zingari 1941
Descrizione campo 1940
Documentazione campo di Agnone
Elenco internati agnone 1941
Presenze ad agnone 1942
Presenze agnone1943
Scuola al campo di concentramento 1943
Documenti Boiano::
Campo concentramento per zingari 1941Disponibilità locali a Boiano 1940
Documentazione campo di Boiano
Figli degli internati 1941
Soppressione Boiano e spostamento ad Agnone 1941
Visita campo 1941
Documenti Gonars::
Documentazione campo di GonarsLettera podesta
Memorie cordaro_0001
Registro atti di morte gonars
Documenti Prignano::
Almanacco_55-56Documenti Tossicia::
Documentazione campo di TossiciaPresenze nel campo 1942
Tossicia 1941
Tossicia condizioni 1942
Tossicia sussidio 1942