Casoli, Fascist Concentration Camp Casoli (CH), Italy

Concentration camps in the fascist environment denote a space limited within the perimeter, within which different categories of prisoners are separated in existing or new structures. These are almost always single-sex areas, that is, male or female and rarely mixed.

Sites of free internment are communities of forced residence for interned persons, who can rejoin their family units. It is clear that the conditions of "internment" in the fascist concentration camp are more unpleasant and harsh than others: promiscuity limited freedom of movement, strict rules, separation from the family unit surveillance, punishments, prohibition of work, limited communication, etc.

Based on these considerations, the Casoli camp, due to its structure and function, was a concentration camp for interned persons (shortened to "fascist camp"). The decision to establish the camp in Casoli was also dependent on the geographical location.

In the report of Inspector of Public Security Robert Falcone dated April 27, 1940, we read:

"The most dangerous groups of interned persons or imprisoned individuals can be sent, if possible to the municipalities of Casoli and Lama dei Peligni, which are located in a mountainous area of the province, far from the most important communication routes and state railway lines."

The fascist camp of Casoli had two different periods of internment due to two different categories of interned persons. We have the first "Jewish" period of the camp, which lasted from July 9, 1940, the date of entry of the first group of 51 foreign Jews from the Trieste prison, to May 3, 1942, the date of entry of the group of political interned persons, antifascists, "former Yugoslavs", transferred from the concentration camp of Corropoli (region Teramo). All the Jews from the Casoli camp were moved to the camp of Campagna in the province of Salerno. This second phase lasted until February 2, 1944, the date recorded in the document, which still confirms the presence of 18 Slavic interned persons, which testifies to the fact that the camp was still operating despite the armistice of September 8, 1943. Between 1940 and 1944, a total of 218 interned persons passed through the Casoli camp: 108 foreign Jews, mostly Austrians, Germans, Croats and Macedonians, and 110 "former Yugoslavs", mostly Croats and Slovenes, "Julians who speak Slovene and/or Croatian".

Source: campofascisti.it