Credits: Chiesa di Genova
Where are we?
We are at the Student Dormitory, in Genoa
Home to the European Resistance Museum and the object of hundreds of annual visits, it was the headquarters of the Gestapo and a place of torture and detention from 1943 to April 1945.
The Casa dello Studente, or Student House, was built by the University of Genoa in Corso Gastaldi between 1933 and 1935. Shortly after its completion, the building was taken over by the Fascist Party. After the occupation of the city by German troops, the Student House became the Gestapo headquarters and functioned as an interrogation and torture site under the supervision of Friedrich Engel, SS-Obersturmbannführer and head of Genoa’s security and police services. As well as the Gestapo, Italian Fascists used the building to quell the Resistance and suppress their opponents. Hundreds of anti-fascists were tortured and killed there before the liberation of Genoa on 23rd April 1945.
From 1946, after a brief period during which the building was open to the public, the Student House was once again used as a residence for university students. Access to the underground rooms that were used for torture was walled off. After these rooms were rediscovered by students and former Resistance fighters, a project began in 1972 which sought to set up a memorial to the international resistance of the Second World War. Today, the Student House contains, among other things, the Museum of European Resistance, which allows the public to visit the building’s cells and vaulted cellars.
Facility or museum: yes
Geographic location: Genoa, Liguria
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