The Bolzano-Gries concentration and transit camp

(Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige)
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Credits: Costantino Di Sante

Where are we?

We are in Bolzano

Today a residential complex, in 1944 it replaced the Fossoli camp. The almost 9,500 internees are remembered by a memorial stone (1985), art installations (2005), a permanent exhibition and a Memorial (2019).

After 8th September 1943, Bolzano became the capital of the Alpenvorland (Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills) and fell under the direct control of the Reich. Bolzano-Gries was the fourth Nazi-run camp on Italian soil after the Risiera di San Sabba, Borgo San Dalmazzo, and Fossoli. It opened in the summer of 1944 after the closure of Fossoli, from where the prisoners were transferred. It was essentially a transit camp: partisans, opponents, Jews, and gypsies rounded up in Northern Italy were detained there before being deported to Mauthausen, Dachau, Flossenbürg, Ravensbrück, and Auschwitz.

Many prisoners from the Bolzano camp were used as forced labourers in the surrounding areas. The highest recorded number of prisoners in the camp is 11,115, including 3,000 prisoners who came from Fossoli. Today, it is estimated that around 9,500 people were deported to the Bolzano camp. A Resistance organisation which was very active both within and outside the camp assisted deportees and sought to organise their escape. The camp finally closed at the beginning of May 1945.

Today, almost nothing remains of the camp. Housing estates have been built on much of the area. The prisoners are remembered with a memorial stone, several art installations, and an exhibition trail. In the 1990s, the Historical Archive of the City of Bolzano conducted the History and Memory: the Bolzano Camp project, compiling around 200 interviews with former deportees. In addition, a portion of the camp’s boundary wall was placed under the Province’s protection, and in 2006 the Municipality unveiled a series of panels commemorating what occurred there.

Photo: The camp during its days of activity. Credits: Archivio Foto Pedrotti, Bolzano – Campo di Bolzano

USEFUL INFORMATION

Facility or museum: yes

Website: www.comune.bolzano.it

Geographic location: Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige

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Uomini, donne e bambini nel Lager di Bolzano – Una tragedia italiana in 7.982 storie individuali