The Police Transit Camps in Fossoli and Bolzano

1 Carlo Gentile, Cologne The Police Transit Camps in Fossoli and Bolzano Historical report in connection with the trial of Michael SEIFERT Introduction On 1 September 1939 the first in a series of European wars began, which, in 1941 escalated into a worldwide military conflict involving the Soviet Union, the USA and Japan. It was primarily the major powers of Germany, Italy and Japan that since the world economic crisis (1929-1933) had been calling into question the new political order, which had been created in Europe and eastern Asia in 1919-1921. The aspirations of these countries had been emerging since the early 1930s and were aimed at a re-distribution of the spheres of power and influence, raw-material sources and markets. In Germany, Hitler's policies were aimed at war from the outset. The immediate goal of revising the Versailles Peace Treaty of 28 June 1919 and his medium-term goal of taking living-space (Lebensraum) in the east and establishing a continental empire were aims he shared not only with his close adherents in the Nazi Party, but also with the members of the German Reich's traditional leadership elites in the military, the government and the economy. After being appointed German Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933, Hitler pursued a national revisionist policy, combined with far-reaching expansionist and racial-ideological goals, which initially remained hidden behind the concepts of "struggle against Versailles" and "Greater Germany". Hitler’s politics were aimed at a total re-casting of European life along racially ideological principles with, at their core, a radical universal anti-Semitism. 1 Italy and Germany at War Right after Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933 a continuous political rapprochement began between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, which led to a close diplomatic and military co-operation between the two powers. In 1935 Italy attacked and conquered Ethiopia under 1 A. Hillgruber, Der Zweite Weltkrieg 1939-1945. Kriegsziele und Strategie der großen Mächte [World War II, 1939-1945. War objectives and strategy of the major powers], 5th improved edition, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne, 1989, p. 12.; G. Schreiber, Der Zweite Weltkrieg [World War II], Munich, 2002. 2 Hitler’s benevolent neutrality. Both countries intervened in the Spanish Civil War supporting Franco’s Nationalist forces against the leftist Republican government. Mussolini’s regime fully supported the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 and its occupation of Czechoslovakia one year later. In May 1939 a close military alliance was finally forged between the two powers: the so-called „Pact of Steel“ was born. However, in the early stages of the war, Italy managed to maintain a neutral position, which it abandoned in June 1940 when, during the last days of Hitler’s campaign against France, Italy entered the war on the German side. Very soon it became evident how inadequate Italy’s war preparation had been. After a successful British counteroffensive in Northern Africa and the catastrophic beginning of an Italian offensive against Greece in 1940, Mussolini urgently requested military assistance, which Hitler conceded in 1941 with Rommel’s „Africa Corps“ and with a joint German-Italian campaign against Yugoslavia and Greece. Italy’s lack of success in the war demonstrated the country’s growing political and military subordination under the German leadership. By 1943, the full extent of Italy's political and military crisis was revealed: an Italian expedition corps at the eastern front was destroyed in January 1943 and a few months later, in May 1943, the German-Italian troops in North Africa surrendered to the Allies. Italy’s relationship with Germany had also been troubled for a long time, even marked by deep mistrust. German leaders had had their doubts about how reliable their most important ally was. They were suspicious not so much of Benito Mussolini himself as of members of the Italian conservative forces, the officers corps, the civil service, the clergy and the court, whom the Nazi leaders deemed anti-German. In June 1943, the German High Command of the Wehrmacht began moving troops into the areas of southern Italy, Sardinia and Corsica, which were threatened by an Allied landing. On 10 July 1943 Allied forces landed in Sicily thus starting the Italian Campaign. Over July and August, the number of Wehrmacht and SS units in Italy increased substantially. However, they were no longer being sent to southern Italy, where German and Italian troops were fighting together against the Allied forces. Instead, they were taking up position at strategically important points in northern and central Italy. Officially, these German units were defending the coast and the supply routes, but in reality this was an attempt to effect a "cold" occupation of Italy. Two German Army Groups with over 200.000 3 soldiers were responsible for occupying Italy, disarming Italy’s soldiers and, building on the fascist organizations, ensuring German control over the country. On the political front, following a vote of no confidence within his own Fascist Grand Council, Mussolini was dismissed on 25 July 1943 by King Victor Emmanuel III, who on the same day appointed Marshall Pietro Badoglio, a senior army officer and politician, to head a new government. 2 Although the first official announcement from Marshal Badoglio contained assurances of wanting to continue waging the war on the side of Germany, Hitler interpreted Mussolini's dismissal and arrest on 25 July 1943 as a betrayal of the alliance. In fact, in early August the Italian government secretly started to negotiate a ceasefire with the Allies. In a climate of mutual uncertainty, Italy and Germany were in the end trying to safeguard their own national interests, and pains were taken until the end to preserve the appearance of an alliance, which in fact no longer existed. The Occupation of Italy and the Establishment of a German SS and Police Organization When finally the Italian capitulation was announced on 8 September 1943, German troops quickly occupied northern and central Italy. The Nazi leadership saw the opportunity to exploit the country's territorial, economic and population 'resources' for Germany's war effort. After Benito Mussolini was rescued by German troops, a fascist satellite government, the Italian Social Republic, was put in place under his leadership in the German held northern and central part of the country. As a parallel move to the installation of the fascist government, a military administration was established to ensure that German interests would be asserted directly. 3 As everywhere in Germany's sphere of influence, the SS and Police apparatus spread in occupied Italy under the leadership of a Higher SS and Police Leader that was vested with sweeping powers. The man chosen for this task was Heinrich Himmler‘s long-time Chief of the Personal Staff and liaison officer to Hitler, SS General Karl Wolff. As the territorial 2 On the German-Italian alliance and its crisis s., Frederick W. Deakin, The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism, London, 1962. 3 Klinkhammer, Zwischen Bündnis und Besatzung. Das nationalsozialistische Deutschland und die Republik von Salò [Between alliance and occupation. National Socialist Germany and the republic of Salò], Tübingen, 1993, p. 555. 4 representative of the „Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police“, he was responsible for commanding and co-ordinating the activities of the various police and SS organizations. In late July 1943, Wolff had already been instructed in Munich to assemble personnel in order to establish an SS and Police command for Italy 4. According to the "Führer Order" dated 10 September 1943, his official title was that of a "special advisor for police matters with the Italian government". Soon afterwards, his title was changed to "Highest SS and Police Leader in Italy" 5. The choice of this official title, which was the first time it was used, was apparently a concession to Wolff's prominent status in the SS hierarchy: " ... SSObergruppenführer Wolff [...] is now – it is the first time anyone has held this position – the Highest SS and Police Leader for all of occupied Italy. He is therefore responsible for a region with 25 to 30 million inhabitants. He will have under his command SS Lieutenant General Globocnik, as Higher SS and Police Leader for the coastal area, as well as several SS and Police leaders" 6. All of the „SS-Leaders“ chosen to be part of Karl Wolff’s staff were experienced SS men. Many of them had already seen service in similar positions in Eastern Europe before being transferred to Italy. The most notorious of them was of course Odilo Globocnik, former SS and Police Leader in Lublin and responsible for the murdering of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Gypsies in Poland. 7 Karl Brunner was appointed as SS und Police Leader in 4 Wolff, Karl: born on 13.5.1900 in Darmstadt; SS No. 14 235, Nazi Party No. 695 131; 1933-1943: Adjutant of the "Reichsführer-SS", Heinrich Himmler; as of 1936: member of the "Greater German Reichstag" for the district of Hessen; 1940: SS-Obergruppenführer and General in the Waffen-SS; Highest SS and Police Leader for Italy (September 1943 – end of the war); official HQ: Fasano (BS), Bundesarchiv [Federal Archives], Berlin, personnel file, Karl Wolff. 5 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, The Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the Deutsche Polizei, Appointment of Karl Wolff as Highest SS and Police Leader in Italy, 23.9.1943. In regard to organisation of the SS and Police Leaders, R.B. Birn, Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer. Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten [The Higher SS and Police Leaders. Himmler's representatives in the Reich and in the occupied territories], Düsseldorf, 1986. 6 The Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal. Nuremberg, 14 November 1945 – 1 October 1946, 42 vols., Nuremberg, 1947-1949, vol., doc. 1919-PS, Himmler's speech at the SS-Gruppenführer conference in Posen on 4 October 1943. 7 Globocnik, Odilo: born on 21.04.1904 in Trieste; SS No. 292 776, Nazi Party No. 412 938; SSBrigadeführer, member of Greater German Reichstag; September 1939: with the "Germania" Regiment of the SS (attack on Poland); November 1939 - September 1943: SS and Police Leader in the district of Lublin; SSGruppenführer and Generalleutnant in the Police; September 1943 – end of the war: Higher SS and Police Leader, Adriatic coastal area; official HQ: Trieste. Data from: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Globocnik. 5 Bolzano 8. In January 1944 other SS and Police leaders were officially installed in Northern Italy: Willi Tensfeld, from 1941 to 1943 SS and Police Leader in the Ukraine, was appointed SS and Police Leader „Upper Italy-West“ in Monza 9 and Karl Heinz Bürger (formerly in Caucasus and in the Ukraine), SS and Police Leader special assignment 10 and charged with anti-partisan operations. Another "SS Leader" assigned to Karl Wolff's staff was Paul Zimmermann, an economic expert of the SS, who served in the Baltic area in 1941-1942 and in the Ukraine in 1943 11. In Italy Zimmermann was in charge of combating the strike movement in the winter of 1943/44. The structure of the German SS and Police apparatus in occupied Italy was similar to the one that had come into being under Nazi rule in the other occupied territories. It comprised, first of all, the Security Police and SD and the Security Service (Sicherheitspolizei and the SD) whose responsibilities, apart from pursuing and suppressing all of the Third Reich's non-military opponents and combating the resistance movements and the partisans, included organizing and carrying out the anti-Jewish measures and the deportations in connection with the "Final Solution", the murder of Jews. Chief of the Security Police and 8 Brunner, Karl: born on 26.7.1900 in Passau; SS No. 107 161; Nazi Party No. 1 903 386; SS Major, SD Main Office (1937); SS-Standartenführer, Inspector in the Security Police and SD, Salzburg (1942); SSBrigadeführer and Major General in the Police; SS and Police Leader, Alpenvorland (9.9.1943 – end of the war); official HQ: Bolzano; data from: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Brunner. 9 Tensfeld, Willi: born on 27.11.1893 in Bornhöved, district of Segeberg; SS No. 14 724; Nazi Party No. 695 131; SS-Brigadeführer and Gen. Maj. in the Police; 1.9.1939 - 31.7.1941: Staff officer [Stabsführer] with the SS Regional HQ for the North Sea; 4.8.1941 - 19.5.1943: SS and Police Leader, Charkow; 19.5. - 4.9.1943: SS and Police Leader, Stalino (now Donetsk); 1.9.1943 - 21.1.1944, Italy; 21.1.1944 – end of the war: SS and Police Leader, Upper Italy - West; official HQ: Monza; data from: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Tensfeld. 10 Bürger, Karl Heinz: born on 16.2.1904 in Güstrow; SS No. 156 309; Nazi Party No. 68 902; SS Major; October 1941 - March 1943: SS and Police Leader, Northern Caucasus; March - 15.9.1943: Leader of Einsatzkommando for special assignment with the Highest SS and Police Leader, Russia South; SSStandartenführer and Colonel in the Police; as of 1.12.1943 in Italy; 23.1 - 31.3.1944: SS and Police Leader special assignment; 1.4 - July 1944: SS and Police Leader, Central Italy; official HQ: Perugia; July - August 1944: SS and Police Leader, West Emilia; official HQ: Casinalbo (Modena); 15.8.1944 – end of the war: SS and Police Leader, Upper Italy - Centre; official HQ: Desenzano or Portese (Brescia); 1945: SS-Brigadeführer and Gen. Maj. in the Police; data from: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Bürger. 11 Zimmermann, Paul, born on 2.7.1895 in Münster; SS No. ?, Nazi Party No. ?; SS-Brigadeführer; 1.2 1.6.1943: employed in Ukraine in anti-partisan warfare; 1.6 - 1.9.1943: SS and Police Leader, Nikolayev; as of 1.9.1943 transferred to Highest SS and Police Leader, Italy; data from: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Zimmermann. 6 SD [Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und SD/BdS] was SS Lieutenant General Wilhelm Harster in Verona. 12 The organization of the Security Police and SD Wilhelm Harster's central office was organized on the model of the Berlin‘s Reich Security Main Office (RSHA: Reichssicherheitshauptamt) and subdivided into a police branch and an intelligence branch. He had six departments under his authority: Section I dealing with all personnel questions and particularly with training and instruction. Section II, the administration office, dealing with budget, economic and technical matters). Section III, the Security Service/SD, the „domestic“ secret intelligence service. Its field of activity extended to collecting intelligence and information and to submitting regular reports in a wide variety of fields: politics, the economy, law, religion, science and culture, both about persons and organizations and also about intellectual trends. 13 Section IV (Gestapo 14 or Secret State Police, the political branch of the German police, which served as the executive arm in the process of fighting all adversaries of the Nazi State and ridding Germany of “undesirable” elements, especially „political and racial“ opponents and also dealing with counter-intelligence. Section V (Kripo, Kriminalpolizei 15: the branch of the Security Police whose duties included prevention of crime, enforcement of rationing and price control (the fight against the 12 Harster, Dr. Wilhelm: born on 21.07.1904 in Kelheim (Bavaria); SS member since 9.3.1933, No. 225952; Nazi Party member since 20.4.1933, No. 3226954; at the time of employment in Italy: SSBrigadeführer and Generalmajor in the Police. 1920-1926: Freikorps [Free Corps]; 1922-1926: University of Munich; 1927: earned a Doctor of Laws at the University of Erlangen; October 1929: joined the police service in Stuttgart; spring of 1931: taken on by the political police; 16.7.1931: deputy to the head of the political regional police office, Stuttgart; SD Main Office; 1938: Chief of the Gestapo in Innsbruck; 10.10.1939 30.11.1939: Chief of the Security Police and SD, Cracow; 30.11.1939 - 1.6.1940: Inspector of the Security Police and SD, Kassel; 12.7.1940 - 3.9.1943: Chief of the Security Police and SD, Netherlands; 4.9.1943 to the end of the war: Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy; 9.11.1944: SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant in the Police. Data from: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Harster; see also Bundesarchiv, Berlin, The Chief of the Security Police and SD, Appointment of Wilhelm Harster as Commander of the Security Police and SD in Italy, 9 November 1943. 13 Cf. Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/11, Plan of division of responsibilities in Department III of the Commander of the Security Police and SD in Italy. 14 Secret State Police, Geheime Staatspolizei abbreviated as Gestapo. 15 Criminal investigation police, Kriminalpolizei, also abbreviated as Kripo. 7 “Black Market”), scientific investigation and research on crime. The Kripo was for "combating capital crimes, offences against morality and economic offences" as perpetrated by German citizens or "persons of ethnic origin" and was also responsible for dealing with any criminal offences affecting German interests, regardless of the perpetrator's citizenship. 16 Section VI was the SD foreign intelligence service. Their field of activity comprised intelligence gathering outside of Germany and particularly amongst enemy countries, counter intelligence, sabotage and the building stay-behind networks. Department III was headed by Major Dr. Ernst Turowski, an historian, responsible for gathering information on political, cultural and economic matters. The head of Department IV was SS Major Dr. Fritz Kranebitter, formerly a member of Einsatzgruppe C in the Ukraine and in early 1942 Sub-regional Commander of the Security Police and SD [Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und SD/KdS] in Charkow. Department V was headed by a career policemen, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Franz Gasser; Department VI was headed by an intelligence specialist, SS Major Dr. Klaus Huegel. 17 Each department was further subdivided into groups, sections and subject areas. As for the internal organization of the Gestapo department in Verona, it was in keeping with the various categories of "opponents" whom they had to "combat" in Italy. Thus, Section IV-1, "Opposition", was headed by Second Lieutenant Josef Didinger, who was responsible for handling subject areas 1a –1c: a) Left-wing movement, including the press and inflammatory leaflets, radio broadcasting crimes; b) "resistance movement, anti-partisan warfare, reaction, supporters of the King and Badoglio, liberalism" c) "violation of contracts of employment, prisoners of war, anti-social behaviour on the part of Italians". Didinger was also the section head of IV-4, "ideological opponents" and thus responsible for subject area IV-4a: political religious bodies, sects, Freemasons. However, for subject area IV-4 b, a separate "specialist 16 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/15, The Highest SS and Police Leader in Italy, Chief of the Security Police and SD, file B.Nr. V-80/43, Verona, 27.11.1943, duties and jurisdiction of the German Kriminalpolizei in Italy. 17 Cf. BA-MA [Bundesarchiv – Militärarchiv] RH 31 VI/6, organization of the Security Police and SD in Italy, 1 December 1943; Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/1, Appointments to officer positions in the offices and units of the Highest SS and Police Leader in Italy; ZSL 518 AR-Z 4/63, trial of Friedrich Bosshammer, vol. 4, p. 646 f. 8 for Jewish affairs" was appointed. The notorious Theo Dannecker held this position at first, but was relieved in February 1944 by SS Major Fritz Bosshammer. Section IV-2, Sabotage, was under SS Second Lieutenant Kurt Lahr. It comprised subject areas 2a: sabotage, assassinations, explosives and weapons, political forgeries and 2b: counter-intelligence. SS Captain Franz Schwinghammer headed Section IV-3: CounterIntelligence, with the subject areas counter-espionage, safeguarding of industries and protection of factories, border affairs. Schwinghammer also headed Section IV-6, with its subject areas 6a (card indexes relating to detention and “protective custody” [Schutzhaft]) and 6b: “protective custody”, labour education camps. Section IV-5 was managed personally by departmental head Kranebitter. His sphere of responsibility included contact with German civilians in Italy, with the Nazi Party, with the fascist-republican party and with members of the press. Apart from being this official point of contact and figurehead, however, he was also responsible for organizing measures for personal protection and similar "special duties". 18 Harster’s Field Commands As of the autumn of 1943, Harster was building up a comprehensive network of "field commands" [Aussenkommandos, abbr. AK] and "field posts” [Aussenposten, abbr. AP] of the Security Police and SD, which were usually located in the main cities and organized with the same structure as the offices of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, with section heads for the various subject areas. The field offices of the Commander of the Security Police and SD were – contrary to common practice in the East – not assigned to the territorially relevant SS and Police Leader, but instead remained under the direct command of Harster. 19 Also peculiar was that in lieu of the customary intermediate authority of the sub-regional commanders of the Security Police and SD, Harster had direct authority over most of the field commands. In fact, only in Bolzano, in the area of the SS and Police Leader for the Alpenvorland, was there a sub-regional commander and in Milan, the "Group Upper Italy West", which was responsible for the outposts in Milan, Turin and Genoa. 18 BA [Bundesarchiv] Potsdam, R 70 Italien, volume 11, p. 38 f. The Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, Plan for the division of responsibilities in Department IV (Geheime Staatspolizei), 14.4.1944. 19 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 19/332, report about the official trip made to Italy by Oberstlt. [Oberstleutnant – approx. rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the SS] in the Gendarmerie [Gend.] Kuhn (Org. 4) und Major [approx. rank of Major] in the Schutzpolizei [SchP.] Degener (Org. 3), Berlin, 5 May 1944, p. 13. 9 When the occupation started, there were roughly a dozen field commands, which began their work as of late September/early October 1943, their number rose to about forty by the end of the war. 20 At the end of December 1943, for example, the Sub-regional Commander of the Security Police and SD in Bolzano had six field posts under his authority, whereas the Commander of the Security Police and SD in Trieste had four field commands under his authority. By that time, field posts were already located in the major Italian cities like Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, Padua, Milan, Genoa, and Turin. Later on in 1944 commands were also established in the cities of Macerata, Parma, Forlì and Brescia. Over the course of time, when the increased partisan activity necessitated a more comprehensive control of the occupied territory, a number of field posts were created below the level of the field commands. 21 At the Frontier Command Post - West, which was headed by SS Captain Josef Vötterl in Como, Harster had his own mobile Frontier Protection Squad of the Security Police and SD, whose work included, besides the guarding of the Swiss-Italian border, "anti-partisan actions, reconnaissance actions and small-scale combat actions as well as wide-ranging actions to seize Jews [Judengreifaktionen]" 22. Harster’s Personnel The personnel serving the Commander of the Security Police and SD in Italy came from three different sources: from the former Einsatzkommando, the German police apparatus and the Reich German or "ethnic German" Italian experts recruited on-site. These specialized personnel recruited on-site played a significant role in the field commands, too. Of the 20 The official orders of the Chief of the Security Police and SD provide information about the establishment of offices: Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien, vol. 12, The Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, official orders nos. 1-15, 27 and 30, as well as special official orders [Sonderdienstbefehle] nos. 1 and 2, 1943-1945. 21 Organization of the office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, December 1943 (not including the Group Upper Italy - West) in: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 31 VI, vol. 6, Organization ... , 1.12.1943. 22 Organisation of the Office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, December 1943 (not including the Group Upper Italy West) in: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 31 VI/vol. 6, Organisation ..., 1.12.1943; Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, The Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations no. [...] for the conferral of the War Service Cross [...], Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, for SS-Hauptscharführer Anton Hölzl, Frontier Command Post West et al. 10 roughly 250 people in the office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Verona, 110 had come from the Reich territory. Eighty had been recruited in Italy. Another 50 Italians worked as guards. The former group included drivers and accountants as well as clerks and steno-typists. For the most part, the personnel recruited on-site were interpreters and secretaries – work usually done by women in the office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD. 23 Another part of the German police authorities in occupied Italy was the Order Police, which consisted essentially of SS police regiments and units of the rural constabulary, Gendarmerie. They conducted operations against the partisans and were involved in the defence of military facilities, route protection and the protection of telecommunication lines" 24. But its work was not limited solely to this. As will be shown in the next section, the Order Police was also involved in the deportations of Jews. Anti-Jewish Measures and First Deportations from Italy After Germany occupied Italy, the Nazi leadership and especially Heinrich Himmler and the Reich Security Main Office Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner saw an opportunity to incorporate into the "Final Solution" the Jews living on the peninsula and in the territories occupied by Italy. Although there was no popular or cultural basis for anti-Semitism in Italy, anti-Jewish legislation containing significant restrictions had been introduced in 1938 by fascist Italy, on the model of the 1935 "Nuremberg Laws" in Germany. According to the Italian legislation Jews were to be forced out of the economic and cultural life of the Italian nation. 25 In actual fact, the Italian occupying troops in Yugoslavia and in southern France, up to September 1943, took on themselves the task of protecting large numbers of Jews from deportation and certain death in extermination camps or at the hands of fanatical Croatian 23 Cf. the plan for the division of responsibilities for [the office of] the Sub-regional Commander of the Ordnungspolizei in Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien, vol. 9, p. 2-5. 24 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/9, The SS and Police Leader, Upper Italy - West, Ia [Operational Section] 5101/44, Diary No. [no number]/44 (g), Organizational Order No. 5, D[raft], [no calendar day stated] June 1944. 25 Klinkhammer, Zwischen Bündnis und Besatzung, p. 530f. 11 nationalists and, despite considerable pressure exerted by the Germans, refused to deliver them up to the Nazi officials. 26 Among the first tasks the Security Police and SD made their own in Italy and carried out very energetically was without doubt the organization and the implementation of the antiJewish measures. First actions had been started right after the occupation in southern Tyrol – in Merano and Bolzano, for example – and in northwestern Italy, near Cuneo and at Lake Maggiore, by units of the SS Armoured Division "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler". Although neither authorized nor instructed to carry out anti-Jewish measures, soldiers of the Waffen-SS willingly initiated such actions. A particularly heinous crime was the multiple murders of Jews perpetrated between 17 and 24 September 1943 and again between 9 and 11 October 1943 in Méina and in other places on Lago Maggiore. There, a battalion of the Leibstandarte, which had moved into quarters on the western bank of Lago Maggiore, came upon several Jewish families, who were then arrested. 27 In the course of the following days, members of the battalion murdered them. Some of the bodies of the 54 victims of the massacre were sunk in the lake’s waters and some were buried in mass graves in the nearby woods. 28 Further south, near Cuneo, SS soldiers under the SS Major Joachim Peiper were involved in hunting for about a thousand Jews who, after the proclamation of the armistice on 8 September 1943, 26 Steinberg, Jonathan, All or Nothing. The Axis and the Holocaust 1941-1943, London/New York, 1990. Cf. a selection of material about the persecution of the Italian Jews: De Felice, Renzo, Storia degli Ebrei italiani sotto il fascismo [History of the Italian Jews under Fascism], Turin, 1972; Picciotto Fargion, Liliana, Il libro della memoria. Gli Ebrei deportati dall'Italia (1943-1945) [The book of memory. The Jews deported from Italy], Milan, 1991; Zuccotti, Susan, The Italians and the Holocaust. Persecution, Rescue and Survival, New York, 1987; Michaelis, Meir, Mussolini and the Jews. German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy 19221945, Oxford, 1978. 27 The battalion had moved its command post to Baveno (north of Stresa) on 15 September and, as per instructions, was busy on the western bank of Lago Maggiore disarming, assembling and transporting out "booty" and securing important military and economic facilities, cf.: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RS 2-2/21, Part 2, daily report of 15.9.1943, Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler to IInd SS Armoured Corps; ibid., General Command, IInd SS Armoured Corps, Intelligence daily report of 17.9.1943 to Army Group B/Ic: "Numerous Jews are being secured at Lake Maggiore"; ibid., General Command, IInd SS Armoured Corps, Intelligence morning report of 18.9.1943 to Army Group B/Ic: "The Jews reported from the Lago Maggiore area are being concentrated in camps". 28 Cf. Picciotto Fargion, Liliana, Italien [Italy], in: Wolfgang Benz (ed.), Dimensionen des Völkermords. Die Zahl der jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus [Dimensions of Genocide. The number of Jewish victims of Nationial Socialism], Munich, 1991, (Quellen und Darstellungen zur Zeitgeschichte [Sources and accounts regarding contemporary history], vol. 33), p. 199-227, p. 213, 225. The events at Lago Maggiore were the subject of a trial in Osnabrück. The trial, which, in the first instance, had led to the accused parties (former members of the "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler") being convicted of murder or of aiding and abetting murder, was stayed in 1970 by the Federal High Court of Justice on the grounds of time-barred prosecution. 12 had fled from the French Maritime Alps to Italy. With help from local clergymen and authorities, many of the refugees were able to hide with farmers in mountain villages. Some 300 of them were arrested and taken to a makeshift concentration camp in a former barracks in the small town of Borgo San Dalmazzo. On 21 November 1943, they were deported to the French transit camp of Drancy and from there they were sent to Auschwitz; apparently only 14 survived the camp. 29 In the first weeks of German occupation “spontaneous” arrests of Jews and unauthorized seizures of their property were very widespread especially among the WaffenSS units and even had to be explicitly prohibited by the Commanding General of the 2nd SS Armoured Corps, Paul Hausser: "According to a report from the Higher SS and Police Leader in the Adriatic coastal area, the troops have apparently detained people of other ethnic groups and Jews and, unchecked, have taken items of value they have found”. General Hausser’s order stated in a very clear way that all actions against Jews like arrests and confiscations of property were to be considered “exclusively the province of the Security Police and SD” and were therefore prohibited to his troops. 30 Early in October 1943, section IV B 4 of the Reich Security Main Office (Adolf Eichmann’s “Jewish Section”) sent SS Captain Theodor Dannecker to Italy as the leader of a small mobile Einsatzkommando numbering 6-8 men, to systematically carry out the actions for weeding out Italy's largest Jewish communities. 31 Beginning in the south, raids were to be conducted against the Jews and then gradually proceed farther northward. 32 The first 29 Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 211 ff. The records of General Command, IInd SS Armoured Corps, from the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg, contain clear indications that Peiper's battalion was directly involved in the arrests. In the early morning hours of 20 September, the Corps passed on the following to the Army Group: "216 Jews detained in Borgo San Dalmazzo. Waiting for SD", Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RS 2-2/21, Part 2, General Command, IInd SS Armoured Corps, Intelligence morning report of 20.9.1943 to Army Group B/Ic. 30 Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RS 2-2/21 Teil 2, High Command of 1st SS Tank Army, Operational Section, secret, 7.10.1943, signed Hausser. 31 Regarding Dannecker, see Claudia Steur, Theodor Dannecker - Ein Funktionär der "Endlösung" [Theodor Dannecker – A functionary of the "Final Solution"], Essen, 1997. On his coming to Italy s. several testimonies of former Security Police and SDmen in the documents of the Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, interrogation of Hermann Josef Matzken, Hans Haage, Otto Koch, Wilhelm Schlemm, Johannes Quapp, Rudolf Wihan,. 32 Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik [Files on German foreign policy], 1918-1945 (ADAP), Series E 1941-1945, 9 vols., Göttingen, 1969-1979, vol. 7, doc. no. 54, p. 102-103, record, Wagner (Head of the 13 operation for the Dannecker Kommando took place in Rome, home to Italy's largest Jewish community. On 16 October 1943, units of German policemen searched the city and apprehended the Jews. Although 8,000 had been planned, only 1,259 persons were arrested and taken to a collection site, where they were checked. Two days later, of these 1259 persons, 1,007 were deported to Auschwitz. Dannecker subsequently took his group farther north. The Kommando then split up and conducted raids in various cities in northern Italy with the co-operation of the local field commands of the Security Police and SD in Florence, Bologna, Milan and Genoa. In Genoa, for instance, the raids began on 3 November 1943 and were expanded to the whole of the Riviera in the course of the month. On 1 December, the first transport left the Genoa prison to go to Milan and then (on 6 December) travelled via Verona to Auschwitz. 33 The Genoa military government HQ reported in December 1943 that "the measures against the Jews ... had been initiated under the leadership of the SS Kommando". 34 The Kommando finished its work in Northern Italy in December. By this time Dannecker and his men established a "Jewish Section" ["Judenreferat"] within the Headquarters of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Verona. 35 The new Department, IV 4 b in the Gestapo organisation, built a network of individual regional Jewish specialists in the field commands and organized their work. It was this section, which compiled the lists of names for the deportation transports of Jews out of Italy. 36 The Department was at first headed by Dannecker himself and was not very large. It included some of the men who had already worked for him in Rome and the other Italian cities like SS Second Lieutenant Alwin Eisenkolb, SS Staff Sergeant Wilhelm Berkefeld, SS Staff Sergeant Rolf Bilharz and SS Department of Domestic Affairs in the German Foreign Office), about a conversation between Eberhard von Thadden (Legation Councillor in the Foreign Office) and Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. 33 Liliana Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 17-19. 34 Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 36/474, Military Government HQ 1007 Genoa, situation report, 13 December 1943. 35 Claudia Steur, Eichmanns Emissäre [Eichmann's emissaries], in: G. Paul, K. M. Mallmann (ed.), Die Gestapo im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 'Heimatfront' und besetztes Europa [The Gestapo in World War II, 'home front' and occupied Europe], Darmstadt 2000, p. 426 f. Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 219-285; ibid, vol. 6, interrogation, Wilhelm Berkefeld. 36 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 219-285; ibid, vol. 6, interrogation, Wilhelm Berkefeld. 14 Sergeant Hans Arndt. 37 The following SS junior leaders were working at the local level: Heinz Andergassen with the Group Upper Italy-West in Milan, Josef Ettl 38 in Florence and Parma; Hans Gassner 39 in Rome, Perugia and Forlì, Karl Haunold 40 and Hermann Jauch in Turin; Johann Janisch in Genoa; Otto Koch 41 in Milan; Ferdinand Noggler and Anton Hölzl 42 at the Frontier Command Post in Como. 43 In February 1944, SS Major Friedrich Bosshammer was transferred to Verona and relieved Dannecker. 44 Bosshammer had been a member of Adolf Eichmann's Jewish Section in the Reich Security Main Office since January 1942 and was responsible there for the domain "Preparation of the European solution to the Jewish problem in political regard". 45 He 37 US NARA, RG 226, Records of the Office of Strategic Services, Rome, X-2 Branch Records, Entry 174, Box 135, Counter Intelligence Corps, Mermaid Detachment, Subj.: Chief of the Security Police and SD in Verona, Field Command Bologna, Merano, 14 June 1945. 38 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 66: "Has been serving for several years now. He worked in the Protectorate and in Russia as an enforcement official. In Florence, he rendered very good service in the seizure of Jews who had escaped". 39 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 124: "Gassner has rendered outstanding service in ... combatting the Jews". 40 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/30, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 16 January 1945, signed Harster, p. 96: "Haunold has worked on church and Jewish matters since the Turin Field Command was set up. He has done this work with very great enthusiasm and skill. Time and again, he has been able to track down Jews who were in hiding, sometimes under quite dangerous circumstances". 41 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 128: "Koch has shown his commitment to the clearing-up of the Jewish problem in the Italian region". 42 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Commander of the Sicherheitspolziei and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 128: "Hölzl has greatly distinguished himself ... in anti-partisan actions, reconnaissance actions and small-scale combat actions, as well as wide-ranging actions to seize Jews at the border". 43 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, vol. 4, Report of the Central Office of the State/Provincial Departments of Justice, Ludwigsburg, 19 June 1963. 44 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Bosshammer, memorandum for the file, 5.9.44. This is confirmed by the former member of the “Jewish Section” Berkefeld, Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 219-285; ibid, vol. 6, interrogation, Wilhelm Berkefeld. 45 He had to "make the organizational preparations in political regard in this domain, by procuring and evaluating the necessary documents … and endeavour to ensure … that the planning is actually carried out in the lands in question", Bundesarchiv, Berlin, personnel file, Bosshammer, evaluation, signed Eichmann. 15 was thus one of the specialists for the deportation of the Jews. He was responsible for collecting and evaluating the incoming activity reports of the “Jewish specialists” in charge of the deportation in the field and for co-ordinating their work. Consequently, he must have been one of the men best informed about the “Final solution” process. 46 In the end, Bosshammer received a decoration for his work in Italy. The recommendation reads as follows: "Bosshammer has led the fight against the Jews in the Italian region since February 1944. In so doing, he has performed noteworthy work in the service of the Final Solution to the Jewish problem and has personally distinguished himself in numerous actions against Jews [Judenaktionen]." 47 After Dannecker left, the strategy of Eichmann's bureaucracy underwent a general change. On 14 November 1943, the Fascist Party Congress of Verona had declared all Jews of Italy to be not only foreigners, but also members of an “enemy nationality.” This declaration legitimized anti-Semitic persecution in Italy. Arrangements were made between the German Security Police and SD and Italian authorities, which from now on were actively involved in persecuting the Jews. On 30 November 1943, Italy's Minister of Interior Affairs, Buffarini-Guidi, ordered that the Jews were to be arrested by the Italian police authorities and their possessions were to be confiscated. The only persons spared these measures were those who were the product of a "mixed marriage". 48 Overall, from 1943-1945, there were 6,416 Jews deported from Italy to the concentration camps. According to investigations recently conducted by the Jewish Document Centre in Milan, only 820 people survived. There were 5,596 people who died in concentration camps, most of them in Auschwitz. 49 The following pages will outline how the deportations were actually carried out. 46 Claudia Steur, Eichmanns Emissäre, p. 401 ff and 427. 47 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 128. 48 Archivio Centrale dello Stato (ACS), Rome, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, Presidenza del Consiglio, Gabinetto, busta 33, fascicolo 3/2-2, sottofascicolo 13 [Central State Archives, Rome, Italian Social Republic, Office of the Prime Minister, Cabinet, envelope 33, folder 3/2-2, subfolder 13], Ministry of the Interior to all provincial leaders, Ordine di polizia n. 5 [Police Order No. 5], quoted after Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 204. 49 Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 216. 16 The Police Transit Camps in Fossoli and Bolzano and the Deportations from Italy; Subordination and Organisation of the Camps The camps at Fossoli and later at Bolzano were "police transit camps" under the direct authority of BdS Wilhelm Harster, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and not the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS, like the larger German concentration camps. 50 This command relationship was not unique in German occupied Europe. It was typical for a whole group of smaller detention and transit camps located in different countries that were under the direct jurisdiction of local BdS and Gestapo offices. 51 It should be noted that similar police transit camps, or detention camps, were set up in Holland as well, where Wilhelm Harster was BdS until 1943. Karl Titho himself was employed in the Amersfoort “police transit camp” in 1942, at that time still as a junior leader. 52 The “police transit camps” were by no means meant to serve as a collection site for Jews alone. Active partisans, political opponents, black-market dealers and other “suspicious elements” were put in their prisons. Basically the camps were set up as an interim stage on the way to being deported to the German concentration camps. There were also prisoners who were held for longer detention periods in both Fossoli and Bolzano. Furthermore, groups of inmates were forced to work both inside and outside of the camps. Bosshammer’s Jewish Section of the Gestapo (IV 4 b) in Verona issued the orders regarding the Jewish prisoners and their deportation to the concentration camps, while the “Protective-Custody” Section (IV 6 a-b) was responsible for the political prisoners. 53 According to the statements made by SS Second Lieutenant Josef Didinger, a Gestapo section head in Verona, the protective-custody section was "responsible for the organizational 50 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 220 f. 51 Martin Weinmann (ed.), Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem (CCP) [The National Socialist Camp System (CCP)], Frankfurt/M., 1990. This publication is a revised reprint of the "Catalogue of Camps and Prisons in Germany and German-Occupied Territories 1939-1945" edited by the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross, vols. I and II; Gabriele Lofti, KZ der Gestapo. Arbeitserziehungslager im Dritten Reich, Stuttgart/München, 2000. 52 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 219-285; ibid, vol. 5, interrogation of Titho. 53 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 220 f., vol. 5, interrogation, Haage, vol. 7, interrogation, Berkefeld. 17 removal, to the camps in Fossoli or Bolzano, as the case may be, of the detainees taken prisoner in the jurisdiction of the Commander of the Security Police and SD". The protectivecustody section was in charge of the card index relating to the prisoners being held in protective custody and was responsible for requesting the protective-custody orders from the Reich Security Main Office. 54 In Italy – as we can gather from an order from Harster in January 1944 – the Sub-regional Commander of the Security Police and SD and the leaders of the field commands were able to impose protective custody as a matter of course "for a duration of up to 21 days". Internment in a concentration camp in Germany had to be requested from the Chief of the Security Police and SD or from the Reich Security Main Office, while lengthier periods of detention in a police transit camp in Italy were requested from the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Verona. 55 The Personnel of the Fossoli and Bolzano Camps The Fossoli and Bolzano camps were under the management of SS Second Lieutenant Karl Titho. He had been a driver for Commander Harster of the Security Police and SD in Kassel, in Holland and later in Italy until the spring of 1944. In Holland, he had also been employed in the Security Police and SD police transit camps there, in Amersfoort and Vught. After the war, he was extradited to The Hague and sentenced to six years in prison for participating in shooting executions of prisoners. 56 In addition to SS Second Lieutenant Titho, the camp personnel included SS Staff Sergeant Hans Haage as Protective-Custody Camp Leader. 57 He had already belonged to the Dannecker Kommando in the autumn of 1943 and 54 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, indictment in the trial of F. Bosshammer, p. 220; ibid, vol. 5, interrogation, Didinger. 55 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/15, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, handling of detention matters, 20 January 1944. 56 Bijzonder Gerechtshof/Bijzondere Strafkamer (BG/BS) [Special Court/Special Criminal Division] Utrecht 510521, for abuse of Dutch prisoners (Titho was sentenced to one year in prison) and BG/BS Utrecht 510524, for participation in the shooting execution of 70 Soviet prisoners of war (sentenced to six years in prison). 57 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 124: "Haage is the Protective-Custody Camp Leader in the Carpi Concentration Camp. It is due solely to his untiring commitment that the difficulties of the guard work could be resolved with so few German supervisory officials". 18 was already in the camp when Titho and his men took up their duties 58. From November 1942 to September 1943, Haage had been on the staff of the Litzmannstadt Resettlement Centre and had taken part in the so-called "Aktion Zamosc", the action which comprised the relocation of Poles and Jews from the district of Lublin, the site selected for the resettlement of ethnic Germans, and comprised the transport to Auschwitz of persons who were not ablebodied and their children. He had previously served at SS Garrison Headquarters Lublin. 59 The head of administrative and economic affairs in Fossoli and Bolzano was SS Regimental Sergeant Major Walter Lessner, later SS Second Lieutenant. 60 SS Sergeant Josef König 61 headed the workshops and was a driver. SS Lance Sergeant Alois Pescosta was a helper in the office, SS Corporal Karl Gutweniger an interpreter, and there was also SS Senior Private Grösser who worked there as a helper. Other members of the camp personnel who are cited in post-war statements are SS Lance Corporal Eduard Habben, as well as SS Lance Sergeant Rieckhoff, who allegedly killed a Jew in Fossoli 62, SS Corporal Krekeler, SS Corporal Martin and SS-Mann Albin Cologna. As guards, there were South-Tyroleans members of the SS on hand. A group of ethnic Germans was also on duty as guards in both the Fossoli and the Bolzano camps. The following names are mentioned: Albert Mayer, Konstantin Majer, Michael Seifert and Otto Sain. 63 For the women's section, there were prison wardresses: 57 US NARA, RG 332 E. Medto, Box 2060, Folder VI, interrogation, Lessner (Italian translation), Bolzano, 6 August 1945. 59 District Court, Frankfurt a.M., 4 Js 908/62, trial of Krumey, Hermann, witness interrogation, Haage. 60 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/30, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords, Verona, 16 January 1945, signed Harster, p. 98: "Through his untiring diligence and skill, Lessner was an instrumental part of organizing the Carpi and Bolzano camps. He rendered especially good service in the moving of the Carpi camp, given the, at that time, completely destroyed bridges spanning the Po River. In this regard, roughly 2,000 prisoners had to be taken across the river in boats. It is thanks to his prudence and energy that there were no attempts by the prisoners to escape". 61 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/20, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd, Class, with Swords, Verona, 31 July 1944, signed Harster, p. 124: "König has proven himself splendidly in 4 years of service … Recently, together with a few other Germans, he has been performing the difficult work of guard duties in a concentration camp holding up to 3,000 prisoners from all our enemy circles". 62 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy. Habben allegedly belonged to the Dannecker Kommando and was in Fossoli even before Titho. He was in the Bolzano camp at the end of the war. 63 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy. The supposedly “Russian” or “Ukrainian” camp guard detachment mentioned in several Italian sources was in reality composed by ethnic Germans. 19 Hildegard Lächert 64, Lydia Heise and Anna Schmidt, who both were transferred to Bolzano in February 1945 65. The Fossoli Camp To begin with, in the winter of 1943/1944 smaller local collection camps were set up in the individual provinces to detain Jews. However, Fossoli, situated six kilometres from Carpi, near a railway line and the city of Modena, was selected as the site for a central concentration camp. 66 There had been a prison camp here since 1942. It was designated POW Camp No. 73 and had 4,761 British Soldiers as inmates on 15.8.1943. 67 It consisted of two parts, the "Campo Vecchio" (the "old camp") built in 1942 and the "Campo Nuovo" (the "new camp") from 1943. On the morning of 9 September 1943 the camp was surrounded by Wehrmacht troops and occupied. 68 Once the Allied POWs were deported to Germany, the administration of the camp was returned to the Italian authorities. Via the Prefecture in Modena, these authorities issued to the mayor of Carpi on 2 December 1943 the order to set up a camp for Jewish detainees. 69 The first group of 97 Jews was sent there that same 64 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy. 65 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/12, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, Official Order No. 30, 13.2.45. 66 Regarding the history of the Fossoli camp, see F. Sessi, Fossoli, in: E. Collotti, R. Sandri, F. Sessi, Dizionario della Resistenza, Vol. 2, Luoghi, formazioni, protagonisti [Dictionary of the Resistance, Vol. 2, Places, formations, protagonists], Einaudi, Turin 2001, p. 426 ff. 67 US NARA, Captured German Records, T 501, Roll 333, annexes to the War Diary of the Quartermaster Group of the Commanding General of the security forces and Commander in Army Group Area B; identical to the file RH 24-73/14 in the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Breisgau. 68 Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 27-24/26a, 24th Armoured Division, Operational Section, secret, to IInd SS Armoured Corps, situation report of 9.9.1943, 13 h 30: " Prison camp [Gefangenenlager] C.Nova (7 km northeast of Carpi) has roughly 5,000 prisoners". Cf. also: BundesarchivMilitärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 27-24/21, 24th Armoured Division, War Diary, 8.9 - 30.9.1943, entries 9.9.1943, p. 5: "At 6 h 30, Field Replacement Unit 24 surrounded the English prison camp northeast of Carpi. In a misunderstanding, it is 3 hours before the Italian guards are disarmed and the camp taken over"; p. 7: "At 17 h 20, the Field Replacement Unit hands over to 2nd/Army Anti-Aircraft Battalion 283 the prison camp north of Carpi and leaves for Bologna ... "; see also Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RS 2-2/21, Part I, IInd SS Armoured Corps, annexes to War Diary, 8.9 - 22.9.1943, p. 310; p. 353, IInd SS Armoured Corps, Intelligence Officer, List of prisoners and booty (from start of disarmament to 11.9 inclusive), 12.9.1943: "Englishmen, Carpi area, 5,865 prisoners". 69 Modena Prefecture to the mayor of Carpi, 2.12.1943, in: Archivio Comunale di Carpi, Anno 19431949, Campo di concentramento ebrei, fasc. 2 [Carpi Municipal Archives, Years 1943-1949, Jewish concentration camp, file 2], quoted after Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 204. 20 month. 70 Some were Jews from Malta captured in Northern Africa and had a British passport and some were Italian Jews. 71. On 29 December 1943, another transport came, this one from central Italy. The number of Jews sent on this occasion is given as 827. 72 They were assigned to the "new camp". The first camp commander was an Italian police captain named Giuseppe Laudani. 73 He was in command of the Italian guard units. Apparently, the camp came under Harster’s jurisdiction as Chief Commander of Sicherheitspolzei and SD in February 1944. The Italian wardens moved into the "old camp" with some of the political prisoners. The first transport to Germany on 19 February 1944 took the Maltese Jews to Bergen-Belsen. 74. Three days later, on 22 February 1944, another convoy departed Fossoli, for Auschwitz. 75 The first mention of the camp in an official German document however is dated 29 March 1944 and refers to the establishment of the camp as a "police transit camp" under the management of SS Second Lieutenant Karl Titho. This is the internal "Official Order No. 8" from the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy. 76 Since the preceding "Official Order No. 7" of 9 March 1944 77 contains no mention of the camp, the police transit camp was probably set up officially between 9 and 29 March 1944. The February 1944 deportations to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen may, therefore, have been carried out in fact by the members of the Dannecker Kommando who remained in Italy, as we 70 M. Weinmann (ed.), Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem (CCP) [The National Socialist Camp System (CCP)], Frankfurt/M., 1990, see CCP I, p. 291, regarding the Fossoli police transit camp. 71 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, interrogation of Karl Titho, 8.8.1963. 72 The number is mentioned in a document from the Carpi municipal archives, quoted after E. Bioni, C. Liotti, P. Romagnoli, Il Campo di Fossoli: evoluzione d‘uso e trasformazioni [The Fossoli Camp: Evolution of use and transformations], in: G. Leoni (ed.), Trentacinque progetti per Fossoli [Thirty-five designs for Fossoli], Milan, 1990, p. 35-49. There are additional data there about Jews sent to the camp. 73 Sessi, Fossoli, in: E. Collotti, R. Sandri, F. Sessi, Dizionario della Resistenza, vol. 2, Luoghi, formazioni, protagonisti, Einaudi, Turin 2001, p. 427. 74 Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 220; Italo Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio. Dall’Italia ai Lager nazisti. I “trasporti” dei deportati 1943-1945 [Fellow travellers. From Italy to the Nazi camps. The "transports" of the deportees, 1943-1945], Milan, 1994, p. 47-51. 75 Weinmann (ed.), Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem, CCP I, p. 291; the transport of 22 February is cited there as the first from the Fossoli camp. 76 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/12, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, Official Order No. 8, 29.3.1944, p. 52. 77 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/12, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, Official Order No. 7, 9.3.1944, p. 47. 21 find stated in a report for an Allied war crimes investigatory commission. By Schoster's account, the police transit camp began operating under Titho on 15 March 1944. Under Titho's management, several transports were then made out of Fossoli. Jews were deported mainly to Auschwitz. However, persons belonging to the "enemy powers" and holders of passports of neutral states went to the so-called “exchange camp” in BergenBelsen. Partisans and political opponents, on the other hand, were deported to Mauthausen and to Dachau. On 5 April 1944, 16 May and 26 June 1944 convoys of prisoners left Fossoli for Auschwitz, for example, and on 16 and 19 May for Bergen-Belsen. 78 Political prisoners were deported to Mauthausen on 21 June 1944. 79 Although in this period there were isolated instances of Jews and political prisoners being transported out via other cities as well (Milan, Bergamo, Verona or Genoa) 80, for half a year, Fossoli was the nerve centre for deportations from Italy to the German concentration camps. 81 The escort personnel for the transports to Germany were men of the Order Police as, for instance, the 9th Company of SS Police Regiment 12 from Verona. Information to this effect can be determined from the battalion records taken as booty by partisans at war's end and from post-war statements made by the policemen. 82 Company members accompanied the first transport going from Fossoli to Bergen-Belsen 83, one going to Auschwitz in early April 1944, then again in May 1944 going from Fossoli to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, as well 78 Picciotto Fargion, Italien, p. 220 f.; Italo Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 58 ff., 63-69, 77 f. 79 Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 74 f. 80 Striking workers were deported to Mauthausen from Milan and Bergamo, Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 55 ff., partisans who had been captured were deported from Novi Ligure, ibid, p. 60 f.; also, political prisoners were deported from Rome to Dachau, ibid, p. 61 f. 81 A transport of political prisoners started out from Florence on 8 March 1944, but went to Mauthausen via Fossoli-Verona, Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 53 ff. 82 The preserved material is in the archives of the Istituto Friulano per la storia del movimento di liberazione [Friulan Institute for the History of the Liberation Movement] (Piazza Marconi 8, 33100 Udine, Italy) designated as "Fondo III battaglione SS Polizei Regiment 12" ["Collection on the IIIrd Battalion of SS Police Regiment 12"]. The policemen's statements can be consulted in the proceeding of the Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63. 83 Istituto Friulano, Fondo III battaglione SS Polizei Regiment 12, section 2800, war diary: "19.2.44 ... For a transport of Jews to Germany (Munster Camp) [sic! Munster Camp was the name of the large drill ground near Bergen-Belsen], the 9th Company and the communications platoon are providing 2 men". 22 as one travelling from Verona to Dachau. 84 Company officers and rank and file who were questioned by the Dortmund public prosecutor’s office in 1965 and 1966 largely confirmed these employments. 85 In mid-July, a few weeks before the camp was closed, under the key influence of the Security Police and SD Command in Genoa and the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Verona, there was a bloody “reprisal” in Fossoli. The background to this action was an explosives attack on a bar in the port of Genoa, in which German seamen had been killed and several Italians injured. 86 As a "reprisal" for this attack, 67 prisoners in the Fossoli camp were executed, shot near the camp on the morning of 12 July 1944. We have on hand statements about this incident from members of the Security Police and SD who took part in the action 87. According to the report given in November 1945 by Kriminalpolizei official Arthur Schoster, the head of Gestapo in Verona, SS Major Dr. Fritz Kranebitter, had "ordered the shooting execution of 70 internees at the Fossoli-Carpi camp in reprisal for seven German members of the navy who were killed by an attack in Genoa". The idea – according to the report – apparently came from the German Navy port commandant of Genoa, and it was approved by the head of Genoa field command, SS Major Dr. Friedrich Engel, and forwarded on to the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Verona. 88 The Bolzano Camp Evacuation of the Fossoli police transit camp began in late July 1944. This event is linked to the general withdrawal of police personnel and the closing-down of superfluous police offices in the area south of the Po River, a process that was basically completed by 84 Istituto Friulano, Fondo III battaglione SS Polizei Regiment 12, section 5107, situation reports, situation report about April 1944, and situation report about May 1945. 85 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund 45 Js 12/63, vol. 9 and vol. 10, interrogation, Heinz Winkel, Franz-Xaver Schmid, Eugen Keller, Alois Laukota, Willibald Almer, Ludwig Findler. 86 Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 36/475, situation report from the Genoa Military Government HQ for the period 13.6 - 12.7.1944. 87 US NARA, RG 332, Entry Medto, box 2060, folder VI, Interrogation of Walter Lessner, Bolzano 6 August 1945. 23 mid-August. The prisoners from Fossoli – said to number some 2,000 persons 89 – were transported over the Po in boats. Bolzano-Gries was chosen as the new site for the police transit camp. There had been a camp there since the spring of 1944, which was set up by the commander of the so-called Labour Education Camp of Innsbruck-Reichenau (a camp for Italian workers "in breach of contract" in Germany) 90, SS Captain Georg Mott 91. The camp set up in Bolzano was initially under the authority of the KdS Bozen, the Sub-regional Commander of the Security Police and SD in Bolzano, SS Major Rudolf Thyrolf. 92 Not all of Fossoli's prisoners were sent to Bolzano. On 2 August, four transports from Verona went to the concentration camps in Germany: one to Auschwitz (Jewish men and women), one to Bergen-Belsen (foreign Jews, men and women), one of Jewish men to Buchenwald, and one of women (Jews and political prisoners) to Ravensbrück. 93 Arthur Schoster reports that SS Second Lieutenant Titho arrived in Bolzano on 5 August with about 400 prisoners. That same day, a transport left Bolzano, headed for Mauthausen. 94 When the prisoners from Fossoli arrived, the Bolzano camp was put under the responsibility of the BdS in Italy, Wilhelm Harster. The Sub-regional Commander of the Security Police and SD, the 88 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, box 2060, folder VI, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Italy, in Fossoli-Carpi and Bolzano. Violations of the law committed in them, Bolzano, 26 November 1945, signed Arthur Schoster. 89 Bundesarchiv, Berlin, R 70 Italien/30, Chief of the Security Police and SD in Italy, List of recommendations ... for the conferral of the War Service Cross, IInd Class, with Swords to Walter Lessner, Verona, 16 January 1945, signed Harster, p. 98. 90 This was one of the numerous types of camps in the Nazi period. Labour education camps were under the authority of the Gestapo office responsible for the region or were under the Chief of the Security Police and SD or the Sub-regional Commander of the Security Police and SD in the occupied territories and were envisaged for the short-term detention of so-called "shiftless and work-shy elements". In this regard, s. G. Lofti, Stätten des Terrors. Die "Arbeitserziehungslager" der Gestapo [Places of terror. The "labour education camps" of the Gestapo], in: G. Paul, K. M. Mallmann (ed.), Die Gestapo im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 'Heimatfront' und besetztes Europa, Darmstadt 2000; p. 255-269. 91 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, vol. 8, interrogation, Karl Mott. 92 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Italy ... , Bolzano, 26.11.1945, signed Schoster. Georg Mott provided somewhat different information in the post-war period; according to him, the camp had already been set up as of January 1944 and was soon placed under Harster's direct authority; s. Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, vol. 8, interrogation, Mott. 93 Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 88-91. 94 Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 91 f. 24 KdS in Bolzano retained only permission to intern his police prisoners in the camp for a period of 21 days or less. 95 The camp's function remained identical to that of the former police transit camp of Fossoli: Jewish and political prisoners, common criminals, deserters were interned there, as were family members of resistance fighters and deserters who were arrested in the course of so-called "kin detention" [Sippenhaft]. 96 Prisoners had to work in the camp workshops 97 or even externally, in companies, for instance, or in satellite camps before being deported to the concentration camps in Germany. There were 13 transports in all from Bolzano (roughly twice as many as from Fossoli): the first on 5 August 1944 (with destination Mauthausen), then on 5 September 1944 (Flossenbürg), 5 October (Dachau) and 24 October 1944 (Auschwitz), 20 November 1944 (Mauthausen), three transports on 14 December 1944 (Mauthausen, Ravensbrück and Flossenbürg 98), then on 8 January (Mauthausen) and 19 January 1945 (Flossenbürg), and finally on 1 February (Mauthausen) and 22 February 1945 (Dachau) 99. In Bolzano too, detainees were executed by being shot, and prisoners were tortured and abused. Arthur Schoster reported on these acts immediately after the war. 100 Thus, in September 1944, 27 inmates were executed by being shot outside the camp. Likewise, 8 internees were killed in the cell building of the police transit camp between January and April 95 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Italy ... , Bolzano, 26.11.1945, signed Schoster. 96 Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, interrogation of Hermann Josef Matzken. 97 In this regard, see one of the few original documents of a German office which mention the Bolzano camp, in: Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg/Br., RH 48/45, p. 371, Commander-in-Chief Southwest, The General for special assignment, report about the General's official trip to Verona on 23 December 1944. In a discussion with SS-Gruppenführer Harster about the production of furniture for Wehrmacht billets, he learned of a "police transit camp located in Bolzano, under SS Second Lieutenant Titho. If allocations of wood are made available and brought and later taken away again after being worked on, beds, tables, benches, stools, etc. can be made by the inmates of the police transit camp, to fit out the billets in the Bolzano area. He [Harster] will instruct SS Second Lieutenant Titho to step in to help using his workers. Workers can also be loaned out from the camp for other repair work, and only the guard personnel need be provided for this." 98 This transport of 63 persons is likewise substantiated by an original teletype of SS Second Lieutenant Titho, Bundesarchiv, Berlin, Bolzano teletype station no. 4895, 16.12.44, urgent, to Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, Subj.: Transport of Jews, signed Titho. 99 Tibaldi, Compagni di viaggio, p. 91 f., 95 ff., 100 ff., 104, 107 f., 111-115, 117-120, 123, 131. 25 1945. 101 The camp was closed down at the end of the war and the remaining prisoners released. 102 Summary The police transit camps in Fossoli and later in Bolzano were central locations for deportation from Italy in 1944 and 1945. They came into being in direct relation to the German occupation of Italy in the autumn of 1943 and to the subsequent commencement of racial and political persecution. They were established to put Jews and political opponents of fascism and National Socialism in temporary detention on their way to the concentration camps in Germany. Thousands of people of every age were channelled through them. Their final destinations were usually Auschwitz and Mauthausen, Bergen-Belsen and Flossenbürg. Only a few of the Jews deported to Auschwitz returned from there. It is an established fact that prisoners were also abused and in a few cases killed both in Fossoli and Bolzano. The Fossoli and Bolzano camps were set up and controlled by the German Security Police and SD. In the course of the Second World War, this institution of National Socialist Germany had developed into one of the central organizations for implementing the Nazi racial policies both in Germany and in the occupied territories. The Security Police and SD’s Einsatzkommando were key participants in the mass murder of the Jews in the east. In the western and southern countries of occupied Europe Security Police and SD were paramount for managing all the anti-Jewish measures and, in particular, for preparing and carrying out the deportations to the concentration and extermination camps. 100 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Italy ... , Bolzano, 26.11.1945, signed Schoster. See in particular the section "The violations of the law in the Bolzano transit camp". 101 US NARA, RG 492, Entry 41240, Box 2060, The police transit camp of the Chief of the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Italy ... , Bolzano, 26.11.1945. 102 In this regard, see Office of the Public Prosecutor, Dortmund, 45 Js 12/63, interrogation of Karl Titho, 8.8.1963.