Ferramonti di Tarsia

Ferramonti di Tarsia, also known as Ferramonti,[2] was an Italian internment camp used to intern political dissidents and ethnic minorities. It was located in the municipality of Tarsia, near Cosenza, in Calabria. It was the largest of the fifteen internment camps established by Benito Mussolini between June and September 1940. Over 3,800 Jews were imprisoned at the camp.

Ferramonti di Tarsia
(Ferramonti)
Italian fascist concentration camp
Location of Ferramonti in Italy
Coordinates39°35′00″N 16°14′39″E
LocationTarsia, Italy
Operated bythe Italian Blackshirts (MVSN),[1] the Allied Military Government (after the liberation in 1943)[2]
OperationalJune 1940 – September 1943[2]
Inmatesmainly Jews
Websitewww.museoferramonti.it / www.fondazioneferramonti.it

Location

The camp was located in Ferramonti, a rural locality 6 km in south of Tarsia, by the river Crati. The area where it was located is now next to the current exit "Tarsia Sud" of the A2 motorway.[3]

History

The construction of Ferramonti began on June 4, 1940, less than a week before Italy entered World War II.[2]

The arrest of Jewish citizens began on June 15, and prisoners began arriving at the camp on June 20. Between June, 1940, and August, 1943, there were 3,823 Jewish internees at Ferramonti, of which only 141 were Italian. The majority, 3,682 people, were foreign-born.[4]

Prisoners organized a nursery, library, school, theater and synagogue. Several couples got married at the camp and 21 children were born. Rabbi Riccardo Pacifici was the spiritual advisor to the Jewish inmates from 1942 to 1943. Unlike the Nazi concentration camps, the Italian camps were neither death camps or slave labor camps. Most of the detainees were allowed to roam freely and nearly all survived their imprisonment unharmed.

Six weeks after Mussolini's downfall (September, 1943), the prisoners were released. Many of these internees joined the Allied armed forces. Some of the 1,000 refugees who were shipped to the United States and interned at Camp Oswego, New York came from this camp. Ultimately, they were released and were permitted to stay in the United States.[4]

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See also

References
  1. (in Italian) Ferramonti on lager.it
  2. (in Italian) History of Ferramonti
  3. Google. "Ferramonti" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
  4. Judaica Philatelic Resources-Italy (see "Ferramonti di Tarsia" section)
  • History and Memory of the Italian Concentration Camps, written by James Walston, article in The Historical Journal, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 1997), published by Cambridge University Press, pp. 169-183, 15 pages.
  • Ferramonti di Tarsia, written by Mario Rende, 2009, published by Mursia Editore, Italy
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