Gonars concentration camp

The Gonars concentration camp was one of the several Italian concentration camps and it was established on February 23, 1942, near Gonars, Italy.

Monument for Slovenes

Many internees were transferred to this camp from the other Italian concentration camp, Rab concentration camp, which served as equivalent of final solution in Mario Roatta's ethnic cleansing policy against ethnic Slovenes from the Italian-occupied Province of Ljubljana and Croats from Gorski Kotar, in accord with the racist 1920s speech by Benito Mussolini, along with other Italian war crimes committed on the Italian-occupied territories of Yugoslavia:

When dealing with such a race as Slavic – inferior and barbarian – we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy.... We should not be afraid of new victims.... The Italian border should run across the Brenner Pass, Monte Nevoso and the Dinaric Alps.... I would say we can easily sacrifice 500,000 barbaric Slavs for 50,000 Italians....
— Benito Mussolini, speech held in Pula, 22 February 1922[1][2][3]

The first transport of 5,343 internees (1,643 of whom were children) arrived two days after its establishment, on February 23, 1942, from the Province of Ljubljana and from the other two Italian concentration camps, the Rab camp and the camp in Monigo (near Treviso).

The camp was disbanded on September 8, 1943, immediately after the Italian armistice. Every effort was made to erase any evidence of this black spot of Italian history. The camp's buildings were destroyed, the materials were used to build a nearby kindergarten and the site was turned into a meadow.

Only in 1973 a sacrarium was created by sculptor Miodrag Živković at the town's cemetery. Remains of 453 Slovenian and Croatian victims were transferred into its two underground crypts. It is believed that at least 50 additional persons died in the camp due to starvation and torture. Apart from the sacrarium no other evidence of the camp remains and even many locals are unaware of it.

Slovene notable inmates

France Balantič, a poet
France Bučar, a lawyer, writer, and statesman in post-1991 Slovenia
Lojze Bukovac, a bearer of Commemorative Medal of the Partisans of 1941, a writer
Alojz Gradnik, a poet
Bogo Grafenauer, a historian
Boris Kraigher, a politician
Vasilij Melik, a historian
Frane Milčinski (pen name Ježek), a poet, actor, children's writer, and director
Jakob Savinšek, a sculptor and poet
Bojan Štih, a literary critic, essayist, and stage director
Anton Vratuša, a politician from Communist era
Aleš Strojnik, a scientist and educator
Vitomil Zupan, a writer
Zora Konjajev, pediatritian
Nada Vidmar, opera singer
Nande Vidmar, painter
Bogdana Stritar, opera singer
Viktor Antolin, professor of philosophy (student/journalist at the time)

Sources

Alessandra Kersevan (2008): Lager italiani. Pulizia etnica e campi di concentramento fascisti per civili jugoslavi 1941–1943. Editore Nutrimenti,
Alessandra Kersevan (2003): Un campo di concentramento fascista. Gonars 1942–1943., Kappa Vu Edizioni, Udine.
Nadja Pahor Verri (1996): Oltre il filo : storia del campo di internamento di Gonars, 1941–1943, Arti Grafiche Friulane, Udine.
Luca Baldissara, Paolo Pezzino (2004): Crimini e memorie di guerra: violenze contro le popolazioni e politiche del ricordo, L'Ancora del Mediterraneo. ISBN 978-88-8325-135-1

In popular culture

Toffolo, Davide (2010): L'inverno d'Italia (In English: "Italian winter", translated in Slovene under the title "Italijanska zima",[4] a graphic novel about two children interned at Gonars), Coconino Press.
Minigutti, Dorino (2009): Beyond the wire (In Slovene: "Onstran žice"), a documentary film, Gorizia.[5]

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References

Pirjevec, Jože (2008). "The Strategy of the Occupiers". Resistance, Suffering, Hope: The Slovene Partisan Movement 1941–1945 (PDF). p. 27. ISBN 978-961-6681-02-5.
Verginella, Marta (2011). "Antislavizmo, rassizmo di frontiera?". Aut aut (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-6576-106-9.
Santarelli, Enzo (1979). Scritti politici: di Benito Mussolini; Introduzione e cura di Enzo Santarelli (in Italian). p. 196.
Petejan, Saša (2011) Otroci in vojna: Internacija je mnogo več kot le politična dediščina, Dnevnik, Ljubljana
Spomini internirancev v Gonarsu, Primorski dnevnik, 2012, Trieste.

External links

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[1] Pirjevec, Jože (2008). "The Strategy of the Occupiers". Resistance, Suffering, Hope: The Slovene Partisan Movement 1941–1945 (PDF). p. 27. ISBN 978-961-6681-02-5.

[2] Verginella, Marta (2011). "Antislavizmo, rassizmo di frontiera?". Aut aut (in Italian). ISBN 978-88-6576-106-9.

[3] Santarelli, Enzo (1979). Scritti politici: di Benito Mussolini; Introduzione e cura di Enzo Santarelli (in Italian). p. 196.

[4] Petejan, Saša (2011) Otroci in vojna: Internacija je mnogo več kot le politična dediščina, Dnevnik, Ljubljana

[5] Spomini internirancev v Gonarsu, Primorski dnevnik, 2012, Trieste.