Fossoli camp

About six kilometers from Carpi, in the town of Fossoli, you can still see the camp that was built in 1942 by the army to hold enemy soldiers captive. In December 1943, the Italian Social Republic turned the site into a deportation camp for Jews. From March 1944 it became a police and transit camp (Polizei und Durchgangslager), used by the SS as an anteroom for the Nazi concentration camps.

Built during World War II to intern British military prisoners, its use extends beyond the war when adapted for civilian use; with this function it remained inhabited until the 1970s when, now empty, it was left abandoned. It was not until 1984 that the municipality of Carpi obtained its property for free from the state with the commitment that it would become the National Museum of Deportation, given its role as a national deportation camp from Italy during the Social Republic.
The long history provides a multitude of events and memories that form an exemplary cross-section of the great historiographical themes of the 20th century, which the restoration of the remaining barracks also reveals in the material traces.

Today it is a place of history, meeting and training.

For current visiting hours, please visit the website of the museum.

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Source

• Text: R. Bronkhorst
• Photos: Fondazione