The Risiera de San Sabba was one of 4 Italian concentrations camps, the only one with its own crematorium. According to the Italian historian Elio Apih, “it was a microcosm of the forms and methods of Nazi policies and repression, where techniques of racial and political deportation and elimination were applied….” The camp was a hub for organizing Nazi military actions to round up partisans and Jews; it served as containment station for the Jews who were then deported to Auschwitz and other camps; it was also the place where political prisoners were killed.

Up to 5000 of them, is estimated by the latest historical research; a trial against the commanders in1976 was unable to establish exact figures. What was confirmed, though, was the fact that most of the killings were perpetrated by clubbing and beating to death. Hanging was second, and occasionally people got shot. The room where these atrocities were committed was immediately adjacent to the cells where prisoners were held, so that they were surrounded by the screams soon to be their own.

Screams were heard and tolerated by the Italian neighbors, who by this time were whipped up into a fascist frenzy by Mussolini, and had no problem with the German occupation, having been manipulated into nationalistic hatred against Bolshewiks and Slavic refugees/or Italian, Slovenian and Croat resistance fighters.

 

The building was originally a rice husking factory at the outskirts of Trieste. Himmler sent his forces to San Sabba in 1943 to start the killings. The factory housed the SS, some Ukranian collaborators,  and 17 micro-cells for those awaiting their death in place. Each cell, 1.20 meters long and 2 meters high held up to 6 prisoners, sometime for up to 6 months.

 

The Hall of Crosses, next to them, housed the Jews slated for transport. The upper floor were used for forced labor of the prisoners.

 

 

The inner courtyard now displays a large metal sculpture and a large metal plate on the ground, delineating the crematorium, the smoke path and the chimney. Ashes were thrown into the nearby sea.

 

The memorial site is extremely well designed with cement walls enclosing the sides not occupied by the original buildings, adding to the claustrophobic nature of the place. There are traveling exhibits about other horrors committed under fascism, and visitors are mainly school groups; not too many tourists to be seen.

There was a trial against two of the commanders of the Risiera camp in 1976. One of them received a life sentence, but never served since the German authorities were not obliged to hand him over due to some 1942 bilateral agreement…. (!) The museum was built and eventually opened in 1975 as a National Monument.

Part of me understands why one would not want to spoil a holiday in such a beautiful area with the darkness that surrounds you when entering the memorial.

Part of me wants to make it obligatory so that we understand the nature of  (creeping) fascism and the horrors that ensue.