The Gonars concentration camp in Italy

The Gonars concentration camp was one of the several Italian concentration camps and it was established on February 23, 1942, near Gonars, Italy. It was intended for the internment of ethnic Slovenians and Croatians. Many prisoners were transferred to this camp from another Italian concentration camp, the Rab concentration camp, which served as an equivalent of the final solution in Mario Roatta's ethnic cleansing policy against ethnic Slovenes from the Italian-annexed Province of Ljubljana and Croats from Gorski Kotar.

The first transport of 5,343 prisoners, 1,643 of whom were children, arrived two days after the camp's establishment from the Province of Ljubljana and from two other Italian concentration camps, the Rab camp and the camp at Monigo (near Treviso). The camp was disbanded on September 8, 1943, immediately after the Italian armistice. Only in 1973 was a memorial created by the sculptor Miodrag Živković at the town's cemetery, where the 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. At least 93 children were killed at the camp, including those that had been transferred from the Rab concentration camp to Gonars. The camp was part of the wider context of Italian war crimes committed on the Italian-annexed territories of Yugoslavia, following a racist 1920s speech by Benito Mussolini:

“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.”

Notable individuals who were interned at the camp included Viktor Antolin, professor of philosophy; France Balantič, poet; France Bučar, lawyer, writer, and statesman; Lojze Bukovac, writer; Alojz Gradnik, poet; Bogo Grafenauer, historian; Zora Konjajev, pediatrician; Boris Kraigher, politician; Vasilij Melik, historian; Frane Milčinski (pen name Ježek), poet and actor; Odon Peterka, poet; Jakob Savinšek, sculptor and poet; Bojan Štih, literary critic; Bogdana Stritar, opera singer; Aleš Strojnik, engineer; Nada Vidmar, opera singer; Nande Vidmar, painter; Anton Vratuša, politician; Vitomil Zupan, writer; and Tone Čufar, writer.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons