Bolzano Transit Camp
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Bolzano was a transit camp operated by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
in
Bolzano Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The ...
from 1944 to 3 May 1945 during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. It was one of the largest Nazi ''Lager'' on Italian soil, along with those of Fossoli,
Borgo San Dalmazzo Borgo San Dalmazzo () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about south of Turin and about southwest of Cuneo. Borgo San Dalmazzo takes its name from Saint Dalmatius of Pavia. Sights ...
and
Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
.


History

After the Allies signed the Armistice with Italy on September 8, 1943, Bolzano became the headquarters of the Prealpine Operations Zone and came under the control of the Nazi army. When the internment camp in Fossoli became vulnerable to Allied attack, it was dismantled, and a transit camp for prisoners headed for Mauthausen, Flossenbürg, Dachau, Ravensbrück and
Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
was set up in Bolzano. Operational from the summer of 1944 and located in buildings previously occupied by the
Italian Army The Italian Army ( []) is the Army, land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China and Italo-Turkish War, Libya. It ...
, the transit camp hosted about 11,000 prisoners from middle and northern Italy in its ten months of activity. Although the camp's population consisted mostly of political opponents,
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish and
Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...
(i.e., gypsy) deportees also passed through its barracks. A portion of the prisoners—approximately 3,500 people of all ages—was transferred to one of the ''Lagers'' , while the rest were assigned to work ''in loco'' as free labor, either in the camp workshops and labs, in local firms, or in the apple orchards. The interned prisoners were freed between April 29 and May 3, 1945,https://enricomassetti.com/war-prison-and-liberation-1943-1945/ when the camp was closed to prevent the advancing Allied troops from witnessing its living conditions and (presumably) to eliminate evidence. The SS troops destroyed all documentation relating to camp activities before withdrawing, following the standing order that no trace be left behind.


The camp

The camp was originally set to host 1,500 people. For this purpose, two sheds were divided into six blocks, one of which was reserved for women. The camp was then progressively enlarged until it reached a stated capacity of 4,000 prisoners. As was customary in Nazi internment camps, each block was assigned a letter and a specific "type" of prisoner. In block A lived permanent residents, who were treated somewhat better than the others because of their involvement in essential camp activities (especially administration); in blocks D and E were kept political prisoners, regarded by the Nazis as the greatest danger and therefore kept segregated from other prisoners; block F was reserved for women and the occasional child. Jewish male deportees, whose transit was often short-lived, were crammed in block L. There was also a prison block hosting approximately 50 inmates. The camp was directed by the
Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
SS, whose chief was the ''Brigadeführer'' (brigade general) of
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
Wilhelm Harster; the camp's executive directors were Untersturmführer Karl Friedrich Titho and
Hauptscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Hauptscharführer'' ( ) was a Nazi paramilitary rank which was used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank was the highest enlisted rank of the SS, with the exception of the special Waffen-SS ran ...
Haage, who headed a
garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...
of German, Swiss and Ukrainian soldiers.


Sub-camps

Bolzano camp was the only one, in Italy, to have attached forced-labour camps (''Außenlager''). Of these, the most important ones were in
Merano Merano (, ; ) or Meran () is a (municipality) in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. Generally best known for its Spa town, spa resorts, it is located within a Depression (geology), basin, surrounded by mountains standing up to Height above mean sea ...
, Schnals, Sarntal, Moos in Passeier and
Sterzing Sterzing (; ) is a comune in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is the main town of the southern Wipptal, and the Eisack River flows through the medieval town. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). Hi ...
.


Resistance

As in most camps where political prisoners abounded, a
resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...
arose, organized along three axes: * a political wing, organized by the CLN and some '' partigiani''; * a movement spearheaded by priests (most of them, accused of having helped wanted civilians, were imprisoned along with those they had sought to protect); * spontaneous acts of
civil resistance Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and co ...
by citizens who sought to prevent deportation of others protected escaped prisoners or attempted to organize escapes from the camp.


Trials

In January 1946, an American military court sentenced SS officers Heinrich Andergassen, August Schiffer, and Albert Storz to death by hanging for the murders of five American POWs, including OSS agent Roderick Stephen Hall, and two British POWs. A fourth man, Gendarmeriewachtmeister Hans Butz, was sentenced to life in prison specifically for his involvement in the murder of Hall. Andergassen, Schiffer, and Storz were executed at an American military stockade in
Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...
on 26 July 1946. In November 2000, the military court of
Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
sentenced Michael Seifert, a Ukrainian SS known in the camp as "Misha", to life in prison in absentia for the atrocities he committed against deportees, particularly those held in the jail block. The relative recency of this trial is because the case had remained hidden for decades and resurfaced with the discovery of the so-called '' armadio della vergogna'' (lit., "cabinet of shame") in 1994. Among the prisoners that Seifert and his accomplice Otto Sein tortured was a young Mike Bongiorno, an American
POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
who would go on to become one of Italy's most beloved TV figures after war. Seifert, who had emigrated to
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
after the war, had to face 18 counts of
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
and 15 additional counts of misconduct. He was tracked down in
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, only days before the trial was to begin, by a reporter working for the ''
Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...
'', who acted upon information provided by the ''Associazione nazionale ex deportati politici nei campi nazisti (ANED)'' (National Association of former political deportees to Nazi internment camps). Seifert was extradited to Italy in 2008, where he died in prison in 2010. His story was reconstructed by the Italian historians Giorgio Mezzalira and Carlo Romeo in the book entitled ''Mischa, jailer of the Bolzano lager''. A separate trial of the camp directors, Titho and Haage, had taken place in 1999, with a different outcome: Titho was absolved for lack of evidence, while Haage was sentenced posthumously.


Famous inmates

* Mike Bongiorno * Ada Buffulini * Grete De Francesco * Franz Jung


Sources

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References

{{Authority control 1944 in Italy 1945 in Italy Nazi concentration camps in Italy Bolzano History of South Tyrol Military history of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol