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Rab concentration camp

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The Rab "Concentration Camp" was one of 24 Italian ran prisons in which captured prisoners of war from opposition Yugoslav forces were placed in during World War II. It opened in July 1942 near the village of Kampor, on the Adriatic island of Rab. The camp was disbanded after the Italian government made an armistice with the Allies in September 1943.

Prisoners

The main prisoners of war held here, were the so called Yugoslav Partisans, a Communist terrorist organisation fighting against the Italian Fascists in the country who were interned after been captured. The people of this organisation went on to commit numerous brutal massacres and war crimes including mass murder and rape once given free reign in the following years, such as the Bleiburg massacre where 50,000 were killed, the Foibe massacres against ethnic Italians (innocent civilians) which lead to the Istrian exodus commonly cited as a holocaust and ethnic cleansing. The so called Yugoslav Partisans also butchered thousands of Hungarians at the 1944-1945 Killings in Bačka.

History of the prison

It is claimed that the camp held around 10,000 prisoners housed in tents, it is claimed that the Slovenians and Croats were in one area (the core of the Yugoslav Partisans) and it is also claimed that Jews were held in another, the Italians treated the Jews better, providing them with radio, newspapers and more food than the Partisans. However this was not an extermination camp, like some of the Nazi camps, this was merely a prisoner of war camp to house enemey forces who had attacked Italians on the battlefield and been captured, as well as villages strongly accused of providing support for the Yugoslav Partisan army.

By this time Italy as a whole was having problems and had shortages of food in areas it controlled, home and abroad people suffered from starvation, especially in regards to bread shortages; it is alleged that 1,200 of those held in the camp died from starvation as well as the weather conditions, though there is no information to corroborate the figure. Another 800 prisoners from Rab allegedly died later when they were relocated to other Italian prisoner of war camps such as Gonars and Padova. Many prisoners who survived until September 1943 and were still strong enough to do so re-joined the Yugoslav Partisans and formed the Rab battalion, going on to commit attrocities mentioned in the above section.

Since the war

In 1953, a memorial was built to Edvard Ravnikar's plans - the memorial was ironically errected by prisoners of a communist concentration camp from the nearby island of Goli Otok, which existed during the time of repressive communist reigme of Josip Broz Tito.

When historians compare the prisoner of war camp to others during the war, they have said that "By the murderous standards of the second world war, Rab was only a footnote of evil" However, since being allowed into the European Union, some Balklan nationalists have used it to form an anti-Italian propaganda, however this is in the extreme minority of the population as much bigger events have happened in the Balkans since that time, such as the insertion and then fall-out of authoritarian Communist governments, causing the Eastern Bloc lack of development and standards of human life which it is still trying to recover from.

One of the prisoners in the camp was Anton Vratuša, who went on to be Yugoslavia's ambassador at the United Nations and was Prime Minister of Slovenia (1978-80), and Elvira Kohn described her experiences at the prison in some detail.

References

  1. "The Bleiburg Massacre". Serendipity.li. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ ""Foibe" Massacres raised in Answer to Croatian President Mesic's Claims". The Annotico Report. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. "Fifty Thousand Hungarian Martyrs: Report about the Hungarian Holocaust in Jugoslavia 1944-1992" (PDF). Hunsor.se. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. Wolff, Stefan. German Minorities in Europe: Ethnic Identity and Cultural Belonging. University of California Press. ISBN 1571817387.
  5. ^ "Survivors of war camp lament Italy's amnesia, Pt 1". Thomas Fuller: IHT.com. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. A photo of the camp: http://ww2panorama.org/images/96.jpg
  7. "Christmas in Italy 1943". BBC.co.uk. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. http://emperors-clothes.com/croatia/rab.jpg
  9. "Rab, Hrvastka / Croatia, 1953". Oris.hr. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. "Images of Rab". Caratacus.co.uk. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. "Survivors of war camp lament Italy's amnesia, Pt 2". Thomas Fuller: IHT.com. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. "Elvira Kohn". Centropa.org. 8 January 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

External links

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