Rab concentration camp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rab Concentration Camp was established during World War II in July 1942, when the Italians established a concentration camp near the village of Kampor on the island of Rab in the Adriatic Sea. The camp was disbanded after the Italian capitulation in September 1943.

Its capacity was to hold about 10,000 prisoners at a time, mostly Slovenians, Croats and Jews in separate departments. About 1,200 prisoners died from starvation and inhospitable winter and summer weather conditions. Another 800 prisoners from Rab died later when they were relocated to other Italian concentration camps such as Gonars and Padova. Those prisoners who survived in September 1943 and were still strong enough formed the Rab battalion which resisted German occupation.

In 1953, a memorial was built on Edvard Ravnikar's plans, ironically, by prisoners of communist camp from the nearby island Goli Otok.

Due to Italian propaganda and its role in the last years of the World War II, not much is known about this camp outside borders of the former Yugoslavia. Even in 2003 the centre-right Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi could afford a statement without any consequences that during the time of Fascism, there were no concentration camps, but "just compulsory vacation" for the opposers of the regime.