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Survivor Testimonials - The San Sabba Rice Mill

How did they live and die in the Rice Mill? A few survivors narrate their accounts in the volume, Dallo squadrismo fascista alle stragi della risiera (From the fascist squads to the rice mill slaughters),  "Trieste- Istria-Friuli 1919 / 1945", ANED, Del Bianco (Trieste, 1974). Excerpts:

PINO KARIS from Trieste

"I was arrested by The ‘Black Guards’ around the end of 1944. They escorted me directly to prison cell no.6 in the Rice Mill and after two or three days they took me, Ujcic and Peloza from Mune for questioning. Then a few days later I was taken to the SS command in Oberdan square (Via Carducci) where I was repeatedly cross-examined, tortured and then locked up in bunker. From there I was taken to the Coroneo.

"I remained locked up in the bunker for about one and a half months. One evening they brought in many people from a round up in Servola. On 20th April they transferred 60 people to the Rice Mill from the Coroneo including Enzo Vidali (Garibaldi Brigade) and the Battalion commissioner of this brigade from Pola. I remember he had a beard but I cannot recall his name. After the Liberation his wife came to see me to get some news about her husband; she showed me the letter that he had sent her from the Rice Mill just a few hours before he was cremated. Vidali had arrived in the Rice Mill barefooted... my wife had supplied him with a pair of shoes".

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic)

GIUSEPPE GIANECHETTI from Trieste

 "On arrival I was beaten up ferociously .The most vicious batterer was a marshal who in place of a hand had a hook. He had a habit of making us run around a tub used for depositing the rubbish as well as washing the mess tins together with the chamber pots. After this we were locked up in our cells. Mine was number 4. These cells often housed 4 people at a time and on occasion even 6. It was impossible to sleep as a bright light glared strongly into our cells throughout the day and night. The SS sentry man/men very often opened our cell doors and shouted continuously to assure we were kept in a constant stare of terror. And so, I can safely say that for as long as I remained inside I didn’t get a minutes peace".

(Survivor testimony by Giovanni Postogna)

BRANKA MARICIC from Fiume

"When they brought us to the Rice Mill we weren’t yet aware where we were. They put us all in a big room. Some young Italian soldiers were locked up upstairs. They had moved the tables from the attic and asked us where we were from; they told us they had no idea why they had been arrested.

"I can’t remember whether the crematorium oven was in working order when we arrived in the Rice Mill. I believe they had prepared the cells and the oven after having rounded up the prisoners from the town and taken them to the Rice Mill together with every imaginable kind of merchandise and livestock that they could pillage from the village. When the SS came back from their raids, you could hear a great commotion and shouts. I could see something right in front of me that was glowing in the shed. From where the light was coming I saw the SS dragging bodies around by their shoulders that were lying immobile on the floor. An indescribable fear shot through me at the sight of this. An SS officer uttering threats arrived on the scene and shoved me away from the window. I believe it was around the first of April when they brought an elderly lady. She arrived in the Rice Mill together with her governess. The latter was promptly released while the elderly lady was detained. We all felt extremely sorry for this poor old lady, as she was absolutely incapable of moving autonomously. Racked with pain her woeful cries only succeeded in inciting the SS wrath further. They wrapped her up in a blanket and proceeded to drag her down the stairs from the third floor. The sound of her agonizing cries was excruciating. She was said to have died on reaching the ground floor. She came from a very wealthy and respected family. Her husband had been an Officer in the First World War and had been decorated. I cannot remember what she was called.

"One day they brought a group of Jews arrested in Rab. The majority of them were from Zagreb and in the group was a beautiful Greek girl. They were shipped off to a German concentration camp, I think Auschwitz. On that train there was even a member of the Grguric family from Susak. When they were brought to the Rice Mill they were stripped of everything they had. We watched through cracks in the door as the SS searched them and pocketed their money and gold objects. When their train left, they lamented woefully: "lucky you who are left behind". They knew where they were being taken and what awaited them.

It must have been the 14th of May when I heard shouts and shots from the courtyard. We discovered they had shot two of the soldiers who were on the upper floor."

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic)

FRANCESCO SIRCELJ from Celje (ex-Yugoslavia)

 "At around 10:30 pm on the 12th of March, 1945, an SS officer arrived, called us by our names and proceeded to open our cells. My name was called out first and the cell door opened; this procedure was repeated another four times. From our cells we were led to a barrack situated opposite these same cells. Its door was opposite the oven. I could see a heap of clothes and rags piled up inside the barrack. We were promptly ordered to strip off whilst another seven prisoners were being brought in... maybe from the prison. One of them was a forty five year old woman. When we were all completely naked they lined us up and began to push us one after another towards a small narrow door on the left. Inside the barracks they were divided up into two parts; the biggest space was used as a kind of warehouse and the other half, (from where the factory chimney rose) housed the back of the crematorium oven.

"A polish officer, one of the worst in the Rice Mill, was responsible for rounding up the victims. That door, through which the prisoners disappeared, led to a staircase, if I remember well. I heard the voice of a woman lamenting, moaning, as if she had been hit on the back of her head. Ten people had already passed through that narrow door. My turn had come. Behind me was a man from Trieste whose name escapes me. He had been brought to the Rice Mill a few days before and must have been about twenty. Suddenly, however, Schultz appeared from behind the door shouting: "Los, Los! In bunker".

"I didn’t move. It was as if I had been rooted to the spot... too confused and petrified to move. I was then pushed and fell in a heap together with the Triestine. We were like two dead weights. "Los. Los". Schultz gave me a kick, opened the door and pushed us back into our respective cells. Perhaps there had been an air raid".

(Survivor testimony by Albin Bubnic)

GIOVANNI MILLO  from Trieste

 "I received so many beatings and punches in my face that all my teeth had been literally broken. When they brought us something to eat it was in the form of black gruel. I can’t remember how many times I was beaten all over by muskets. Throughout the day and night we were subject to the strangest of cross-examinations. When we got out (that is, those of us who were able to get out after 40 days) we were unable to recognize each other – it seems incredible but it is true – such was the physical and moral suffering we went through. Some of those rounded up at that time were transported to the concentration camps in Germany. During my stay in the Rice Mill I was able to witness by a strange turn of fate that even babies and adolescents from 8 to 15 years of age were in the camp."

(Survivor testimony by Giovanni Postogna)

GOTTARDO MILANI born in Cavareze (Venice) resident in Turin

"I remember one day, about three weeks after I had arrived, the SS turned up in the courtyard, by van, with the body of a top officer (I think a Colonel). He was General Commander of the Rice Mill and I was able to recognize him at once having already seen him in the Rice Mill. He had also been present when we were asked to collaborate with them. I was able to witness this when I was working in the courtyard.

"Another day I saw a Fiat lorry full of dead bodies – men and women. I then saw some SS soldiers – they told me an Ukrainian was responsible for hacking away at the dead bodies; he carried out his gruesome task in a small part of the warehouse where the crematorium oven was located. The day before they had brought the dead body of the SS Commander and before the two groups had even been divided up, we were called out into the courtyard and forced to assist in the killing of two of our companions. They were said to have been rude and rebellious towards an SS officer. One of them was called Pairolero, from Veneria near Turin and the other was from Turin but I cannot remember his name. The Germans picked out 8 or 10 detainees from our group, handed them rifles and ordered them to shoot their companions whilst they looked on, at a distance – machine guns in hands."

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic)

GIOVANNI HAIMI WACHSBERGER from Fiume

"I witnessed a poor old man being savagely beaten up who, whilst sweeping up the courtyard, had failed to put the rubbish in the exact place ordered by the SS officer. During a bombardment, two prisoners managed to escape from their cells whilst the Germans took refugee in the bunkers. By way of revenge, all the companions of the two prisoners were shot. By June 1944, I realised the full extent of what was happening. Victims were being killed in the garage; a kitchen unit hid the door that led to the crematorium oven. One evening we saw a lorry full of dead soldiers: we could only see their shoes as their bodies were covered up with blankets. When the lorry entered the garage, they made us carry in the wood we had previously sawn up. I think those soldiers were German. From the courtyard at night, we could hear people coming and going, begging for mercy and uttering heart-wrenching shrieks. To mask their shouts, the Germans turned the radio’s volume up, switched on engine tanks and incited the guard dogs to growl and snap.

The whole scene was far too close for us not to be aware of what was going on, but all the same, we were not able to realise exactly how all those wretched souls were being killed. The next day, their clothes were found in the warehouse, and there were hardly ever any bloodstains on them. The Ukrainians and Mongolians assigned to carrying out these executions were inebriated during the early afternoon so that they would be in ‘good shape’ for the evenings. A few Germans also took part in these orgies. One night 5 people were taken away from my room and never came back. One Sunday a busload of people arrived. I think they were from Trieste. They were amassed in a windowless hovel known as the death cell; during the night they were all shot. I believe they had been taken hostage in the city during a round up."

(Survivor testimony by Ricciotti Lazzero).

MAJDA RUPENA from Trieste

"The first question I was asked when I arrived in my prison cell was this: How are things going on the Front? Nobody revealed his or her first name. We were always afraid that there was a spy lurking amongst us. A certain Kabiglio, a Jewish shopkeeper of Spanish origin who lived in Mostar filled me in on what was going on in the camp. "Look at the oven", he whispered, "they are burning people". I saw two of three men and women disappearing from the room where the crematorium oven was situated. It always happened at around ten or eleven at night. To mask the noise of their ghastly deeds, the SS often turned on the engine of a tank or car or switched on the radio. I remember it as if it were yesterday : a soldier would go and get those condemned to death. Sometimes they were silent, sometimes they started to shout. You could hear their footsteps dragging on the paving. Women sandals made more noise than shoes. I began to scribble down notes on those tragic comings and goings. One night I counted the footsteps of 56 people who went from the courtyard to the entrance of the crematorium oven; another night 73. Then I couldn’t go on any more. My 14-year-old daughter was with me in the cell. When the soldiers came into my cell I covered myself with my hands to stop myself from shouting. I heard thuds as if a dead body had fallen on some hollow object, followed by heart-wrenching screaming: "Mamma! Mamma!" in every language. The first night I was in my cell there was an aerial bombardment. The prisoners shouted: "Drop the bombs! Drop here! So we can at least die quickly." In the morning I asked my daughter: "What colour is my hair?" I was sure my fear had turned it white.

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic and Bicciotti Lazzero)

CRISTINA SLUGA from Villa del Nevoso (Istria)

"Right from the very first day after being transferred to a room on the second floor, I began looking out through the window onto the courtyard. It must have been about 7pm in the courtyard there were approximately 20 men and women tied up and under strict surveillance. In twos the SS led them to the crematorium. It was horrendous. I could hear lacerating screams and the loud noise of a lorry’s engine or an armoured vehicle in the courtyard. The SS finished their ‘work’ quickly. The poor creatures literally disappeared behind the crematorium door. I could hardly breathe... the foul-smelling smoke almost suffocated me. There was also a strong smell of burning flesh. They were the worst few hours of my life.

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic; Cristina Sluga was in the Rice Mill from 4 September until the end of September 1944)

Survivor testimony by Prof. Carlo Schiffrer from Trieste taken during the questioning of a survivor friend :

"He saw a massively-built SS soldier leading a little baby boy by the hand to the second courtyard in front of the prison. He had dark curly hair (without doubt Jewish) and was barely able to toddle. Stumbling, he fell forwards: the soldier began to curse and booted him brutally with the heel of his shoes. His head literally split open. Even after years had passed, my friend was unable to free himself from the nightmare of that thud as the little baby’s head tumbled to the ground..."

(Carlo Schiffrer, "The Rice Mill", Trieste, 1961)

ALBINA SKABAR from Rupingrande (Trieste)

"After being stripped bare, strung up to a beam by my plaits and beaten until I passed out, I was shoved into cell number 7. At night I remember hearing terrible screams, coming mainly from those locked up in the first few cells and were taken away during the night. I can remember the desperate cries of a woman. She said she was from Gabrovizza and she screamed that the SS had killed her daughter in the cradle. There was also a certain Olga Fabian from a town in Carso that now belongs to Yugoslavia. There was a 67-year-old lady who lived in Trieste in Via Milano. She protested her innocence continuously. The smell of burnt hair was terrible. Every day they opened the cells and let us wash our faces with a bit of water in a washbasin. That water had to last for everyone. After the war, I went back once to the Rice Mill and passed out."

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic and Ricciotti Lazzero)

GIORDANO BASILE from Rovigno d’Istria

"We suffered every imaginable kind of torture and maltreatment. I can’t possibly say how many times I was forced to undergo violent cross-examinations. I suffered a rupture to my right eye and to my right shoulder, as well as water seeping into one of my lungs, not to mention the general depression that affected my whole body...a depression that I have never been able to recover from."

(Survivor testimony by Giovanni Postogna)

DARA VIRAG from Fiume

"Behind the garage there was a narrow passageway. One day I was walking a short way down the alleyway that surrounded the crematory oven room, when one of the guard, old Fritz, shouted out to me: "Never do that again, never do that again!" It was May 1944. A strand of grass stuck out from the cement base of the chimney. I imagined it must have been a sign of those poor souls who had faded away. In March, you could hear people screaming out, even during the daytime (even the SS were shouting). They were woeful cries of pain, everyone can recognise when someone is crying in pain. But I must confess we couldn’t comprehend the full extent of the atrocity: we had to think of surviving and we lived in a constant state of fear. After surviving a year like that, even the mere sound of a nail falling on the floor will send a shiver down my spine. Till this very day, the sound of a boot on the paving makes me startle and still utter fearfully: "They are coming."

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubonic and Bicciotti Lazzero)

BRUNO PIAZZA from Trieste

"I had to lie down on the floorboards (...) but I was lucky, the sentry explained to me, because all those who ended up in there were beaten up first of all... I started to hear voices in the night. From the bunker next to mine, I heard a man who called me softly: "I have been buried alive for 40 days, I can’t breathe, I’m thirsty. Give me a cigarette. I will probably be shot tonight. Let me smoke my last cigarette (…) " And immediately after that came the voice of a woman: "…they kill someone every night. They take them to the courtyard and shoot them in the back of the head. After every shot the dogs bark. (…) We are all partisans."

Taken from the book "Why the others forget" (Perché gli altri dimenticano") by Bruno Piazza – Ed. Feltrinelli, Milano, 1956.

ANTONIETTA CARRETTA born in Lignano, resident in Genoa)

"They put me in a huge room, divided up into little cells. I remained in one of these for more than a month, without washing myself, or brushing my hair, or doing any of those other things absolutely essential for a woman. Not only was hygiene completely out of the question, but even the most elementary form of cleanliness. Our food was brought in from the Coroneo, and distributed by the Mongolians. The psychic and moral health of the prisoners was greatly under strain. I lived in constant dread of being killed from one day to the next. After about ten days, a Jewish lady called Olga from Servola was brought to a cell near mine. She was killed the same night. When they came to get her, the poor thing was crying and imploring her SS killers to have pity on her. They responded with merciless brutality. These scenes were repeated continuously. The cells filled up by day and were emptied by night. Before being burnt, the prisoners were shot (I could hear the shots) or clubbed to death. The crematorium ovens were nearby, a few metres away from our cells… In order to hide the noise of the firearms, they turned on engines or played lively music."

(Survivor testimony by Giovanni Postogna)

ANTE PELOZA from Vele Mune (Istria)

"I was in cell number 8, alone in the dark. I could hardly breathe. There was only a tiny vent in the ceiling where air and light could filter. Our food was passed through little windows in the cell doors, which were otherwise always shut. The cells were full of rats. During the afternoon and evening, you could almost always hear people crying out, in Croat, Slovenian and Italian. An armed truck or vehicle drove up and down the courtyard, making a huge racket in order to cover the cries for freedom and the wrenching screams. It was then that we knew that our companions had been dragged off to their death in the crematorium. When the Sirocco (South Easterly wind) came and no wind blew, we were also forced to stomach the putrid-smelling smoke entering our cells. There was such a stench of burnt human flesh that you could hardly breathe, and it turned your stomach."

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic)

CARLO SKRINJAR from Trieste

"The cries of men and women lasted up to three or even four hours. When one cry ceased, another followed it. This happened night after night. Near my cell, there was a young curly-haired 18-year-old boy. I can’t remember his name. His hair turned grey with fear in three days. From morning to night, you could hear them opening and closing the cell doors. Someone kept watch from a keyhole in the door, and warned the others: "An armed truck has arrived…". Towards eight o’clock at night, silence fell, and then the cries began. We were convinced they were taking the condemned persons to the area where the oven was situated. You could hear the guards dragging the people out of their cells, and the screams that slowly faded away into thin air. The young curly-haired boy stuttered: "Now its our turn." We were terrified. I can still hear those raucous shrieks."

(Survivor testimony by A. Bubnic and Ricciotti Lazzero)

LUIGI JERMAN born in Capodistria, lives in Trieste

"Being an employee of the Rice Mill refinery, I had several opportunities, for work reasons, to spend time on the landing stage, where the German soldiers brought the sacks of ashes of the dead bodies burnt in the crematorium ovens of the Rice Mill. I could see many human bones lying on the bed of the ocean; they were the remains of the corpses they were unable to burn fully."

(Survivor testimony by Giovanni Postogna)

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Created: Friday, August 31, 2001; Updated Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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