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The San Sabba Rice Mill
(La Risiera di San Sabba)
Established: 20 october 1943
Location: Trieste
After the Italian armistice and the formation of
the Fascist Republic of Salò in September 1943, some borderland territories,
among which Fiume,
Trieste and Udine together with their Istriano and Friulano
hinterlands, were ceded to the Nazis. There the Nazis set up their own
administration and called it "Adriatisches
Kuestenland" (The Adriatic Coast), commanded by Triestine-born
Odilo Otario Globocnik
and later, Franz Stangl.
As the area was inflamed with the partisan uprising
it seemed almost "natural" that the Nazis would consider this to be an ideal
location for an extermination camp. They chose a disused rice husking building
in the locality of San Sabba, a suburb just outside the centre of
Trieste which
would be the only existing concentration camp to be established in Italy. The
camp was commanded by Christian Wirth, followed by Dietrich Allers. The staff
was all German, except for some Ukrainian auxiliaries. Over 20,000 people passed
through the camp and several thousand people were murdered there, among them
several dozen Jews. About 650 Jews were sent from San Sabba to Auschwitz.
Taking its name from the suburb, the San Sabba Lager
became the place where partisans, ordinary and harmless civilians, Italians,
Slovaks, Croatians and Jews alike were incarcerated, tortured, massacred and
finally cremated.
The "prisoners" of San Sabba (it is said there were
more than 25,000) passed through en-route to Buchenwald, Dachau and Auschwitz.
More than 5,000 lost their lives at the hands of Einsatzkommando Reinhard who
had already gained "notoriety" as a perpetrator in the Polish Death Camps.
February 24, 1945 marks the day of the last deportation convoy of Italian Jews
from Trieste (to Bergen Belsen).
Survivor Testimonials
How did they live and die in the Rice Mill? For the
first time a few survivors narrate their accounts in the volume From the
Fascist Squads to the Rice Mill Slaughters published in 1974 by the ANED of
Trieste. Their testimonials:
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Basile, Giordano - from Rovigno d'lstria
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Carretta, Antonietta - born in Lignano, lives in Genoa
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Gianechetti, Giuseppe - from
Trieste
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Karis, Pino - from
Trieste
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Jerman, Luigi - born in Capodistria, lives in
Trieste
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Maricic, Branka - from
Fiume
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Milani, Gottardo - born in Cavarzere (Venice) resident in Turin
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Millo, Giovanni - from
Trieste
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Peloza, Ante - from Vele Mune (Istria)
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- click
image to see this and other enlarged floor plans - |
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Reconstruction map of the
Risiera |
By April 29, 1945, the Yugoslavian Partisan Units
of the IX Corps had practically taken over the whole city. The Nazis thus
proceeded to set free the few remaining survivors of the death camp before
finally blowing up the incinerator building in an endeavour to wipe out traces
of their gruesome work.
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| An internal view of the Rice Mill
memorial. Photo by Paola Mattioli |
After the War, those responsible for the Lager,
although found guilty by an Italian
Tribunal, were able to escape punishment.
The Rice Mill was declared a National Memorial
Site by decree of the President of the Republic Giuseppe Saragat on the 15th
April 1965. The decree confirms the need for The San Sabba Rice Mill "to be
conserved unchanged and entrusted to the Nation for what it reveals in its
historical and political context".
The District Council of
Trieste announced an
international "competition" to transform what remained of the old rice husking
building into a museum. The architect Romano Boico won the "competition" and was
assigned the task. The Museum was opened, after the restructuring works were
completed, in 1975.
The Trial
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| Photo of prison cells by Paola
Mattioli.
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The trial of those responsible for crimes
perpetuated in the Rice Mill ended in
Trieste April 1976, more than 30 years
after the end of the War. It was the unyielding determination of a group of
ex-deportees together with relatives of the Lager’s victims and the aid of Aned
and the Jewish community union that enabled the trial to take place. The German
Authorities publicly opposed the event and even after the perpetuators had been
found guilty attempted to resist the extradition of those responsible for the
massacres.
Two of the most "notorious" of those accused were
Joseph Berhauser, already commander of the Lager, who became a brewer in Monaco
after the War, and his ex superior August Dietrich Allers, who became a
lawyer in Hamburg.
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| A
typical prison cell. |
Allers died in 1975 before the conclusion of the
Trial, whereas Obererhauser was given a life sentence by the Italian courts, but
continued to run his Monaco brewery in complete freedom up until November 22nd
1979 when he died at the age of 65.
Despite the fact that the sentences were not
executed, the Rice Mill Trial (the acts are published by Adolfo Scalpelli for
ANED) marked an important turning point, confirming that crimes against humanity
will always be punishable however many years have passed. "Whoever has ever
contemplated a new Fascism - commented the noted "hunter" of Nazi crimes Simon
Wiesenthal - must know that justice will always win in the end... even if the
wheels of justice do turn slowly."
Recommended readings:
- Autori vari,
Dallo squadrismo fascista alle stragi della Risiera, Trieste, Istria,
Friuli, Aned 1978.
- Apih E., "Mostra
storica della Risiera di San Sabba". Civici Musei di Storia ed Arte.
- Bon S., La
persecuzione antiebraica a Trieste (1938-1945), Del Bianco ed. Udine
1972.
- Collotti E. Il
Litorale Adriatico nel nuovo ordine europeo, Vangelista Ed. Milano 1974.
- Coslovich M. I
percorsi della sopravvivenza. Storia e memoria della deportazione
dall'Adrialisches Kùstenland, Mursia ed. Milano 1994.
- Fogar G., Sotto
l'occupazione nazista nelle provincie orientali, Del Bianco ed. Udine
1969.
- Fòlkel F., La
Risiera di San Sabba, Mondadori ed. Milano 1979.
- Pacor M.,
Confine orientale. Questione nazionale e resistenza nel F.V.G.,
Feltrinelli ed. Milano 1964.
- Pupo R., Venezia
Giulia 1945. Immagini e problemi, Editrice goriziana. Gorizia 1992.
- Sala T., La
Crisi finale nel Litorale Adriatico, Del Bianco ed. Udine 1962.
- Scalpelli A. (a
cura di), San Sabba. Istruttoria e processo per il Lager della Risiera,
Aned - Mondadori ed. Milano 1988.
- Stuhlpfarrer K.,
Le zone di operazioni Prealpi e Litorale Adriatico 1943 - 1945, Adamo
ed. Gorizia 1975.
- Vinci A.M. (a cura
di), Trieste in guerra. Gli anni 1938 - 1943, Ist. Reg. per la storia
del movimento di liberazione nel F.V.G. Trieste 1992.
Related pages:
Sources:
- Associazione Nazionale ex Deportati Politici
nei Campi Nazisti (ANED) - https://www.deportati.it/campi/ (Deutsch, English,
Francais & Italiano)
- https://www.deportati.it/biblio/s/sansabba.htm
- Musem of Tolerance - excerpt from
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust -
https://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x10/xr1086.html
- Recommended Bibliography - Istituto
Comprensivo, Lignano Sabbiadoro - Scuola Media "G. Carducci" -
https://www.lignano.org/scuola.media/friuli-vg/ts-ris-info.htm
- Top image -
https://claudet.club.fr/GhettosCamps/MusiqueCamps.html
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