ABSTRACT

In the Yugoslav territories occupied or annexed after the Nazi-fascist invasion of April 6, 1941, Italian forces often resorted to repressive methods that included the burning of villages, shooting of civilian hostages, and deportation of local people to special concentration camps “for Slavs.” Set up in Italy and in the occupied territories, and almost always supervised by the Italian Armed Forces, these camps forced internees to endure a restrictive and harsh internment that led to thousands of deaths, including those of many children. In Italy, the most typical and frequent case was constituted by the change in usage froinstead, deserves great attention because it is against the backdrop that one must understand the rescue of several thousand Jews who had, between 1942 and 1943, found refuge in Dalmatia and in other territories taken over from Yugoslavia, which was at the time controlled by the Italian Army.