Unexpected haven

The first Concentration Camp for Jews in Italy was established in 1938 located in the extreme south of Italy in the poor region of Calabria in an isolated valley called Ferramonti. From the beginning, the Italian administration allowed the internees to regulate the life of the camp. They established schools and synagogues, and the doctors among them gave medical treatment not only to their fellow inmates, but also to the local inhabitants, who were deprived of such luxuries. Essentially it was like a normal camp, where the food was bad, the conditions unpleasant, but there were no killings and the Italian military that ran the camps was very easy-going and even friendly. Interactions were allowed with the local Italians and bartering and selling were carried out openly. In every respect it was different from a German Concentratrion Camp and in fact, it turned out to be a haven from the war. A few unlucky German Jews were repatriated to Germany, but the rest of the Jews (Italians and Jews from Eastern and Central Europe) were saved, ca. 1,000 Jews survived the war there.
In 1941, a group of 500 Zionists from Bratislava tried to escape from Europe via the Danube on an old wreck called the Pentcho. Miraculously they managed to survive being shot at by the Rumanians and Bulgarians and made it to the Aegean Sea, where they floundered, and were subsequently interned in Ferramonti. As with the other Jews they were left alone, and as soon as the war ended they continued their journey to Palestine.
On the island of Rab in the Adriatic Sea the Italians established two adjacent camps, one where they interned Jews for their protection, mostly Jews who had fled from German and Croatian areas, and the other Camp for the imprisonment and "repression" of Slavs. It should be remembered that Slovenia, Serbia and other Slav areas were anti-fascist and were considered enemies by the Italians. In this camp, the Slavs were treated terribly, while in the Jewish camp ironically the people were protected.
However, after the Allied Invasion of southern Italy and the subsequent fall of the Mussolini regime and the takeover by the Germans of northern Italy, the remaining camps fell into German hands and things changed drastically. The Germans built a true German style Concentratrion Camp outside Trieste known as the "Rice Factory" and began to kill Jews there, but fortunately it was so near the end of the war that it only lasted a short time, and was then partly destroyed by the Germans themselves to hide the evidence.
Nevertheless, the Italian Army and the Camps in the south of Italy that never came under German occupation saved many Jewish lives. This article came about because a former inmate of the Italian camps pointed out to me a special commemoration service that took place in the ruins of Ferramonti, which the Italian Government is considering putting on a list of historic places.
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Information about the camp at Ferramonti can be found at http://info.jpost.com/C002/Info/Travel/JewishItaly/haven.html