There was a fascist internment camp in the Valtiberina: Camp No. 97 in Renicci

Little is known about the tragic history of the Renicci Internment Camp, located in the municipality of Anghiari, Valtiberina: yet it represents one of the most dramatic and least known episodes in Italian history during World War II. The camp, officially Internment Camp No. 97, located in Renicci, a hamlet of Anghiari, was active from 1942 (the first arrival is dated October 10) to 1943, and was used to intern Yugoslav civilians and military personnel, mainly from the territories of Yugoslavia occupied by Italy.

After July 25, 1943, a number of anarchists who were veterans of the Spanish War, and who were transferred here from the islands of Ustica, Ventotene and Ponza (where there were prisons in which a number of political opponents were imprisoned), were also imprisoned at Renicci. This initially little-known facility had a significant impact not only on the lives of the prisoners, but also on local communities and collective historical memory.

Historical context and the creation of the camp

After the Italian occupation of large parts of Yugoslavia, resulting from the signing of the armistice between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Axis Powers in 1941, the situation in the Balkans quickly became untenable. Partisan forces, composed of Yugoslav communist and nationalist elements, began to vigorously oppose the occupation, organizing widespread guerrilla warfare. In the face of this resistance, the Italian fascist regime adopted policies of violent repression, which included mass arrests and deportation of civilians believed to be collaborators with the partisans or potential flankers.

The Fascist government thus decided to set up internment camps in various parts of Italy, where it would send these people from occupied Yugoslav territories. One of these camps was precisely that of Renicci, created in September 1942. The choice of the Valtiberina, a relatively isolated area far from large population centers, proved to be sadly strategic in containing a considerable number of prisoners without too much interference from outside.

The structure of the camp and its conditions

The Renicci Camp was located in a hilly location, about 10 kilometers from the center of Anghiari. The structure, consisting of rudimentary barracks divided into three sectors of 12 barracks each, saw locked up inside it, at its peak crowding, more than 4.000 inmates, men ranging in age from 12 to 70: the prisoners slept in poorly heated barracks (250 prisoners for each barrack, and at the peak of the crowding the maximum capacity was exceeded, so much so that a real tent city was set up with tents of 12 prisoners each), without adequate beds and often without blankets. Lack of food was a constant problem, with minimal rations causing malnutrition and deaths. Disease was rife due to poor sanitation and lack of adequate medical care. There was also a lack of potable water, no heating, and when it rained, mud invaded the camp. Within a year, there were about 150 deaths at Renicci, mostly due to the extreme, unbearable living conditions.

The inmates were mostly civilians. Their only “guilt” was that they were suspected of pro-partisan sympathies or having ties to Yugoslav resistance movements. Although officially not a concentration camp in the strictest sense of the term, conditions at Renicci were such that it resembled a prison of punishment and psychological torture, where prisoners suffered cold, hunger and despair.

Testimonies and life in the camp

Various testimonies by survivors of the Renicci Camp provide a vivid picture of the suffering endured by the internees. An important aspect of camp life was the resilience of the prisoners, who tried in various ways to maintain their dignity despite the hardships. This was mainly due to the presence of the anarchists who, determined not to put up with the abuse of the fascist guards, not infrequently rebelled against their jailers, and their attitude of intolerance led to some improvement in the living conditions in the camp, albeit in the context of an iron, unbearable discipline, bordering on brutality, imposed by the camp commandant, Colonel Giuseppe Pistone.

Testimonies collected in later years also describe the attitude of the local community, with gestures such as passing food in hiding, although these acts were sporadic and insufficient to significantly improve the lives of the internees. “The population,” wrote historian Giuseppe Bartolomei, “had an instinctive sympathy for those unknown people. It was the feeling of suffering that united the simple people. Sometimes, some woman with the excuse of making grass in the nearest fields, taking advantage of the distraction, real or not, of the sentries, would throw a half loaf over the fence. Although it was like throwing a drop into the sea, that gesture reconnected those beings clinging to the fence, with others. It broke the separation.”

Two artists in the Renicci camp: Nande Vidmar and Drago Vidmar

Nande Vid mar (Ferdinand Vidmar; Trieste, 1899 - Ljubljana, 1981), one of the leading Slovenian artists of the early twentieth century, and his brother Drago Vidmar (Mattuglie, 1901 - Ljubljana, 1982), also an artist, were among those interned in the Renicci concentration camp. The two were able, through their drawings, to document life in the camp. Nande and Drago Vidmar, who, moreover, had already undergone a period of detention in the Gonars camp (and even there they did not fail to draw), used art as a means of witnessing and processing their lived experience.

It was particularly Nande Vidmar who made portraits of inmates, groups of internees, but also views of the camp or the landscape seen beyond the camp. He also made smaller products, usually souvenirs. Nande used to give the portraits he made to his fellow prisoners: some wanted a keepsake for themselves or their relatives, so that they would keep their image in case they could not survive the harsh conditions of the camp. There are also, although they are rarer, drawings depicting dying or dead camp prisoners.

Nande Vidmar’s drawings made after his internment camp experience in Renicci mainly depict the brutality, suffering and dehumanization that he and the other internees were forced to endure. Through intense lines and often somber images, Vidmar sought to capture the drama of living conditions in the camp. Even before the war began, Nande Vidmar and his brother Drago were two very expressive, dramatic artists. This charge, paradoxically, is toned down, however, in the drawings made in the camp: the two brothers probably intended to imbue their drawings with an aura of the humanity that was unknown to their captors.

Drawings were not the only works that Nande and Drago Vidmar made during their imprisonment. In fact, there was a workshop barrack in Renicci where the internees made small handicrafts: these were mostly works necessary for the needs of the prisoners (e.g., tailoring repairs), but a workshop for various arts had also been implanted in Renicci, with the artifacts being sold to the local population and the proceeds used for the running of the camp. The National Museum in Ljubljana houses a sheet metal and bone dragon that Nande Vidmar made in this very context.

The summer 1943 breakout and the end of the camp

The Renicci camp remained fully operational until the armistice of September 8, 1943, which marked the collapse of the fascist regime and the German occupation of Italy. News of the regime’s fall also reached Renicci, and prisoners demanded arms so they could oppose the occupiers. On September 9 there was a rebellion by the internees: about 400 of them assembled, chanting choruses against the regime. Camp guards fired at the rioters, four were wounded, and the sedition was momentarily suppressed (not only with blood, but also with threats: the camp command in fact ordered that food rations be cut off).

The end of the Renicci camp, however, was marked. On September 11, a group of about ten internees managed to escape from the camp. And three days later, prisoners promptly organized a mass escape from Camp No. 97. The occasion was provided by the passage of three German armored cars: the internees feared deportation to Germany, so they knocked down the camp gates and all made their escape. The escapees were helped by the local population , which made gestures of great humanity, generous and at the same time extremely risky, providing the fugitives with all kinds of assistance, food, clothing, shelter, often even money. In Anghiari, collections were also made to the inhabitants to collect money for the Yugoslavs who wanted to return to their country. An underground committee was formed in Sansepolcro aimed at assisting the former prisoners of Renicci. Some failed to survive, many went underground in the woods of Valtiberina, still others went to fight on the war fronts, some were captured and deported to Nazi camps in Germany, and others joined the Resistance by joining the ranks of the partisans. Camp No. 97 would still be used during the period of the Republic of Salò, albeit in a very limited way.

Memory

After the war, the Renicci camp fell into a long oblivion, as happened to many other similar structures scattered throughout Italy. Only in recent years has the camp been talked about again, thanks to the work of historians and associations engaged in the preservation of historical memory. Today, the Renicci camp is remembered as a place of suffering and injustice, but also as a symbol of moral resistance.

In 2009, a memorial park was opened in the area occupied by the concentration camp, and each year it hosts commemorations related to the Day of Remembrance, which here take the form of the camp’s prisoners, with the participation of local and national authorities, and former prisoners or their descendants.

The Renicci Internment Camp represents a dark page in Italian history, a place of suffering that has long remained forgotten. The inhumane conditions experienced by the Slavic and anarchist prisoners, the brutality of the guards and the courage of those who tried to resist and help are crucial elements of this story. The recovery of the memory of the Renicci camp is part of the broader effort to recognize the war crimes committed during the Fascist and Nazi occupation. It is a crucial process not only to bring justice to the victims, but also to educate new generations about the value of peace, democracy and human rights.

There was a fascist internment camp in the Valtiberina: Camp No. 97 in Renicci

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