Piazza della Memoria - EN

A) TRANSLATION OF THE LICENCE PLATE

This area, formed by the Square, the Memorial, the former Municipal Building, seat of the municipal administration, and a part of the Palazzo Tilli with its outbuilding, recalls a piece of the history of Casoli, inserted in the wide scenario of the Second World War. On June 10, 1940, from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia in Rome, Benito Mussolini announced to the Italian people the entry into the war of Italy on the side of Hitler’s Germans. The first sad taste of what the conflict would be for our country came, as was obvious, with the call to arms of our fellow citizens. The Casolani found themselves, instead, facing an unforeseen contingency connected to the beginning of hostilities: the establishment in the country of a concentration camp for internees. On January 27, 2022, the administration inaugurated a Memorial in memory of the Jews subjected to internment, as a result of the brutal racial laws of the Duce, and of the Slavs, considered politically dangerous after the invasion of their land by Axis troops. The Jews lived in the Casoli Camp from 1940 to 1942 and the Slavs from 1942 to 1944. The Memorial Square and the adjoining Memorial were built in an area close to the internees ‘ quarters. The Camp was originally formed by two main buildings: the cellars of Palazzo Tilli (with a capacity of about 50 seats) and the premises on the ground floor of the former Municipal Town Hall with a ca-pacity of about 30 seats. Shortly after the internees from the cellars were transferred to the annex of the building, then also used as a room for theatrical performances, cinema and parties. A total of 108 Jews and 110 Yugoslavs. Ten Jews who lived in the Casoli Camp, deported by the Nazis to the extermination camps, died in the gas chambers (nine in Auschitz and one in the Risiera di San Sabba, the ancient San Sabba rice bowl). The complex is a point of reference for our community and for visitors, because it too, in its small way, contributes to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive so that it does not get lost in the fog of oblivion.

B) SUPPLEMENTARY NEWS