Risiera di San Sabba

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Risiera di San Sabba (Slovene: Rižarna) was a Nazi concentration camp operating in Trieste. Officially designated as a police detention camp (Polizeihaftlager), it was the only one on Italian territory with a crematorium. It was primarily used to eliminate members of the resistance in the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral (OZAK), but another important function was as a transit camp for Jews on the way to the extermination camps, primarily Auschwitz. It was a place typical of the Nazi system to help realize the final solution to the Jewish question and to suppress undesirable rebels (which the Nazis labelled as Banditen), while on the other hand systematically exploiting the civilian population.

On top of prisoners killed on the spot or deported, civilians who were captured in raids or destined for forced labour were also confined here. Estimates for the number of victims of San Sabba range from 2000 based on court testimonies up to a maximum of 5000. Victims were usually killed either using exhaust gasses from transport vehicles or they were bludgeoned to death; it is also recorded that some of the victims were shot.

Approximately 1450 Jews deported from OZAK passed through San Sabba, of which only around 20 survived, while 28 are confirmed to have been killed in the camp as they were deemed too old or weak for transportation.

In 1965 the Risiera was declared a national monument and in 1975 it became a museum.

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