Gonars concentration camp
The Gonars concentration camp was one of the several Italian concentration camps and it was established on February 23, 1942, near Gonars, Italy.
Many internees were transferred to this camp from the other Italian concentration camp, Rab concentration camp, which served as equivalent of final solution in Mario Roatta's ethnic cleansing policy against ethnic Slovenes from the Italian-occupied Province of Ljubljana and Croats from Gorski Kotar, in accord with the racist 1920s speech by Benito Mussolini, along with other Italian war crimes committed on the Italian-occupied territories of Yugoslavia:
The first transport of 5,343 internees arrived two days after its establishment, on February 23, 1942, from the Province of Ljubljana and from the other two Italian concentration camps, the Rab camp and the camp in Monigo.
The camp was disbanded on September 8, 1943, immediately after the Italian armistice. Every effort was made to erase any evidence of this black spot of Italian history. The camp's buildings were destroyed, the materials were used to build a nearby kindergarten and the site was turned into a meadow.
Only in 1973 a sacrarium was created by sculptor Miodrag Živković at the town's cemetery. Remains of 453 Slovenian and Croatian victims were transferred into its two underground crypts. It is believed that at least 50 additional persons died in the camp due to starvation and torture. Apart from the sacrarium no other evidence of the camp remains and even many locals are unaware of it.Slovene notable inmates
- France Balantič, a poet
- France Bučar, a lawyer, writer, and statesman in post-1991 Slovenia
- Lojze Bukovac, a bearer of Commemorative Medal of the Partisans of 1941, a writer
- Alojz Gradnik, a poet
- Bogo Grafenauer, a historian
- Boris Kraigher, a politician
- Vasilij Melik, a historian
- Frane Milčinski, a poet, actor, children's writer, and director
- Jakob Savinšek, a sculptor and poet
- Bojan Štih, a literary critic, essayist, and stage director
- Anton Vratuša, a politician from Communist era
- Aleš Strojnik, a scientist and educator
- Vitomil Zupan, a writer
- Zora Konjajev, pediatritian
- Nada Vidmar, opera singer
- Nande Vidmar, painter
- Bogdana Stritar, opera singer
- Viktor Antolin, professor of philosophy
- Toffolo, Davide : L'inverno d'Italia, Coconino Press.
- Minigutti, Dorino : Beyond the wire, a documentary film, Gorizia.
