When dealing with such a race as Slavic – inferior and barbarian – we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy.... We should not be afraid of new victims.... The Italian border should run across the Brenner Pass, Monte Nevoso and the Dinaric Alps.... I would say we can easily sacrifice 500,000 barbaric Slavs for 50,000 Italians....
— Benito Mussolini, speech held in Pula, 22 February 1922[3][4][5]
The first transport of 5,343 prisoners (1,643 of whom were children) arrived two days after its establishment, on February 23, 1942, from the Province of Ljubljana and from two other Italian concentration camps, the Rab camp and the camp at Monigo (near Treviso).
The camp was disbanded on September 8, 1943, immediately after the Italian armistice.
Only in 1973 was a memorial created by the sculptorMiodrag Živković at the town's cemetery. The 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. At least 93 children were killed at the camp, including those that had been transferred from the Rab concentration camp to Gonars.[6]
Notable inmates
Slovenes
Viktor Antolin, professor of philosophy (student/journalist at the time)
Alessandra Kersevan (2008): Lager italiani. Pulizia etnica e campi di concentramento fascisti per civili jugoslavi 1941–1943. Editore Nutrimenti,
Alessandra Kersevan (2003): Un campo di concentramento fascista. Gonars 1942–1943., Kappa Vu Edizioni, Udine.
Nadja Pahor Verri (1996): Oltre il filo : storia del campo di internamento di Gonars, 1941–1943, Arti Grafiche Friulane, Udine.
Luca Baldissara, Paolo Pezzino (2004): Crimini e memorie di guerra: violenze contro le popolazioni e politiche del ricordo, L'Ancora del Mediterraneo. ISBN978-88-8325-135-1
Further reading
Bregar, Ana (2013): Comparing situation at the Gonars Concentration Camp and the Rab Concentration Camp (In Slovene: "Primerjava taboriščnih razmer na Rabu in v Gonarsu"), Diploma thesis, Faculty of Arts, Department of history, University of Ljubljana.
Mihajlovič, Nataša (2012): Comparing the Gonars Concentration Camp and the Mauthausen Concentration Camp (In Slovene: "Primerjava koncentracijskih taborišč Gonars in Mauthausen"), Diploma thesis, Faculty of Arts, Department of history, University of Ljubljana.
^Herman Janež: Onstran žice – Gonars (2): Prihodi transportov s taborišniki (deutsch: Jenseits des Zaunes – Gonars (2): Die Ankunft der Gefangenentransporte), mehrteilige Reihe in der slowenischen Wochenzeitung Dolenjski list, Novo mesto, 9. August 2012, S. 18.