The various categories of Italians present in German territory

Of the approximately 900,000 Italian men and women living in German territory in the last twenty months of the Second World War, only 800,000 had been transferred there after 8 September 1943; the other 100,000 had arrived earlier, as a result of bilateral economic agreements which had involved sending Italian agricultural and industrial labour to the Reich. Altogether, from 1938 to 1943, some 500,000 workers – both men and women – had been employed in various sectors of the German war economy. On 27 July 1943, Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as chief of the German police, blocked the repatriation…

“Deportation” and “Deportees”

In the period between the crisis of summer 1943 and Liberation, about 800,000 Italians (mostly men, but also a few thousand women) were transferred (almost all by force) to the territory of the Third Reich. There, their destinies crossed those of another 100,000 compatriots, who had been arriving in Germany since 1938 on the basis of intergovernmental agreements between Rome and Berlin, but who were now – after 25 July 1943 – held against their will by the National Socialist authorities. From May 1945 onwards, with the collapse of the Nazi regime and the end of the war in Europe,…

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