“Here live as free men and citizens those who, from 1940 to 1943 were imprisoned in these places and deprived of the inalienable rights due to the prescriptions of the Royal Law Decree n. 1728 dated 17 November 1938 ‘provisions in defence of the Italian race’ and the imprisonment orders thereof during the war period”. These words on a panel in Piazza della Memoria (Remembrance Square) tell the dramatic tragedy of 128 "foreign jews" civil prisoners, mainly German, Austrian and Polish (108) and political prisoners from "former Jugoslavia" (110), mainly Croatian and Slovenian, who were imprisoned in the Casoli Camp. After 8 September 1943, when Italy was occupied by the Germans, nine of those Jewish prisoners were deported and killed in Auschwitz, another was killed in Risiera di San Saba (Trieste).

Now a European Remembrance Site, Casoli was one of the 15 concentration camps set in Abruzzo by the fascist regime and in 1940 was selected by the Ministry of Home Affairs as an appropriate prison for "foreign jews". Two main buildings made part of the camp: the cellars and rooms of Palazzo Tilli and some rooms of the former Town Hall.

The fascist camp in Casoli was active until 8 September 1943. On the occasion of the Liberation Day celebrations on 25 April 2018, the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella visited those places, acknowledging the efforts of the Municipality of Casoli in preserving the memory of the Nation: places, stories and signs are part of an heritage to be maintained and conveyed to younger generations to understand the value of the Constitution.

The Remembrance Square is located in front of the area of the former concentration camp and was opened on 27 January 2022 to celebrate the Remembrance Day. 7 cobblestones creating a metaphorical "stumble" (in Italian “pietre d'inciampo”) were also set in memory of the prisoners in Casoli victims of the Shoah in lagers.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]