Original scientific paper
CROATIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN ITALY FROM 1943 TO 1945
Mateo Bratanić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5686-9544
; University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
Abstract
The history of Croatian refugees in Italy should be viewed as a stage in history of the Croatian refugee camps from 1943 to 1946. Italy is primarily important as an area which a large number of refugees from the territory of southern Croatia went through, for most of them it was just a stop on a trip to Egypt, and for minority of them it was also a permanent residence till they return to their homeland. It is also significant as an area of the ongoing military cooperation between the partisan movement and the Western allies, a place where the most important operative segments of the Croatian refugee
camps were set, where the relationship with the Western allies was elaborated, as well as the importance that the refugee camps could have had on the foreign territory. This minor part of Croatian refugees, which counted maximally up to 7000 people, witnessed the difficult conditions of everyday life in the Italian refugee camps. Impossible living conditions, insufficient clothing, inadequate nutrition and conflicts with the royalists were just some of the indicators
of a hard life in the Italian camps. However, the most difficult circumstances were those of medical nature. Various diseases did not spare the members of the camps, especially children who were dying because of inadequate medical care. In addition to all these troubles, life in the camps continued, and it was filled with all sorts of activities in the social, labour, cultural and educational field that made waiting for a return to homeland quicker to pass. Activities of Croatian refugees in the Italian camps had continued until the return of the
last group of camps’ members from Italy in March 1945. Within such relationships, activities of the refugee camps in Italy were simply a small sign of what was parallel happening in Egypt.
Keywords
the Second World War; refugee camps; Dalmatia; Italy; partisan movement; Allies; everyday life; repatriation
Hrčak ID:
160761
URI
Publication date:
28.6.2016.
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