After the armistice

On 8 September 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies, putting an end to the alliance with Nazi Germany. On the same day, the Anglo-Americans landed at Salerno and started to move northwards. At the end of 1943, southern Italy was basically free. Very different was the situation in the rest of the country, which was quickly occupied by the Germans. Due to its geographical position, north-eastern Italy was an area of great strategic interest, where Italian and Yugoslav partisan units were already active. The anti-partisan fight was mainly entrusted to the SS, the terrible Nazi police.

For the prisoners, the choice of escaping the camp or staying hoping for the arrival of the Allies is very difficult, because both choices involve great risks. In the end, about half of the 107 prisoners leave the camp, while the other half remain.

Those who escape choose different routes and move alone or in small groups. Some, thanks to the general confusion reigning in Italy in those days, manage to blend in with the Italian soldiers who are returning home by train and in this way reach the southern Italy within a few days. Others move towards the Slovenian border and join the Allies with the help of Yugoslav partisans. Still others stay in Friuli, where they are hidden and fed, even for many months, by the peasants of the countryside and especially by the women.

For those who remain in the camp, fate is sealed within a few days: on 14 September, the Germans arrive in Torviscosa and the next day they repair the holes the fugitives had made in the fences. On 30 September, they deported all the prisoners to the Reich camps.