Museo della Deportazione
The Museo della Deportazione e the Resistance ( Deportation and Resistance Museum ) with the connected Centro di Documentazione ( Documentation Centre ) is a non -profit foundation in the northern Italian city of Prato ( district Figline ) in Tuscany. Director of the institution is Camilla Brunelli.
History
On September 6, 1944 - the day of the liberation of the city of Prato from German occupation - it came in Figline a massacre of 29 young partisans who were hanged by a German Wehrmacht unit on the decline. It was one of hundreds of mass murders committed by the German troops, especially in the region of Tuscany.
The present museum and documentation center are just a stone's throw from the site of the former massacre removed.
The content of the exhibition, however, is marked by a different historical event: In March 1944, hundreds Tuscans and over one hundred Prato in the Mauthausen concentration camp and the majority were deported into the next Ebensee camp due to a general strike in the occupied north and central Italy.
When choosing the location of the museum, therefore, a factory building in the center of the city was under discussion. Finally, however, it was decided but for Figline as " authentic place of a Nazi massacre ".
The initiative for the establishment of a museum in memory of the events of that time came from a few of Prato survivors - most notably Roberto Castellani. The financing was adopted by the municipality of Prato and the museum and documentation center were able to be opened at a ceremony on 10 April 2002 in the presence of the then Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
Stand the facility initially under the administration of the municipality, it is from February 2008 to a foundation that of the municipalities of the province of Prato, ANED ( National Association of former political deportees in the Nazi camps), the ANPI ( National Association of Italian Partisans ) and the Jewish community was founded in Florence.
Since 2008, the museum is also the operation site for the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service.
Exhibition
After an introduction to the subject in the Nazi camp system, the concentration camp at Mauthausen and its neighboring Ebensee camp, and a review of the deportation of the region of Tuscany is the essential part of the exhibition, which covers about 70 square meters, of objects from the tunnel systems of the Ebensee concentration camp. These were collected in the 70 years of Prato survivors together with fellow citizens and eventually donated to the museum.
In addition, we find the former bell of the parade ground of the camp of Ebensee in the museum, which is on loan from the municipality of Ebensee and expression of the twinning Prato- Ebensee, which was closed in 1987.
The contents of the museum is particularly aimed at students from the 8th grade, but also to interested citizens of the region and from abroad. Admission is free.
The Documentation Centre
On the first floor of the building, the Documentation Centre is housed, which has a technically modern conference hall with 70 seats, a 3,000 media extensive library and three computer terminals. The research carried out not only in cooperation with local institutions and experts but also within the framework of international projects and in cooperation with the partner institution, the Museum of Contemporary History Ebensee.
Gallery
Issued jacket of an Italian prisoner deportees
Flared barbed wire of the Ebensee concentration camp
Exhibited Syringe - Syringes like these were used to murder of prisoners