Italian Displaced Persons Camps Internees

Introduction by Mina Mauerstein-Bail

Background

My parents, Yetta Mauerstein nee Friedman and Israel Chaim Mauerstein, spent almost five years in Displaced Persons Camps (DP Camps) after World War II. First they were in the Landsberg Jewish Center in Landsberg, Germany where they arrived toward the end of 1945. This DP camp was administered by UNRRA and located in the American Zone in Landsberg am Lech, near Munich, Germany. Although initially housing both Jewish and non-Jewish displaced persons, it became solely a Jewish DP Camp in the autumn of 1945. This Camp eventually became the second largest DP Camp in the American Zone.

Around 1947, my parents made their way to other DP Camps in Turin, Milan and eventually in 1948 to Trani, Italy. When my parents arrived in the US in 1950, they carried with them two small suitcases and one briefcase. This briefcase contained many documents with names of survivors in the various DP Camps and photos. These documents and photos and other information have been given to the US Holocaust Museum and shared via internet groups.

Lists from the following camps are included in this database:

• Adriatico (Milan)
• Bologna
• Cremona (hills above Milan)
• Grigliasco (near Turin)
• Rivoli (near Turin)
• Scola Cadorna (Milan area)
• Adriatico (Milan)
• Bologna
• Cremona (hills above Milan)
• Grigliasco (near Turin)
• Rivoli (near Turin)
• Scola Cadorna (Milan area)

For those interested in learning more about the DP Camps in Italy there are a number of sites of interest, including https://tinyurl.com/ft2z4634 on the Center for Jewish History site and https://tinyurl.com/nyztt57f as part of the JewishGen online Holocaust resource "The Mass Migration, Jews Leave Eastern Europe" compiled by William Leibner.

Database

This database includes the names of 282 individuals from the report that the author’s parents created. Some names may have been repeated in different camps.

The fields for this database are as follows:

• Camp location
• Number
• Surname
• Given name
• Marked as an invalid with percentage assigned
• Whether the list includes the person’s signature (records are linked to the actual source documents to make the signatures accessible)
• Comments

Acknowledgements

The information contained in this database was created from the documents described in the Background section of this Introduction. Mina Mauerstein-Bail has photos and additional information and can be contacted at minambail@gmail.com

Finally, we thank Mike Kalt, HTML Volunteer Coordinator, for placing this description online.

Nolan Altman,
May, 2021

Search the Database

The Italian Displaced Persons Camps Internees can be searched via the JewishGen Italy Database, or the JewishGen Holocaust Collection