Gonars concentration campThe Gonars concentration camp was one of the several Italian concentration camps and it was established on February 23, 1942, near Gonars, Italy. Many prisoners were transferred to this camp from the other Italian concentration camp, Rab concentration camp, which served as equivalent of final solution in Mario Roatta's ethnic cleansing policy against ethnic Slovenes from the Italian-occupied Province of Ljubljana and Croats from Gorski Kotar, in accord with the racist 1920s speech by Benito Mussolini, along with other Italian war crimes committed on the Italian-occupied territories of Yugoslavia: When dealing with such a race as Slavic – inferior and barbarian – we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy.
Italian war crimesItalian war crimes have mainly been associated with Fascist Italy in the Pacification of Libya, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II. In 1911, Italy went to war with the Ottoman Empire and invaded Ottoman Tripolitania. One of the most notorious incidents during this conflict was the October Tripoli massacre, wherein many civilian inhabitants of the Mechiya oasis were killed over a period of three days as retribution for the execution and mutilation of Italian captives taken in an ambush at nearby Sciara Sciat.
Rab concentration campThe Rab concentration camp (Campo di concentramento per internati civili di Guerra – Arbe; Koncentracijski logor Rab; Koncentracijsko taborišče Rab) was one of several Italian concentration camps. It was established during World War II, in July 1942, on the Italian-occupied island of Rab (now in Croatia). According to historians James Walston and Carlo Spartaco Capogeco, at 18%, the annual mortality rate in the camp was higher than the average mortality rate in the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald (15%).
SlovenesThe Slovenes, also known as Slovenians (Slovenci slɔˈʋéːntsi), are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their native language. They are closely related to other South Slavic ethnic groups, as well as more distantly to West Slavs. Outside of Slovenia and Europe, Slovenes form diaspora groups in the United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil.