Transport from Montecatini Terme, Pistoia, Toscana, Italy to Firenze, Firenze, Toscana, Italy on 06/11/1943

The area of Montecatini-Terme was occupied by units of Heeresgruppe B shortly after the invasion of Northern and Central Italy by Nazi Germany on September 8, 1943.^[1] This popular spa resort in the province of Pistoia became a strategically important hub for German troops. Many of the local hotels were requisitioned and turned over to the Wehrmacht, whose command was quartered at the Hotel Imperiale.^[2]

Montecatini did not have a Jewish community. However, from the summer of 1942 this town, with its large number of hotels, became a so-called Località di internamento, one of several free internment zones in the Pistoia area.^[3] These zones had been set up by the Ministry of the Interior before the German occupation,^[4] and they were mainly intended for foreign Jews and for Anglo-Maltese civilians displaced from Libya.^[5] Mussolini had decided to disperse or remove the Libyan Jews (in a campaign known as the “Sfollamento”^[6]). Parts of them were sent to the Italian internment zones, including Montecatini. Several waves of internees were deported further, to concentration camps such as Bagni di Lucca, Fossoli, Fiuggi^[7], and others, after staying in Montecatini for a while. At the time of the onset of the German occupation, there were eighty-nine Anglo-Maltese and sixty foreign internees (of various nationalities) remaining in the town. It is unclear how many of them were Jewish.^[8]  

The free internment zones offered better living conditions than did the concentration camps. In particular, the internees were allowed some freedom of movement, the possibility of pursuing numerous occupations, and the right to interact with the local population. However, the number of internees, which was high at times, coupled with the poor sanitary and health conditions, contributed to the spread of disease. This caused discontent among the residents of Montecatini, and the local Fascists agitated against the "wealthy" foreign internees, claiming that the Italian population was "annoyed by the contrast between the poverty of our compatriots repatriated from Italian Africa and the foreign internees, including many Jews who had received generous subsidies from Switzerland."^[9]...