The Coroneo prison, located in Trieste and active since 1914, represented a key site for political and racial repression during the Nazi-Fascist occupation (1943-1945). Initially built to house civilian prisoners with modern facilities for the time, it became, under German control, one of the main centers for internment and deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Its management was characterized by extremely harsh conditions and a close connection with the repressive system of the SS, which operated in the Adriatic Coast.

Coroneo Prison was one of the main collection points for political prisoners, Jews and opponents of the Nazi regime. After being arrested, many of them were detained awaiting transfers to concentration camps or summary executions. The underground cells, infamously known as the “death cells,” housed Italian, Slovenian, and Croatian prisoners rounded up during reprisal operations.

Two emblematic episodes mark Coroneo’s role in Nazi reprisals. On April 3, 1944, 71 prisoners were taken from the prison and shot in retaliation for a partisan attack on a cinema in Opicina, which had resulted in the deaths of seven German soldiers. A few days later, on April 23, 51 political prisoners were hanged in the Rittmeyer building on Via Ghega, in the heart of Trieste, in response to another Resistance attack. These acts of violence demonstrate the direct link between the prison and the Nazi repressive machine.

The right wing of the prison, known as the “German wing,” was reserved for prisoners made available to the German Command. Conditions here were particularly harsh: overcrowding, poor hygiene and lack of basic rights characterized prisoners’ lives. Interrogation and torture were common practices, often conducted to extort information or simply to intimidate. Jewish and political prisoners were subjected to particularly brutal treatment.

Documentation on SS special prisoners is fragmentary. Many arrests were not recorded with details of generalities or reasons for detention, making it difficult to reconstruct the names and fates of many prisoners. However, the testimonies of former prisoners have shed light on the atrocities committed at Coroneo and its role in deportation to concentration camps.

The Coroneo prison was an integral part of a larger repressive system that included the Risiera di San Sabba, the SS headquarters in Oberdan Square, and other city prisons such as the Jesuit and Tigor Street prisons. In this context, the Coroneo served a dual function: that of a place of temporary detention and sorting to other facilities or directly to the death camps.