During the Nazi-Fascist occupation, Marassi Prison in Genoa became a central site for the political repression and persecution of partisans, Jewish opponents and anti-fascists. Section IV of the prison, intended for political prisoners, was directly run by the Nazis and became a center of detention, torture and deportation. This tragic role was part of the operations led by Siegfried Engel, head of the Aussenkommando Sicherheitsdienst in Genoa, in charge of repression against the Resistance and population control.

Engel, who assumed command in January 1944, conducted a policy of terror with ruthless round-ups and reprisals. Two episodes of reprisal stand out among the most dramatic moments: on the night of December 2 to 3, 1944, 22 partisans were taken from Section IV and shot in Portofino as revenge for the killing of 21 Italian Social Republic soldiers. A few months later, on the night of March 22-23, 1945, another 20 prisoners were executed near Cravasco in response to the killing of nine German soldiers in a confrontation with partisans. These events, documented in General Remigio Vigliero’s Diario da Marassi, show the climate of anguish and violence that permeated the prison.

Torture was a systematic practice used at Marassi to obtain information or simply to inflict pain. German management, under officers such as Ernest Poikert and later Marshal Lassner, was supported by Italian collaborators. Prominent among them was Giuseppe Nicoletti, a former waiter from Bolzano, who not only acted as interpreter, but personally tortured prisoners with brutal methods, helping to create a climate of terror.

The prison was also the scene of deportations of Jews. In February 1944, the head of the province of Genoa ordered the transfer of Jews to Marassi, placing them “at the disposal of the Genoa SS Command.” Many of them, arrested in often unsuccessful raids, were then transferred to Milan and eventually deported to extermination camps, including Auschwitz.

Marassi was not only a place of detention, but also a piece of the Nazi repressive system in the Ligurian region. Engel organized a network of spies and counterbands, teams of SS and fascists disguised as partisans, to infiltrate Resistance formations and gather information. The prison facility thus became a nodal point in the struggle against the Resistance and the systematic persecution of political opponents and Jews.