Regina Coeli Prison

During the Nazi occupation of Rome (Sept. 11, 1943-June 4, 1944), Regina Coeli prison became a key center for repression, run in part by the German command that occupied the third and sixth wings. In close connection with Via Tasso, headquarters of the SS command and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), Regina Coeli housed prisoners arrested by the Nazis and the fascists of the Republic of Salò. These were often members of the Resistance, partisans, political opponents belonging to the Action Party, the Communist Party or the Christian Democrats, but also Jews, deserters, students, priests and even mothers and fathers of families.

Regina Coeli was not only a place of detention and torture, but also a point of departure for the deportation of political prisoners, anti-fascist Jews and “undesirables.” Many inmates were transferred to the Fossoli transit camp, the antechamber to deportation to Nazi lagers such as Auschwitz, Mauthausen and Dachau, or sent directly to concentration camps to be eliminated or exploited in forced labor.

The prison operated as an intermediate or final stop for many prisoners: those who had been subjected to torture at Via Tasso were transferred to Regina Coeli when they were no longer deemed useful for obtaining information, or Regina Coeli inmates were translated to Via Tasso for interrogation and often torture. In other cases, they went from Regina Coeli to the War Tribunal for a sentence of imprisonment in Germany, deportation to camps or execution, often at Forte Bravetta. Many prisoners ended up victims of the Fosse Ardeatine.

Living conditions were extremely harsh. The sixth wing, reserved for political prisoners, was characterized by overcrowding, food shortages and the absence of basic rights. Regina Coeli’s cells, which shortly before the fall of Mussolini had housed fascist hierarchs, became a place of detention for those fighting against Nazi-fascism. In total thousands of people passed through the prison, symbolizing the plurality of victims of Nazi repression, from the working classes to aristocratic elites.

On June 4, 1944, with the arrival of the Allies, the Nazis withdrew and the National Liberation Committee decreed the immediate release of the political prisoners. The Roman population rushed to free the remaining inmates, many of whom, before returning to freedom, collected documents from the German ward’s matriculation office, valuable evidence of the atrocities committed. Regina Coeli, along with Via Tasso, remains today a symbol of the suffering, deportation and resistance during the occupation of Rome.