Withdrawal of prisoners in the CSR for forced labor in the Reich

During the Italian Social Republic (RSI), prisoners, whether for common or political offenses, were also systematically deported to be employed as forced laborers in Germany. Agreements between the Ministry of Justice in Salò and the German authorities allowed the transfer of thousands of inmates from Italian penitentiaries and judicial prisons.

An initial agreement in June 1944 led to the removal of 466 inmates from the Castelfranco Emilia penitentiary, 70 of whom were sent to the prison in Landsberg am Lech, while 396 were assigned to industrial work for Schäffer & Budenberg in Magdeburg. Of these, 200 worked in digging tunnels intended for the production of V-2 missiles. Only half of the deportees survived.

A second agreement, signed on June 17, 1944, involved more than 5,000 prisoners, mostly short sentences or awaiting trial, employed in chemical and armament factories in Germany. These operations, called Gefangenenaktion (prison-actions), ended in October 1944.

In addition, detainees convicted by German military and special courts in the Adriatic Coast and Foothills areas of operation were sent to German prisons or prison camps, often used for work related to the war industry, such as in the Junkers aircraft workshops in Dessau.

The taking of prisoners highlights the systematic subordination of Italian institutions to Nazi war interests and the human sacrifice imposed on the prisoners, many of whom did not survive.