In front of us lies the area of the old Camp, one of the two parts of the Fossoli Camp, the area next to it is the so-called new Camp, facing Via Remesina and separated from it by the Francesa Canal. On these grounds, now lush with vegetation, stood barracks that were heavily damaged during the war and therefore demolished in 1946.
In May 1942 the Royal Italian Army declares this area as suitable for the construction of a barrack camp for prisoners of war, camp PG 73, which from May '42 to September '43 would host more than 5,000 enemy soldiers captured during the war operations in North Africa. The old Camp we are looking at covered over 9 hectares of the total 15 hectares of the Fossoli camp; it had 93 buildings, including the prisoners’ dormitories, offices, the guards' dormitories, an infirmary, warehouses and more. It was surrounded by double fences, wooden sentry boxes, night floodlights and was watched over by a large number of guards.
The allied prisoners were mainly officers and non-commissioned officers of the British army, arriving in groups after an exhausting journey at the Carpi railway station and from there taken to Fossoli.
After September 8, 1943, the Germans occupied the camp and deported both the British prisoners and the Italian guards to the Reich camps. During these transfers three British prisoners were killed by the Germans, but over 80 managed to save themselves with the help of the local population.
Following 'Police Order No. 5' issued on November 30, 1943, the Italian Social Republic turns the Fossoli camp, including also the old camp, into the main Italian concentration camp for Jews run by the Modena Police Headquarters. On March 15, 1944, when the German command takes over the management of the 'new camp', the Modena Police Headquarters keep using the old camp for civilian prisoners: enemy subjects (many of them from Anglomaltese families), mixed-blood Jews and rounded-up civilians for whom deportation is not envisaged.
On July 21, the Prefect of Modena informs the Interior Ministry that the 'old camp' has been definitively shut down and that the barracks equipment have been handed over to the German authorities, with most of the inmates set free or in forced residence. After the liberation, the buildings are looted by the local population, mostly extremely poor war veterans, who are allowed to sell any salvaged materials for their livelihood. These recovered materials are used to restore the barracks in the new Camp but also for other buildings such as the kindergarten and the doctor's house in the hamlet of Fossoli. From May 1946, the entire area, cleared of any structures, starts to be used again for agricultural purposes. When in 1984 the Italian State transfers for free the property of the Fossoli camp to the Municipality of Carpi free, the area of the old camp becomes part of a memorial project, even if completely devoid of any artefacts and traces of the concentration camp settlements.
In 1996 the Municipality of Carpi in conjunction with the Friends of the Museum-Monument to the Deportee Association establish the Fossoli Foundation, which still manages the Fossoli Camp to this date, in order to preserve and enhance the historical site, work in the research and documentation field, and develop educational and dissemination activities.
