(JTA) — The museum, memorial and grounds of the World War II internment and transit camp at Fossoli, in northern Italy, has been closed to visitors since suffering severe damage in twin earthquakes.
Quakes on May 20 and May 30 killed at least 24 people, left thousands homeless and caused widespread damage to art and architectural heritage. The quakes also damaged synagogues, Jewish cemeteries and other Jewish property in several cities.
Administrators of the Fossoli memorial site, which includes a museum monument to the deported, said the quakes damaged nearly all the old barracks structures that had formed part of the camp.
Some 5,000 people, about half of them Jews, passed through Fossoli en route to Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and other camps in seven months in 1944. Among them was Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi.
