Confinement
«Long lists of accusations, often based on rumors, could condemn any type of activity as
subversive».
This is how the Italian Regime used to handle political disagreement during the dictatorship
of Benito Mussolini.
The fascist regime implemented a series of repressive measures to handle dissent, such as
death penalty, reprimands or trespassing. From 1926 to 1943 were issued approximately
12,330 confinement orders by the fascist state organs.
Why confinement and not a sentence by the tribunal tho? To convict a political opponent, the
Special State Security Court needed a trial and a sentence. To send someone into exile all
of this was not needed.
What does it consist of?
The person is removed from his or her place of residence and sent to live in a place as far
away as possible from his or her usual place of residence, so as to avoid any kind of
participation in organizations or activities judged to be potentially threatening to the fascist
state.
Those who were sent into exile were many: mentally ill people, homosexuals, communists,
evangelists, or anti-fascists. Exile could last up to five years, and the most used islands for
confinement were Favignana, Lampedusa and Lipari.
The most populated city by exiles was Ventotene, which hosted more than 2,000 exiles. In
1943, however, the battle for liberation took place and most of the inhabitants of the town
were freed.
