Moshe Sharett, the head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department, visited the Ferramonti di Tarsia Displaced Persons’ Camp in Italy in April 1944.
In June 1940 the Italians established the Ferramonti di Tarsia concentration camp in Southern Italy.
In September 1943, on the eve of the Italian surrender to the Allies, the Italians decided to release the prisoners in the camp, and the camp was converted into a DP camp. Shortly thereafter Jewish soldiers serving in the British Army arrived in the camp and met the 2,000 Jews living there. The Jews in the DP camp established educational institutions and synagogues, as well as branches of the Zionist parties and youth movements.