Kleine Berlin

The Kleine Berlin is the largest complex of underground anti-aircraft tunnels, dating back to the Second World War, still existing in Trieste. The anti-aircraft shelter called Kleine Berlin (Little Berlin), which can be visited today, is divided into two distinct areas: a public anti-aircraft tunnel for the civilian population of Trieste and a German military anti-aircraft shelter, consisting of a main tunnel and several lateral branches. The Kleine Berlin was built in 1943 under the direction of the German SS general Odilo Globocnik, who was also responsible for the conversion of the Risiera di San Sabba to a concentration camp (the only one in Italy), where political prisoners, Jews and partisans were imprisoned before being deported. towards the extermination camp of Auschwitz. The Kleine Berlin was the German command center of the upper Adriatic and within it all strategic and organizational operations of the territory had to be guaranteed. Behind a door of Globocnik's office there was a trap door that led to the garden of his Villa and from there to a square well (later filled with materials immediately after the war) which led directly to the Kleine Berlin and, through another passage underground, to the cellars of the Court.