The San Sabba camp began as a rice processing factory from 1908 until 1943. It was the Nazis who converted it into a concentration camp for opponents of the regime, and later partisans, political dissidents, and Jews were murdered there. The site also served as a transit point on the way to Auschwitz and other camps. After the war, remains of bodies and ashes from the cremation of prisoners were discovered there. Following years of neglect, in 1965 the President of Italy ordered the site to be transformed into a national memorial.