The Student House and the Gestapo

The Student House on Via Gastaldi, a beautiful rationalist stucture used as a university residence and canteen, recounts one of the most dramatic pages of World War II. The building, operational since 1935 under the management of the University of Genoa, became a garrison of the "National Fascist Party," which changed its name to "University Fascist House" in 1941, leaving the structure in the hands of the "Genoese Fascist University Group," and finally became the headquarters of the Gestapo police, who requisitioned it several times between September and October 1943.Occupied by the Gestapo, whose local branch was commanded by Sigfrid Engel, the infamous 'executioner of Genoa,' the Casa dello Studente was an obscure place of detention and torture of all opponents who did not cooperate with the Nazi-Fascists: partisans, Jews, homosexuals, anarchists, and, in general, all suspects.