Situated in the regional capital of Bari in southern Italy, Bari Transit camp became a major assembly and smuggling point for Jewish DPs seeking emigration. The camp was created in mid-1946, nearly two years after most other southern Italian refugee camps were started. Located in a requisitioned villa near the Bari port, the camp population surged from 73 refugees in December 1946, to 1,400 in May 1947. Though the camp's administrators requisitioned the villa, they could not seize the furniture, resulting in a shortage of cots for the DPs. With approximately 75 percent of the DPs without cots, they slept on straw palliasses. Eventually the camp workshop attempted to build beds, but a shortage of lumber hampered their production. Nonetheless, the camp boasted a strong athletic life and hosted a sports seminar in 1947.
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