Kleines Berlin

Kleines Berlin, German for Little Berlin, is an underground air-raid shelter complex from the Second World War in Trieste, Italy, built by German forces after the city was annexed into the Adriatic Coast Operational Zone in 1943. The tunnels were excavated under the Organisation Todt with work directed by SS-Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnik and carried out by three separate companies, providing shelter for German soldiers and civilian employees near the Trieste court as well as, at times, Italian civilians. The complex has an Italian-built sector and a German-built sector totaling roughly 1,000 square meters in the German portion alone; German occupants burned coke coal in braziers to manage humidity, a practice that created asphyxiation hazards for sheltering civilians. The occupation ended when Yugoslav Partisans entered Trieste on 1 May 1945, followed by New Zealand troops who accepted the German surrender; the site is now a museum open to visitors through guided tours.