The museum of the Risiera di S. Sabba is located in a building, built in 1898 for rice husking, which was used after the autumn of 1943 by the occupying Nazis as a police detention camp (Polizeihaftlager), intended both for the sorting of the racial and political deportees in Germany and in Poland and for the deposit of stolen goods, and for the detention and extermination of Italian, Slovenian and Croatian hostages, partisans and political prisoners.
Moreover, a crematorium was added in 1944.
Declared a National Monument in 1965, the complex of the Risiera was renovated by architect Romano Boico and transformed into a municipal museum in 1975.
The 17 cells and the death cell have remained unchanged. It houses a permanent historical exhibition and a library.
The Room of the Crosses displays a selection of goods stolen from Trieste's Jews, donated by the Jewish Community of Trieste; the Museum Room displays objects and documents donated by the ex deportees of the ANED (Italian National Association of the ex Political Deportees in the Nazi Camps).
