An Extraordinary Italian Imprisonment

An Extraordinary Italian Imprisonment PDF Author: Brian Lett
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473822696
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
This book tells the story of prisoner of war camp PG 21, at Chieti, Italy, between August 1942 and September 1943. It was grossly overcrowded, with little running water, no proper sanitation, and in winter no heating.??Conditions (food/clothing) for POWs were so bad that they were debated in the House of Commons.??The prisoners suffered under a violently pro-Fascist regime. The first Commandant personally beat up one recaptured escaper. A pilot was murdered by an Italian guard following his escape attempt. Tunnels were dug, and the prisoners were even prepared to swim through human sewage to try and get out. Morale in the camp remained remarkably high. Two England cricket internationals staged a full scale cricket match. Theatre and music also thrived.??After the Italian Armistice, in September 1943, the British Commander refused to allow the ex-prisoners to leave camp. Germans took over the camp, and most prisoners were transported to Germany. Some managed to hide, and more than half of these subsequently escaped. After the war, a number of the Camp staff were arrested for war crimes.

An Extraordinary Italian Imprisonment

An Extraordinary Italian Imprisonment PDF Author: Brian Lett
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473822696
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book tells the story of prisoner of war camp PG 21, at Chieti, Italy, between August 1942 and September 1943. It was grossly overcrowded, with little running water, no proper sanitation, and in winter no heating.??Conditions (food/clothing) for POWs were so bad that they were debated in the House of Commons.??The prisoners suffered under a violently pro-Fascist regime. The first Commandant personally beat up one recaptured escaper. A pilot was murdered by an Italian guard following his escape attempt. Tunnels were dug, and the prisoners were even prepared to swim through human sewage to try and get out. Morale in the camp remained remarkably high. Two England cricket internationals staged a full scale cricket match. Theatre and music also thrived.??After the Italian Armistice, in September 1943, the British Commander refused to allow the ex-prisoners to leave camp. Germans took over the camp, and most prisoners were transported to Germany. Some managed to hide, and more than half of these subsequently escaped. After the war, a number of the Camp staff were arrested for war crimes.

Stalin's Italian Prisoners of War

Stalin's Italian Prisoners of War PDF Author: Maria Teresa Giusti
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9633863562
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This book reconstructs the fate of Italian prisoners of war captured by the Red Army between August 1941 and the winter of 1942-43. On 230.000 Italians left on the Eastern front almost 100.000 did not come back home. Testimonies and memoirs from surviving veterans complement the author's intensive work in Russian and Italian archives. The study examines Italian war crimes against the Soviet civilian population and describes the particularly grim fate of the thousands of Italian military internees who after the 8 September 1943 Armistice had been sent to Germany and were subsequently captured by the Soviet army to be deported to the USSR. The book presents everyday life and death in the Soviet prisoner camps and explains the particularly high mortality among Italian prisoners. Giusti explores how well the system of prisoner labor, personally supervised by Stalin, was planned, starting in 1943. A special focus of the study is antifascist propaganda among prisoners and the infiltration of the Soviet security agencies in the camps. Stalin was keen to create a new cohort of supporters through the mass political reeducation of war prisoners, especially middle-class intellectuals and military élite. The book ends with the laborious diplomatic talks in 1946 and 1947 between USSR, Italy, and the Holy See for the repatriation of the surviving prisoners.

Italian Prisoners of War in Pennsylvania

Italian Prisoners of War in Pennsylvania PDF Author: Flavio G. Conti
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1611479983
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
During World War II 51,000 Italian prisoners of war were detained in the United States. When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in September 1943, most of these soldiers agreed to swear allegiance to the United States and to collaborate in the fight against Germany. At the Letterkenny Army Depot, located near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, more than 1,200 Italian soldiers were detained as co-operators. They arrived in May 1944 to form the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion and remained until October 1945. As detainees, the soldiers helped to order, stock, repair, and ship military goods, munitions and equipment to the Pacific and European Theaters of war. Through such labor, they lent their collective energy to the massive home front endeavor to defeat the Axis Powers. The prisoners also helped to construct the depot itself, building roads, sidewalks, and fences, along with individual buildings such as an assembly hall, amphitheater, swimming pool, and a chapel and bell tower. The latter of these two constructions still exist, and together with the assembly hall, bear eloquent testimony to the Italian POW experience. For their work the Italian co-operators received a very modest, regular salary, and they experienced more freedom than regular POWs. In their spare time, they often had liberty to leave the post in groups that American soldiers chaperoned. Additionally, they frequently received or visited large entourages of Italian Americans from the Mid-Atlantic region who were eager to comfort their erstwhile countrymen. The story of these Italian soldiers detained at Letterkenny has never before been told. Now, however, oral histories from surviving POWs, memoirs generously donated by family members of ex-prisoners, and the rich information newly available from archival material in Italy, aided by material found in the U.S., have made it possible to reconstruct this experience in full. All of this historical documentation has also allowed the authors to tell fascinating individual stories from the moment when many POWs were captured to their return to Italy and beyond. More than seventy years since the end of World War II, family members of ex-POWs in both the United States and Italy still enjoy the positive legacy of this encounter.

An Extraordinary Italian Imprisonment

An Extraordinary Italian Imprisonment PDF Author: Brian Lett
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473843014
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
This WWII history reveals the shocking conditions and brutal treatment endured by Allied soldiers at a notorious Italian POW camp. Between August 1942 and September 1943, Camp PG21 in Chieti, Italy, was grossly overcrowded, with little running water, no proper sanitation, and no winter heating. Conditions for POWs were so bad that they were debated in the House of Commons. Tunnels were dug, and the prisoners were even prepared to swim through human sewage to try and get out. But those who attempted escape were violently punished or killed. Even still, morale in the camp remained remarkably high. Two England cricket internationals staged a full-scale cricket match. Theater and music also thrived. After the 1943 Italian Armistice, the British Commander refused to allow the ex-prisoners to leave camp. Germans took over the camp, and most prisoners were transported to Germany. Some managed to hide, and more than half of these subsequently escaped. After the war, a number of the Camp staff were arrested for war crimes.

Letters from Prison

Letters from Prison PDF Author: Antonio Gramsci
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231075541
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Hailed by Terry Eagleton in the Guardian as "definitive," this is the only complete and authoritative edition of Antonio Gramsci's deeply personal and vivid prison letters.

The Island of Extraordinary Captives

The Island of Extraordinary Captives PDF Author: Simon Parkin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 198217854X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
The “riveting…truly shocking” (The New York Times Book Review) story of a Jewish orphan who fled Nazi Germany for London, only to be arrested and sent to a British internment camp for suspected foreign agents on the Isle of Man, alongside a renowned group of refugee musicians, intellectuals, artists, and—possibly—genuine spies. Following the events of Kristallnacht in 1938, Peter Fleischmann evaded the Gestapo’s roundups in Berlin by way of a perilous journey to England on a Kindertransport rescue, an effort sanctioned by the UK government to evacuate minors from Nazi-controlled areas.train. But he could not escape the British police, who came for him in the early hours and shipped him off to Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man, under suspicion of being a spy for the very regime he had fled. During Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s, tens of thousands of German and Austrian Jews like Peter escaped and found refuge in Britain. After war broke out and paranoia gripped the nation, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that these innocent asylum seekers—so-called “enemy aliens”—be interned. When Peter arrived at Hutchinson Camp, he found one of history’s most astounding prison populations: renowned professors, composers, journalists, and artists. Together, they created a thriving cultural community, complete with art exhibitions, lectures, musical performances, and poetry readings. The artists welcomed Peter as their pupil and forever changed the course of his life. Meanwhile, suspicions grew that a real spy was hiding among them—one connected to a vivacious heiress from Peter’s past. Drawing from unpublished first-person accounts and newly declassified government documents, award-winning journalist Simon Parkin reveals an “extraordinary yet previously untold true story” (Daily Express) that serves as a “testimony to human fortitude despite callous, hypocritical injustice” (The New Yorker) and “an example of how individuals can find joy and meaning in the absurd and mundane” (The Spectator).

Behind Barbed Wire

Behind Barbed Wire PDF Author: Alexander Mikaberidze
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
An indispensable reference on concentration camps, death camps, prisoner-of-war camps, and military prisons offering broad historical coverage as well as detailed analysis of the nature of captivity in modern conflict. This comprehensive reference work examines internment, forced labor, and extermination during times of war and genocide, with a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries and particular attention paid to World War II and recent conflicts in the Middle East. It explores internment as it has been used as a weapon and led to crimes against humanity and is ideal for students of global studies, history, and political science as well as politically and socially aware general readers. In addition to entries on such notorious camps as Abu Ghraib, Andersonville, Auschwitz, and the Hanoi Hilton, the encyclopedia includes profiles of key perpetrators of camp and prison atrocities and more than a dozen curated and contextualized primary source documents that further illuminate the subject. Primary sources include United Nations documents outlining the treatment of prisoners of war, government reports of infamous camp and prison atrocities, and oral histories from survivors of these notorious facilities.

Road to Valour

Road to Valour PDF Author: Aili McConnon
Publisher: Phoenix
ISBN: 9780753828144
Category : Cyclists
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
An Italian SCHINDLER'S LIST, this is the inspirational story of Gino Bartali, who made the greatest comeback in Tour de France history and secretly aided the Italian Resistance during the Second World War. ROAD TO VALOUR is the inspiring, against-the-odds story of Gino Bartali, the cyclist who made the greatest comeback in Tour de France history and still holds the record for the longest gap between victories. Yet it was his actions during the Second World War, when he secretly aided the Resistance, rather than his remarkable exploits on a bike, that truly cemented his place in the hearts and minds of the Italian people. Based on nearly ten years of research, and including fascinating new interviews, this is the only book written that fully explores the scope of Bartali's wartime work. A breathtaking account of one man's unsung heroism and his resilience in the face of adversity, this is an epic tale of courage, comeback and redemption, and the untold story of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.

Orkney's Italian Chapel

Orkney's Italian Chapel PDF Author: Philip Paris
Publisher: Black & White Publishing
ISBN: 1845026144
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Orkney's Italian Chapel was built by Italian POWs held on the island during the Second World War. In the sixty-five years since it was built it has become an enduring symbol of peace and hope around the world. The story of who built the chapel and how it came into existence and survived against all the odds is both fascinating and inspiring. Author Philip Paris's extensive research into the creation of the Italian Chapel has uncovered many new facts, and this comprehensive new book is the definitive account of the chapel and those who built it. It is a book that has waited to be written for sixty-five years.

Excellent Cadavers

Excellent Cadavers PDF Author: Alexander Stille
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0679768637
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
In 1992 Italy was convulsed by two brazen Mafia assassinations of high-ranking officials. The latest "excellent cadavers" were Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the Sicilian magistrates who had been the Cosa Nostra's most implacable enemies. Yet in the aftermath of the murders, hundreds of "men of honor" were arrested and the government that ad protected them for nearly half a century was at last driven from office. This is the story that Stille tells with such insight and immediacy in Excellent Cadavers. Combining a profound understanding of his doomed heroes with and unprecedented look into the Mafia's stringent codes and murderous rivalries, he gives us a book that has the power of a great work of history and the suspense of a true thriller. "Riveting...a well-paced and highly informative account stocked with well-drawn characters."--Philadelphia Inquirer "Masterful...[Stille] delivers a stiletto-sharp portrait of the bloodthirsty Sicilian mafia."--Business Week