User:Ericlamet

Italian Civil Internment Camps during World War II

Civil Internment camps in Italy during the Fascist period - 1922 to 1943 - often referred to as Internment Villages, or confino were set up to keep unfriendly voices removed from large cities and the general population. Most of these dedicated villages were located in small remote area, away from cities and far from the coast line.

South of Naples, a good number of these villages were selected. In the province of Avellino we have Mercogliano, Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo and several others. Further south the best known was Ferramonte.

But Fascist functionary were not as thorough as the German counterpart and a complete list of internment camps - to separate them from concentration camps - will require a more complete study.

As a child of 10, I and my mother were sent to il confino in the mountain village of Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo, with a total population of 1825 people, it was considered a FREE internment camp, since the government imposed very few restrictions on us. We received a monthly stipend and a lodging allowance, which in most cases sufficed to meet our needs. We were not allowed to leave the village without permission and were required to announce ourselves at the police station twice daily.

Our group of confinati consisted of about sixty to seventy foreign nationals, several Jews and also some Italian political internees.

For a boy my age, life was an adventure most of the time, until a large contingent of German soldiers set up camping in the woods surrounding the village. My mother had the greatest concern, aware as she was of the attitude of Germans vis-a-vis Jews.

Our internment period ended with the liberation by the American Fifth Army soon after Italy alligned itself with the Aliies against Germany. For us the horrors of the war were over, whereas that portion of Italy north of Cassino fell under the German occupation Authorities with tragic consequences for all Jews, Italian and foreign, as well as all political obstructionists. Mussolini had been deposed by the king Victor Emanuel III and was no longer in charge of his own country.

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