Place:

Cessalto

Province:

Treviso

Region:

Veneto

Assistance provided:

Shelter, false identity cards

Prisoners helped:

Arthur (Arch) Scott-Lance Corporal, 24 New Zealand Infantry Battalion, Geoff Cheesbrough, Terry Eagen, Bill Morish, John Richards, Fred Avory and others.
Leggi la storia di Arthur Wallace Scott

Start date:

September 1943

End date:

April 1944

Other helpers involved:

Luigi Piva, Antenore Mazzotto, Gino Panont, Matteo Corazza, Guido Basso

Description:

Parish priest of San Anastasio in Cessalto, Don Antonio was active from the very beginning in assisting prisoners, thanks also to the support of partisans and a few local dignitaries. He directed soldiers who came to him for help to trusted local families, and provided them with identity cards and forged Todt Organisation passes. At a farmhouse adjacent to the parish, he established a sort of "transit centre" for the prisoners, where they were fed, washed, and given clean clothes before being sent on to the Sette Sorelle land reclamation area, from where they were picked up for evacuation by sea. In April 1944, he was arrested on charges of forging identity documents for Allied soldiers. His initial death sentence was later commuted to one year of imprisonment. He was released in April 1945.

Bibliography:

L. Antonel, I silenzi della guerra: prigionieri di guerra alleati e contadini nel Veneto orientale, 1943-1945, Portogruaro, Nuova Dimensione – Ediciclo, 1995. A. Scott, Dark of the moon, [s.l.], Cresset, 2000.

Notes:

Storia del POW Arthur Wallace Scott