PG 10 - Acquapendente Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante
General data
Town: Acquapendente
Province: Viterbo
Region: Lazio
Location/Address: San Modesto - Acquapendente
Type of camp: Work camp
Number: 10
Italian military mail service number: 3300
Intended to: NCOs – Troops
Local jurisdiction: XVII Army Corps
Railroad station: Orvieto e Allerona
Accommodation: huts
Capacity: 800
Operating: from 01/1943 to 10/09/1943
Commanding Officer: Col. Alfredo Marcurelli (January – September 1943)
Brief chronology:
January 1943: the Italians started building the camp.
July 1943: the area intended for NCOs was finished.
September 1943: all the POWs escaped
Allied prisoners in the Acquapendente camp
| Date | Generals | Officers | NCOs | Troops | TOT |
| 31.1.1943 | 2 | 98 | 100 | ||
| 31.3.1943 | 2 | 83 | 85 | ||
| 30.4.1943 | 3 | 97 | 100 | ||
| 31.5.1943 | 3 | 96 | 99 | ||
| 30.6.1943 | 5 | 166 | 171 | ||
| 31.7.1943 | 355[1] | ||||
| 31.8.1943 | 4 | 212 | 216 |
Camp’s overview
PG 10 Acquapendente was built in Viterbo Province between January and June 1943, near the San Modesto casale (dating back to the XVIII century), which was close to the town. The project had been considered by the PoW office of the Italian Chief of Staff the previous year. However, the actual building of the camp began only at the beginning of January 1943 when, following the closure of PG 68 Vetralla (Viterbo), 100 British PoWs (54 English, 45 «white» South Africans and one South African) were assigned to the building site and transferred there with some building materials. Previously, the same PoWs had been employed in the construction of PG 68.
Despite the precarious accommodations, living conditions were acceptable. Complaints were made about the pilfering of packages sent to the PoWs and because, after an escape attempt, the guards confiscated all clothes deemed unnecessary or which could be transformed into civilian clothing.
Work on the camp continued until June 1943, when the camp was still «being prepared». Officially, the camp was opened only after the construction of 18 wooden huts, with brick foundations and other structures such as the infirmary, mess, military shop and storehouse
The camp, which initially was intended for officers, could hold between 800 and 1,100 PoWs. At the end of August 1943, there were no British officers in the camp, and all the officers present were Yugoslavians (numbering 361 officers, 2 NCOs, and 85 privates).
After the Armistice, the PoWs managed to escape before the arrival of the Germans who, in the following months, used the camp to hold people captured during the rastrellamenti (round-ups) before deporting them as forced labourers to the Third Reich.
Today, some of the hut’s foundations are still visible, while a portion of the camp’s area is occupied by the new provincial highway n. 50 and by the bus depot of Contral SpA.
Archival sources
- Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza, A5G, II GM, bb. 116, 117
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, N1-11, DS bb. 667, 840, 843, 1243
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, H8, b. 79
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, L10, b. 32
- The National Archives, WO 224/107
Bibliography
- Bassetti S., Acquapendente. Campo di concentramento PG 10, Vignate, Lampi di stampa, 2020
- Insolvibile I., I prigionieri alleati in Italia 1940-1943, tesi di dottorato, Dottorato in "Innovazione e Gestione delle Risorse Pubbliche", curriculum “Scienze Umane, Storiche e della Formazione”, Storia Contemporanea, Università degli Studi del Molise, anno accademico 2019-2020,