Camps
Escape's Stories
The helpers
The population’s help to fleeing British soldiers: see the list and read the stories
Prison camps
Between 1940 and 1943, approximately 70,000 soldiers belonging to the Allied coalition were detained in Italy, mostly representing the various nationalities included in the Commonwealth, as well as a small percentage of Americans. Captured on the African and Mediterranean fronts, these prisoners were concentrated on the peninsula after a period of detention in Africa of varying lengths. The Italian camps were divided into transit, concentration and labour camps, and there were 61 of them, not all of which were in operation at the same time.
The escaped prisoners
In 1943, after the armistice of 8 September, thousands of Allied prisoners of war managed to escape from Italian internment camps, taking advantage of the chaos that followed the collapse of the Fascist regime. Many of them found refuge among the civilian population, who often helped them to hide and reach the Allied lines. The stories of these escapes tell of a spontaneous network of widespread solidarity, despite the risk of reprisals by the Nazi-Fascists.
Project by
Istituto nazionale Ferruccio Parri
Via F. Confalonieri 14, Milano (Italia)
Per saperne di più: www.reteparri.it
Financed by
Monte San Martino Trust
Crown Chambers, Bridge St, Salisbury SP1 2LZ (UK)
Per saperne di più: msmtrust.org.uk/