Italian
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
in Australia were
Italian soldiers captured by the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and
Allied Forces in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and taken to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
On 10 June 1940, Italy entered the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
on the side of Germany. During the course of the war, Great Britain and their allies captured in Ethiopia and
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
approximately 400,000 Italian troops, who were sent to
POW camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...
s all over the world, including Australia.
Between 1941 and 1945, Australia received custody of 18,420 Italian
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
s. The bulk came from British camps in India. During this time prisoners wore burgundy/maroon clothing.
Then, after Italy signed an
armistice with the Allies in September 1943, the Australian authorities took between 13,000 and 15,000 Italian prisoners out of the POW camps and put them to work.
Over the period, several POWs escaped internment camps,
at least one was shot for allegedly trying to escape from a camp, one committed suicide in a camp, fights between
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
versus anti-fascist supporting prisoners, and others was charged with criminal offences. At least one was named as a party to divorce proceedings.
Research undertaken of POWs in northern
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
indicated newspapers carried much anti-Italian sentiment: Unionists held concerns unpaid Italian POW labour would displace existing Australian labour; Inequality of Italian POWs had greater freedoms and better food than Australian POWs in overseas camps; and POWs should not be allowed to return to Australia post-war. On an individual level, rapport occurred between landowners and their POW labourers.
One brand of
red wine
Red wine is a type of wine made from dark-colored grape varieties. The color of the wine can range from intense violet, typical of young wines, through to brick red for mature wines and brown for older red wines. The juice from most purple grap ...
currently produced in Australia is called "Rabbit & Spaghetti", this being the customary diet of Italian POWs in Australia.
The
Italian National Ossario
The Italian National Ossario, also known as the Murchison Ossario, is an ossuary, war cemetery and war memorial in Murchison, a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. The ossario holds the remains of 130 Italians interned dur ...
at
Murchison, Victoria
Murchison is a small riverside rural village located on the Goulburn River in Victoria, Australia. Murchison is located 167 kilometres from Melbourne and is just to the west of the Goulburn Valley Highway between Shepparton and Nagambie. The sur ...
holds the remains of 130 Italian soldiers and civilians who died while interned in Australia.
The Australian Federal Government is still yet, to apologise for interning Australian citizens because of where they were born, like what was done overseas with apologies given in such countries as the United States and Canada. An apology was given by the Government of South Australia, but no attempts by either party and it seems unlikely from the coalition, whose recent deputy leader MP Michael McCormack says it's not necessary to apologise to European nationals, interned by the Federal Government during the Second World War and "Look, it was considered the right policy at the time", along with "I think we sometimes need to just move on with these sorts of things".
Detainees during WWII in Australia
![Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-177-1459-32, Korfu, italienische Soldaten](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-177-1459-32%2C_Korfu%2C_italienische_Soldaten.jpg)
When
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
entered World War II aligning itself with
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
on 10 June 1940,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
labeled citizens of Australia from Italian descent as a threat to the nation. Laws were enacted against these Italian descendants who were often seized and imprisoned by the
Australian government. By the late 1940s,
internment camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
in Australia housed twenty percent of the Italian population in Australia along with other
“enemy aliens” who were residents of Australia. The internment camps in Australia housed different types of groups consisting of “enemy aliens”,
foreign internees,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and Italian
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
, and politically affiliated foreign enemy nationals.
[Blair, Anna. “Examining Internment through Architecture.” Melbourne School of Design. University of Melbourne, 2015. https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/atrium/examining-internment-through-architecture.] There were also three hundred
Aboriginal residents of the Cape York mission, a missionary community run by a German pastor, who were imprisoned. Thirty nationalities detained in the Australian internment camps during
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, with the majority of prisoners being Italians, Germans, and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
. While some women and children held as prisoners, overall, the majority of detainees were men.
There were many internment camps built in every state which detained fifteen thousand internees and at least twenty-five thousand prisoners of war.
[Blair, Anna. “Examining Internment through Architecture.” Melbourne School of Design. University of Melbourne, 2015. https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/atrium/examining-internment-through-architecture.] The Australian government used eighteen larger internment camps as the main facility to detain majority of the “enemy aliens”, prisoners of war, and internees until the end of WWII. The numerous smaller internment camps which were built in each state were used as a temporary holding facilities. As many of the internment camps throughout Australia grew in size, a variety of communities within the camps were established by the ethnically and politically diverse detainees. The internment camps became the epicenter of diverse
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
,
ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, and
social status
Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Stat ...
often leading to disputes breaking out between the communities, like fights between Italian
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
s and
fascists
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...
. This pushed some Australian internment camps to adapt to the growing conflicts between the diverse communities by creating four separate compounds for the detainees within the camps.
Locations of Italian internment camps in Australia
The internment camps built by the Australian government used borrowed lands from local
farmers which were returned to land owners after World War II ended. There were numerous internment camps built in Australia during World War II to house Italian POWs. Evidence remaining of these camps only exists in few locations. The remains of some internment camps represent the
ethno-cultural backgrounds of the detainees who were imprisoned during WWII. Through the
monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
s and facilities built by the internees and POWs, their cultural identity developed culture was on display for the Australian guards to observe.
Hay Camp,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
Through funds from the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
, the Australian government built
Hay Camp in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
from 1941 to 1942, which consisted of three camps.
It housed a thousand inmates in each of the three camps during its operation which ended in 1946.
There was a total of sixty-six thousand Italian and Japanese POWs, and German, Austrian, Italian, and Japanese “enemy aliens” housed in the Hay camp.
The influence of the Italians within the camp is represented by the miniature model of the
Colosseum
The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world to ...
which was built by the Italian POWs during their agricultural labor to present themselves to the Australian guards as “urban” and “civilized”.
Cowra Camp,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
![Cowra POW Camp Italian Monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Cowra_POW_Camp_Italian_Monument.JPG)
The
Cowra Camp was built in
NSW
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
during 1941 to 1942, to house captured POWs sent by the British.
[Mikaberidze, Alexander. ''Behind Barbed Wire: An Encyclopedia of Concentration and Prisoner-of-War Camps''. ABC-CLIO, 2018.] It had four compounds—A, B, C, and D. Two of these compounds were used as temporary holding facilities of detainees while two were for more permanent housing.
From 1943 to the end of World War II in 1945, there were estimated to be fourteen thousand Italian POWs sent by the British. These Italian POWs were divided into the two compounds, A and C, which held approximately a thousand POWs in each. Besides the Italian POWs, there were
Indonesians
Indonesians (Indonesian: ''orang Indonesia'') are citizens or people originally from Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic coun ...
and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
POWs who were detained in the same two compounds. The remains of the Cowra Camp still exist in a rundown condition of ingrown trees with bits of
brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
s,
stones, and other pieces of the
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
.
Loveday Camp,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
![BarmeraLakeBonney](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/BarmeraLakeBonney.JPG)
The
Loveday Camp was located near
Barmera
Barmera is a town in the Riverland region of South Australia. It is on the Sturt Highway A20, 220 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia. It is primarily an agricultural and viticultural town and is l ...
, where the freshwater
Lake Bonney is situated, which had six separate compounds to accommodate Italian, German, and Japanese internees. The internees that were sent to the Loveday camp during WWII by the Australian government worked as paid labors to harvest wood and work on railway roads.
At its height, the internee population reached three thousand nine hundred fifty-one during its operation. While there were POWs from the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
(also known as Indonesia), the
Pacific Islands
Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, there were no records of Italian POWs housed in the Loveday Camp. There was a total of one hundred thirty-four internees and one POW recorded deaths in the camp due to illnesses.
Harvey No. 11 Camp,
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
The
Harvey camp, specifically the Camp eleven in the facility, housed Italian “enemy aliens” and a few Italian POWs from September 1940 to April 1942. The Harvey Number eleven camp was built mainly as a temporary holding facility due to its small holding capacity in housing “enemy aliens” and POWs. The Australian government transferred many of the Italian “enemy aliens” from this camp to the Loveday camp in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
later in WWII as it was a bigger facility.
Inside the internment camps
The majority of captured WWII Italian POWs were treated well and respected fairly across Australia by the Australian guards of the internment camps and the local community.
[Moore, Bob, and Kent Fedorowich. “‘Farming Down Under’: Italian POWs in Australia, 1941–3.” Essay. In ''The British Empire and Italian Prisoners of War'', 72–91. Basingstoke, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.] Since the
1929 Geneva Convention was implemented prior to the creation of the WWII internment camps in Australia, there were not many significant incidents of mistreatment by the Australian guards.
Although the Australian guards respected the prisoners, there were still some violence within the camps due to
ideological
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
divides between the prisoners.
As the population of the Italian POWs in the Australian internment camps increased in 1941, it made the job of the
Australian intelligence agencies in controlling the conflicts between the
fascists
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...
and the
anti-fascists
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
harder.
This separation of the
Italian fascists and the anti-fascists groups, also known as the Royalists, shaped social dynamics inside the camp which was influenced the policy structure of the internment camps of Australia.
The policy created from the 1929 Geneva Convention was followed closely by the Australian guards, but there was still some
discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
faced by the Italian POWs. The Italian POWs were labeled by the Australian guards as weaker and lacking in the skills of warfare compared to the Japanese POWs and the German POWs.
Since the Australian internment camps housed both the Italian internees and the Italian POWs within the same internment camps, they shared the same facilities. The labor work found inside the internment camps and on farms were shared as well among the
Italian internees and the Italian POWs with slight differences in the enforcement of the
labor work. The Italian POWs were forced to work on projects inside the internment camps and farms without any pay, whilst the Italian internees were given some minimum pay for their hourly work.
The influence of the Italian POW in Australian farms
While there were many foreign POWs who were captured and sent to one of the Australian internment camps during the WWII, there were fifteen thousand Italian POWs, out of the thirty-five thousand Italian POWs captured in
Northern Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
, who were sent directly to farms such as in
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
.
[McIntyre, Alan J. “Alan Fitzgerald ‘The Italian Farming Soldiers: Prisoners of War in Australia 1941-1947’ (Book Review).” ''The Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics''. Sydney: Australian Agricultural Economics Society, 1981.] These Italian POWs who were sent to farms for agricultural work greatly impacted the
labor market of Australia in the 1940s which had shortages of labor.
This plan to allow Italian POWs to work on local farms without any guards was issued by the Australian government.
During this process of the enforcement, there was some opposition against the labor practices from the
Australian Worker’s Union and some
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...
officials.
While there were these opposition groups and language barriers between the farmers and the Italian POWs, this labor policy played a significant role in the lives of the
Australian farmers
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal A ...
who found Italian POWs to be hard workers and great helpers to the local community.
The majority of the Italian POWs who worked on farms created strong relationships with the farmers and the local community, which consequently allowed many of them to work on farms far away from their
internment camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
. By the end of WWII, the Italian POWs were allowed to be sent back home to Italy. However, due to the lack of
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
ation, all of the Italian POWs in Australia remained in the country up until 1947 when they were sent back to Italy.
[McFarlane, Ian. “ITALIAN PRISONERS OF WAR.” The Companion to Tasmanian History. Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, 2006. https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/I/Italian%20prisoners%20of%20war.htm.] The Italian POWs who built strong relationships when they took part in the farm labor programs in Australia returned back to Australia after WWII ended resettling there to build families.
There were some others who returned and married Australians whom they had met during the
farm labor
The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining.
The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in d ...
.
See also
*
List of POW camps in Australia
*
Italian Australians
Italian Australians ( it, Italiani Australiani) are Australians with Italian ancestry. Italian Australians constitute the sixth largest ancestry group in Australia, and one of the largest groups in the global Italian diaspora. At the 2021 ce ...
*
Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union
Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union is the narrative of POWs from the Italian Army in Russia (the ARMIR and CSIR) and of their fate in Stalin's Soviet Union during and after World War II.
Characteristics
Over 60,000 Italian prisone ...
References
{{reflist
Further reading
Italian POWs in Australia
Italian prisoners of war
Military history of Australia during World War II
Military history of Italy during World War II
World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Australia
World War II prisoners of war held by Australia