Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante

General data

Town: Avio

Province: Trento

Region: Trentino-Alto Adige

Location/Address: Avio - Avio

Type of camp: Work camp

Number: 113

Italian military mail service number: 3100

Intended to: troops

Local jurisdiction: XXXV Army Corps

Railroad station: Avio

Accommodation: huts

Capacity: 250

Operating: from 05/1942 to 09/1943

Commanding Officer: Major. Iginio Giordani

Brief chronology:
April 1943: 170 South African PoWs arrived.
July 1943: 190 Allied PoWs were assigned to the camp.

Allied prisoners in the Avio camp

Camp’s overview

PG 113 Avio was established in May 1942, when 200 Yugoslavian PoWs were transferred from PG 62 Grumello del Piano (Bergamo). They were employed by the Società Idroelettrica del Medio Adige (Middle Adige Hydroelectrical Society) to dig canals and build embarkments.
In May 1943, 170 South African PoWs were transferred from PG 54 Passo Corese to work at Mori (Trento) in the Industria Nazionale Alluminio (National Aluminium Industry) factory owned by Montecatini. The work was harsh, as they had to melt raw metal in electrical furnaces. Temperatures were very high, and although the PoWs were equipped adequately with clothes and protective masks, the work was dangerous. Consequently, some PoWs asked the Red Cross delegates if their work was even allowed by the Geneva conventions. According to them, the extraction of aluminium from the furnaces was not in contrast with the international laws on PoWs' work.
The camp’s building in Avio never housed the PoWs. They probably only briefly stopped in it to be sorted and then were sent to the factory, where they were housed in huts nearby. According to the inspector’s reports, they were treated well and paid regularly for their work.
In the summer of 1943, another group of some 200 Allied PoWs was sent to Avio. These were employed by the Società Serbatoi Montani per Irrigazione ed Elettricità (S.M.IRR.EL – Mountain Tanks Society for Irrigation and Electricity) located at Forte Buso, in Predazzo (Trento). Almost certainly, they worked on the construction site of the Caoria Hydroelectric plant.
There is no information on what happened after the Armistice.

Archival sources

• Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza, A5G, II GM, bb. 116, 117, Verbali e Notiziari della Commissione Interministeriale per i Prigionieri di Guerra
• Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Onorcaduti, b. 1
• Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, L10, b. 32
• Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, N1-11, b. 667
• Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, H8, b. 79
• The National Archives, WO 224/141
• The National Archives, WO 344/1/1
• The National Archives, WO 344/9/2

Bibliography

• 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,

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