Sheet by: Costantino Di Sante

General data

Town: Lucca

Province: Lucca

Region: Toscana

Location/Address: Arliano - Lucca

Type of camp: m

Number: 202

Italian military mail service number: 3200

Intended to: Officers; NCOs; Troops

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale di Firenze

Railroad station: Lucca

Accommodation: military quarters

Capacity: 615

Operating: from 07/1942 to 09/1943

Commanding Officer: Lt. Col. Italo Ferrari (July 1942 – June 1943); Lt. Col. Osvaldo Fino (July 1943 – September 1943)

Brief chronology:
July 1942: the camp was established.
April – June 1943: the camp was used to concentrate sick British PoWs to exchange with the Allies.
June 1943: a new section intended for the PoWs was restructured.

Allied prisoners in the Lucca camp

Camp’s overview

On 17 June 1942, the PoW office of the Italian Chief of Staff, following instructions from the Direzione generale di sanità militare (Military health general directorate), authorised the territorial commands of Florence and Naples to adapt the hospitals of Lucca and Sarno in order to house PoWs in need of a long period of treatment.
After roughly a month, the Lucca hospital was reorganised to treat only gravely wounded PoWs, with a camp command and a surveillance system. From the information available, it seems that the building used was a sanatorium on a hill in the district of Arliano. It should not come as a surprise that the first 180 British PoWs who were transferred to the hospital suffered from malaria and came from the nearby PG 60 Colle di Compito (Lucca). The hospital was regarded as well equipped, and the cooperation between the Italian medical personnel and the Allied one was good. There were some issues, such as the scarcity of film to print x-rays or warm water, but, despite this, PG 202 was considered one of the best Italian sites by the Red Cross delegates who inspected it.
PG 202 was one of the hospital camps where, between April and June 1943, sick or invalid British PoWs (and those belonging to protected personnel) were concentrated for exchange with Italian PoWs in British hands.
In the same period, the Italians began restructuring another section of the sanatorium for the PoWs. This area, too, was deemed adequate by the inspectors who found it well equipped.
There is not much information on the events after the Armistice. After the war, the hospital camp continued to be used as a sanatorium until the 1950s. In the 1980s, it was restructured and became a middle school. Later, it became a rehab community for drug addicts and disadvantaged people.
Since the early 2000s, the former hospital has been completely abandoned.

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, Ministero dell’Aeronautica, Gabinetto, b. 70, 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, N1-11, DS b. 740
• Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, H8, b. 79
• Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, L10, b. 32
• The National Archives, TS 26/761
• The National Archives, WO 224/149

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,

Stories linked to this camp

Jeffery Morphew

John Fishwick Leeming