PG 133 - Novara

Sheet by: Isabella Insolvibile

General data

Town: Novara

Province: Novara

Region: Piemonte

Location/Address: - Novara

Type of camp: Work camp

Number: 133

Italian military mail service number: 3100

Intended to: troops

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale Torino

Railroad station: Novara

Accommodation: huts

Capacity: 1000

Operating: from 05/1943 to 08/09/1943

Commanding Officer: Major. G. De Andrea (May 1943); Lt. Col. N. Randacio (June – 8 September 1943)

Brief chronology:
May 1943: Allied PoWs were sent to the work detachments of PG 133.
11 September 1943: the Italian guards and the PoWs escaped.

Allied prisoners in the Novara camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
31.5.1943     5 712 717
30.6.1943     5 812 817
31.8.1943     4 742 746
 

Camp’s overview

PG 133 Novara was among the work camps established in the late spring of 1943. The PoWs worked on the local farms, mostly rice fields. It was formed by 19 detachments, each housing between 40 and 80 PoWs. The accommodation and treatment were reasonable, although clothing and equipment shortages were common.
The relations between the PoWs and their captors were not always peaceful. For example, in one of the work detachments, the PoWs accused one of the guards of mistreatment. The guard, apparently, hit one of the PoWs and threatened to shoot him because he refused to work in the paddy fields, claiming he could not go for health reasons. The PoWs did not hesitate to protest or strike if they deemed it necessary.
The PoWs working in the Novara area were numerous and worked together with the local population. This situation led to intermingling and fraternisation, which would later come to a head after the Armistice when farmers helped the former PoWs escape from the Germans. Before the Armistice, these relations caused discontent and anonymous complaints by t Fascist informants. One of them, in June 1943, told the prefettura that:

Many PoWs (mostly Australians) work on local farms in the Pavia and Novara provinces. They are treated very well and eat better than our citizens. Moreover, they receive the attention and sympathy of the farmers, in contrast to the inhuman treatment our PoWs have to endure in England, Africa, and India. Our farmers, allegedly, give them plenty of food and white bread. Moreover, they trade with the English “prisoners” goods and food they regularly receive in packages of 5 kg each, like soap, cocoa, chocolate, cigarettes, razor blades, etc. These goods are stored in nearby farmhouses, requisitioned, and surrounded by barbed wire but located in salubrious places. […] During the harvesting season, some rice weeders from nearby provinces were housed in these farmhouses (in a specific section of the buildings). They were all very young girls, about twenty years old, and the Australians are pleasant boys who haven’t seen a woman in many months! So it happened that the prisoners left their dormitories to visit the girls… and the effects will be evident once the prescribed “nine months” have passed!


PG 133 was abandoned by the Italian sentries on 11 September 1943. Many PoWs escaped and reached Switzerland, thanks to the help provided by the population.

Archival sources

Bibliography

Online resources

Stories linked to this camp