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:
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
- Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza, A5G, II GM, bb. 116, 117, 118 e 140, 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, H8, b. 79
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, L10, b. 32
- The National Archives, WO 224/146, 179
- The National Archives, WO 361/1917
- The National Archives, TS 26/152
Bibliography
- Absalom R., A Strange Alliance. Aspects of escape and survival in Italy 1943-45, Firenze, Olschki, 1991 trad. it. L’alleanza inattesa. Mondo contadino e prigionieri alleati in fuga in Italia (1943-1945), Bologna, Pendagron, 2011
- 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,