PG 129 - MonteluponeSheet by: Costantino Di Sante
General data
Town: Montelupone
Province: Macerata
Region: Marche
Location/Address: Contrada Molino - Montelupone
Type of camp: Work camp
Number: 129
Italian military mail service number: 3300
Intended to: troops
Local jurisdiction: IX Army Corps
Railroad station: Potenza Picena
Accommodation: military quarters
Capacity: 150
Operating: from 08/1942 to 06/1943
Commanding Officer: Captain. Antonio Riccardi (August – October 1942) – Captain Carlo Crescentini (November – December 1942) – Captain Giuseppe Corsi (January – March 1943) – Captain Gino Pegnanelli (April – June 1943)
Brief chronology:
28 September 1942: PoW Norman Smith escaped but was recaptured on 1 October 1942.
8 February 1943: 50 PoWs were requested by the Colosso brothers’ firm in Ugente (Lecce); this detachment was assigned to PG 85 Tuturano.
26 June 1943: the camp was closed, and the South African and New Zealander PoWs were transferred to PG 145 Montorio al Vomano (Teramo).
Allied prisoners in the Montelupone camp
| Date | Generals | Officers | NCOs | Troops | TOT |
| 1.9.1942 | 5 | 145 | 150 | ||
| 30.11.1942 | 7 | 144 | 151 | ||
| 31.1.1943 | 7 | 143 | 150 | ||
| 28.2.1943 | 4 | 99 | 103 | ||
| 30.4.1943 | 4 | 99 | 103 | ||
| 31.5.1943 | 4 | 99 | 103 |
Camp’s overview
The Montelupone Work Camp (Macerata) was set up by restructuring an old fortified mill in Contrada Molino, not far from the district of San Firmano. The building was surrounded by barbed wire and divided into sections: one to house the PoWs, another for the military shop, the infirmary, and the detention cell. Showers and outhouses, instead, were placed on the outside.
The camp opened at the beginning of August 1942, and the PoWs, mostly South Africans and New Zealanders, were employed in constructing electrical installations. Their main task was to clean the canal of the sluice on the Potenza river to power the local hydroelectric plant. They were probably employed by the Società Anonima Terni (Teramo), which, at the time, used some PoWs from PG 145 Montorio al Vomano to build a hydroelectric plant. It was not by chance that the Montelupone PoWs were transferred to PG 145 during 1945.
According to the Red Cross inspectors’ reports, the Montelupone PoWs worked willingly, thanks to the abundant food rations. Moreover, it was certified that their employment conditions were safe, even though seven of them were put on trial for refusing to work in November 1942. Despite this, and other complaints about the lack of medicines and heating, the conditions in the camp were acceptable.
In March 1943, the canal was almost finished, and some PoWs were transferred. At the end of June, the last South Africans and New Zealanders were sent to Montorio al Vomano camp, and PG 129 was closed.
Today, the building, property of Enel, is abandoned and is under the tutelage of the Soprintendenza per i beni architettonici of the Marche region.
Archival sources
- Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell’Interno, Direzione Generale Pubblica Sicurezza, A5G, II GM, bb. 116, 117
- Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Ministero dell’Aeronautica, Gabinetto, b. 70
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, L10, b. 32
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, Diari storici, bb. 840, 1130
- Archivio Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, H8, b. 79
- The National Archives, WO 224/178
- The National Archives, WO 224/145