Hospital Piacenza

Sheet by: Isabella Insolvibile

General data

Town: Piacenza

Province: Piacenza

Region: Emilia-Romagna

Location/Address: Collegio Morigi (via Giuseppe Taverna 37), Collegio Alberoni (San Lazzaro) - Piacenza

Type of camp: Military hospital

Intended to: Officers; NCOs; Troops

Local jurisdiction: Difesa Territoriale Milano

Railroad station: Piacenza

Accommodation: military quarters

Capacity: roughly 230

Operating: from 06/1941 to 08/09/1943

Commanding Officer: Major, then Lt. Col. Siro Farina (? -?); Col. Giuseppe D’Ambrosio (? -?).

Brief chronology:
Beginning of 1942: Allied PoWs were hospitalised in Piacenza.
September 1943: eight Indian PoWs, who escaped from the Germans, were hospitalised in Piacenza.
8 September 1943: the PoWs in the hospital were most likely transferred to Germany.

Allied prisoners in the Piacenza camp

Date Generals Officers NCOs Troops TOT
1.3.1942 12 10 49 71
1.4.1942 18 12 67 97
1.5.1942 10 3 25 38
1.6.1942 7 2 26 35
1.7.1942 5 26 175 206
1.8.1942 32 30 274 336
1.9.1942 26 21 179 226[1]
30.9.1942 20 14 147 181[2]
31.10.1942 22 16 170 208[3]
30.11.1942 32 20 224 276[4]
31.12.1942 30 18 282 330[5]
31.1.1943 23 17 239 279[6]
28.2.1943 23 14 207 244[7]
31.3.1943 15 12 147 174[8]
30.4.1943 7 12 126 145[9]
31.5.1943 7 12 116 135[10]
30.6.1943 8 12 121 141[11]
31.8.1943 4 15 214 233[12]
[1] Including 1 American soldier. [2] Including 1 American soldier. [3] Including 1 American soldier. [4] Including 1 American soldier. [5] Including 6 American soldiers. [6] Including 6 American soldiers. [7] Including 6 American soldiers. [8] Including 5 American soldiers. [9] Including 2 American soldiers. [10] Including 2 American soldiers. [11] Including 1 American soldier. [12] Including 1 American soldier.

Camp’s overview

Piacenza military hospital was established in two buildings that housed seminaries for religious education and school support. Collegio Alberoni was intended mainly for PoWs from the Balkans and Italian soldiers, while Collegio Morigi was earmarked for Allied PoWs and some severe cases, such as men wounded in combat. The latter college had already been used as a hospital during the First World War. D. Vannucci noted that:

It can be said […] that, just like during the First World War, Piacenza became, thanks to its geographical position and the excellent railway service, a real “hospital city”, with frequent trains carrying to the local hospitals wounded and sick PoWs from the North African PoW camps […], from Greece, Yugoslavia, but also from other military hospitals which were smaller or less equipped, like the ones in Bergamo, Caserta, and Bari. [Vannucci, p. 114]


The hospitals held PoWs from June 1941. At first these were Greeks and Yugoslavians and then, starting in 1942, Allied PoWs arrived in Piacenza, especially, as mentioned, at the Morigi. The Red Cross and the Protecting Power delegates inspected the hospitals many times between 1942 and 1943, and their reports were positive. The patients appeared to be well treated and a big part of this was due to the fact that, in Piacenza, the heating system worked. There were shortages of clothes and shoes and, in time, medicine as well, especially quinine.
In September 1943, eight Indian prisoners were hospitalised in Piacenza. They were held by the Germans who had brought them to Genoa in the previous July for work. However, since their job was clearly in support of the Axis war effort (they had to unload ammunition crates from ships), the soldiers refused to work and were severely beaten by their captors. About 50 of them had been loaded on a train and deported to Germany, but eight of them had managed to escape. However, since they were wounded, they were quickly recaptured and then brought to Piacenza.
When the southern hospitals were closed, Piacenza received more patients, especially from Caserta and Altamura. The local population was convinced that it was thanks to the presence of Allied PoWs in the city that it was not bombed by the Allies until May 1944.
After 8 September 1943, there are no sources on the patients’ fate. It is likely they were all deported to Germany.
After the war, the two collegi continued to be used as military and civilian hospitals. In 1950 they returned to their original function. Today, Collegio Alberoni is both a seminary and a museum, while Collegio Morigi is a university student hall and a centre to support students of all levels in their education.

Archival sources

Bibliography

Online resources

Stories linked to this camp