Saturday, Nov. 3 | 3 p.m. | Detre Library & Archives at the History Center - 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222. During World War II, the U.S. government interned more than 1,200 captured Italian soldiers at the Letterkenny Army Ordnance Depot near Chambersburg, Pa. These troops collaborated with the United States in a collective effort to defeat the Axis powers. They formed the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion, and their work consisted mainly of stocking and shipping materials - ammunition, military vehicles, weapons, and machinery parts - to war fronts in the European and Pacific theaters of operation.
For entertainment, the soldiers formed an orchestra, a band, and several soccer teams. As a sign of their faith, they built a chapel and bell tower that are still used today. Countless Italian Americans provided them emotional and material support, and many forged deep friendships with Pennsylvanians from all over the Commonwealth. Indeed, after the war, a few even married their sweethearts and returned to live in the United States.
Explore this fascinating story during this special program in the History Center's Detre Library & Archives. Oral histories from surviving POWs, memoirs and photographs generously donated by family members of ex-prisoners, and rich information newly available from archival material in Italy, aided by documents found in the U.S., make this historical experience come alive more than 70 years later.
ADMISSION
This program is free but does not include History Center admission. For more information, please contact Melissa E. Marinaro, director, Italian American Program at 412-454-6426 or [email protected].
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Flavio Giovanni Conti received his Philosophy Degree cum laude in 1976 from the Università di Roma "Sapienza." He was granted a Fulbright fellowship for the Loyola University of Chicago, where in 1978 he earned an M.A. in History. In 2012, he obtained a Ph.D. in Political Sciences at the Università di Roma "Roma TRE." Recently retired, Dr. Conti worked for more than 30 years for ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, a governmental think-tank organization; in this capacity, he served as a consultant to three Italian Ministers of the Environment. His longest standing historical interest centers on the experience of Italian POWs held by the Allies during World War II.
Alan Perry _ Photograph by Miranda Harple
Alan R. Perry is currently Professor of Italian Literature in the Department of Italian Studies at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. where he also serves as the Director of the Center for Language and Intercultural Communication. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Madison-Wisconsin in 1998. His critical interests center on Italian culture, history, and literature in World War II and the Cold War. In February 2008, the University of Toronto Press published his book The Don Camillo Stories of Giovannino Guareschi: A Humorist Portrays the Sacred.
