Prisoners of War
Category: Book
| Title | Prisoners of War |
|---|---|
| Author | Mason, W. Wynne |
| Year | 1954 |
| Publisher | Historical Publications Branch, War History Branch, Dept. of Internal Affairs |
| Language | English |
| Geographic reference | Somes Island, Wellington Harbour |
| Online resource | YES |
| Topic | Somes Island, Italian prisoners of war, |
Book extract from chapter VI: Germans and Italians interned in New Zealand (pages 50-52), of the 1954 book Prisoners of War, which is available online on the website of the Victoria University of Wellington Library, in the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, as part of: Something of Them Is Here Recorded’: Official History in New Zealand
The chapter talks about the internment of 25* Italian men on Somes Island and gives some details on the camp's routine, reporting, for example, that the Italians made 75% of their own meals, including smoking the fish that they caught and making spaghetti with eggs and flour.
- Other sources, like The Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand talk about 38, not 25 Italian interns. 38 names are listed on the Memorial to Italian Internees on Somes/Matiu Island in WWII
In La presenza italiana in Nuova Zelanda (1875-1950) Riccardo Ponti lists the names of the 38 Italian interns as: Alessandro Sassone (first camp leader), Paolo Casa (who took over as camp leader from Sassone), Jack Alberino, Raffaele Alfano, Antonio Aprea, Luigi Aprea, Bartoli (first name not known), Alberto Bartolini, Celso Barsi, Luigi Bombardieri, Domenico Cincotta, Antonio Colussi, Florindo Comis, Abele Dallariva, Celso De Podesta, Nino Di Somma, Jack Furlani, Luigi Galli, Joe Lamacchia, Nino Lamacchia, Salvatore Lo Giudice, Vincenzo Lo Schiavo, Alberto Lupi, Ugo Lupi, Vincenzo Mare, Reno Marotta, Gaetano Paino, Vincenzo Picone (senior), Vincenzo Picone Guv.ior), Emilio Piednigonda, Giuseppe Ruggiero, Angelo Sartori, Vincenzo Serci, Amerigo Tavan, Antonio Tesorieo, Giovanni Tesorieo, Angelo Valmassoni, Liberato Volpicelli.
More info about the internment of Italian men on Somes Island can be found here:
La presenza italiana in Nuova Zelanda (1875-1950)
Papa's Island
The Italian Community
Casa, Paul, 1903-2001 : Papers relating to his internment on Somes Island
Memorial to Italian Internees on Somes/Matiu Island in WWII
