Memory and Interned Italian Military Troops [IMI]

This paper explores the situation of some 600,000 Italian troops who, after 8 Sept 1943, were sent to Germany. Loyal to the Italian king, they refused recruitment in either the German army or the army of the fascist Italian Social Republic & were reduced to civilian status & forced to remain in Germany as ordinary prisoners. They were interned in concentration camps, where they suffered from undernourishment & inadequate protection from the frigid weather, as well as fear for their future. Their repeated refusal to serve in the war resulted in increasingly harsh treatment in the German camps. After the war ended, they returned to Italy, but more or less on their own, in poor physical condition & psychologically degraded. Because they were not returned as prisoners of war, & had no official support in defending their wartime status in Germany, most kept silent about what they had endured. They lived out their lives in obscurity, keeping their memories, individual & collective, to themselves. Adapted from the source document.