Background-How We Found Our Way to Servigliano, Camp 59

Background

How We Found Our Way to Servigliano, Camp 59

 When my dad died I found among his papers two news articles from his home town, Iron Mountain, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula.  The articles referred to Camp 59 but did not list a location. Though my dad died in 1995, I neglected to use the information until 2010 when a Google search quickly yielded the web address of Dennis Hill’s comprehensive website on the history of POW Camp 59 in Servigliano, Italy.

Dennis, an American associated with Indiana University, is passionate about collecting and presenting information at www.camp59survivors.wordpress.com .  His father was also a prisoner there, and he traveled to Servigliano in September 2010 to conduct further research. Included  in the site was a list of prisoners but my dad’s name was not on it, so I sent an inquiry that yielded an immediate response affirming that he was a prisoner there and most likely escaped on September 14, 1943 along with roughly 2000 other Allied prisoners, a majority of whom were British and American.  Dennis sent me a link to view my dad’s discharge paper from the US Military Archives that lists all American Prisoners of War.  He very kindly offered to include an entry on his website if I would send him the news articles. I included two photos of Italian women that I found in a box of family photos. I remember looking at these as a child wondering who they could be. I’m certain I asked but cannot remember my dad’s response. He was not in Italy long enough to form many romantic attachments, but I feel that these two women must have been very important to him.  (See photos below.)

The one on the right has a stamp from a photo studio in Rome and this young woman appears more sophisticated than the woman on the left, with a more up to date hairstyle and dress. In one of the articles my dad talks about the kindness of the Italian nurses, and I am speculating that she was probably a nurse perhaps from the hospital outside Naples near Mt. Vesuvius where he was transferred from N. Africa due to his injuries. The girl on the left is wearing what appears to be a simple wool dress and her hair is less stylish. Perhaps she was a member of a family that sheltered my dad. It’s a long shot but these photos may lead to information revealing their family name and location(s).

Dennis includes links in his website to ELMS (WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society) and Monte San Martino Trust. I immediately wrote to both including sketchy information about my dad to see if they could help find out anything new but to no avail.

Subsequently I joined ELMS, and in the 2012 newsletter read about the walks planned for 2013, emanating from Camp 59 to commemorate the mass escape and to express gratitude to the brave Italian country people (contadini) who sacrificed so much to assist the escapees. Keith Killby, a British escapee, often pictured pointing to the hole in the prison wall which he and fellow SAS (Special Air Service) prisoners made and through which many fled, established the Trust in 1989 to provide scholarships for the descendants of the contadini to study English in the London or Oxford areas.  Still alive at 97 years, he firmly believes that everyone benefits from knowing at least one other language in order to promote “friendships across frontiers”.

Duncan and I decided to attend these walks rather than to try to find the trails on our own at a later date. We found out quite by accident that John Simkins, one of Duncan’s housemates and friends from university days, is a trustee of Monte San Marino Trust. Much to our delight he participated for two days of walks before heading to Fontanellato near Parma where his father was interned. His 30 year old daughter, Katie, accompanied him.

                                Italian Woman from the Family?   Italian Nurse?