Tag: WWII

Explore a 3D Model of the Exhibition: Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States

Posted on by Andrew Checchia
Non-collaborating POWs built this presepio—an Italian nativity scene—near Schofield Barracks, Hawai’i, January 5, 1945. The Islamic architecture suggests a North African setting. Courtesy National Archives.

The Calandra Institute’s current exhibition Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, curated by Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra, can now be explored via a digital 3D model. View it here. To learn more about the exhibition click here, view the catalog, or read a brief description:

The exhibition presents creative work made by Italian soldiers who were imprisoned by the Allied forces during World War II, focusing on those held in the United States. These objects, often made from salvaged materials, ranged in size from a small inlaid ring to a large Catholic chapel with a 65-foot bell tower. There is no archive or collective depository about World War II Italian prisoners of war in Allied hands. To document this creative work, the exhibit pulls from research completed by co-curator Laura E. Ruberto (Berkeley City College), including historical photographs, rare remaining artifacts, oral testimonies, written accounts, family memories, and private collections. The exhibition, designed by Polly Franchini, brings together a selection of these objects, images, and stories to present this little-known history. Highlighting the artistry of incarcerated Italian servicemen (some of whom maintained allegiance to Fascism) is not meant to trivialize the atrocities of war or to minimize the resistance of those who fought at great sacrifice. Rather, it offers an opportunity to reflect on the myriad ways that identity and imagination are shaped materially during the adverse conditions of war.

The public can also view the gallery in person at the Calandra Institute’s Midtown Manhattan location. It will be on view from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, until September 26.

Unpacking Memories of World War II Italian Captivity in Africa: Music, Theatre, Literature, and Art Making in POW Camps

Elena Bellina, New York University

Most Italian POWs imprisoned by Western Allies were captured in Africa during the early stages of World War II and transferred to transit and permanent prison camps across the continent between 1940 and 1947. A significant number of them spent more than six years there before being repatriated to Italy. This presentation analyzes the diverse forms of intellectual and material artistic production developed by Italian POWs detained in different African regions, with particular emphasis on memories and memorabilia they brought home. It investigates the formative role that creativity played during their years of captivity and the enduring influence such creativity and contact with African landscapes and peoples had on their postwar lives, given that many of these men became prominent figures in postwar Italy and elsewhere.

In conjunction with the exhibition Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States.

Captive Sites of Memory: Conflicting Italian Identities in the United States During World War II

Laura E. Ruberto, Berkeley City College

This talk considers the material legacies of surveillance, restrictions, and imprisonment of different groups of people on US soil in the years leading up to and during World War II: Italian resident “enemy aliens,” Italian non-resident “enemy aliens,” and Italian POWs. The differing ways Italians and Italian Americans were treated were influenced not only by political concerns but also by practices of xenophobia and racism, a point made especially clear in comparison to the experiences of Japanese Americans. Considering artifacts and sites from across the country as well as cultural representations and oral histories, this talk reflects on how political pressure, cultural visibility, and an emerging position of whiteness helped build public acceptance of Italian Americans while shaping a contemporary position of victimhood. 

In conjunction with the exhibition Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States.

Whom We Shall Welcome: Italian Americans and Immigration Reform, 1945–1965

Danielle Battisti
University of Nebraska–Omaha

In Whom We Shall Welcome (Fordham University Press, 2019), Danielle Battisti examines post–World War II immigration by Italians to the United States. The book looks at efforts by Italian American organizations to foster Italian immigration along with the lobbying efforts of others in the community to change the quota laws. While Italian Americans (and other white ethnics) had attained virtual political and social equality with many other ethnic populations by the end of the war, Italians nonetheless continued to be classified as undesirable immigrants. Battisti’s work is an important contribution toward understanding the construction of Italian American racial/ethnic identity in this period, the role of ethnic groups in U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era, and the history of the liberal immigration-reform movement that led to the 1965 Immigration Act. Whom We Shall Welcome makes significant contributions to histories of migration and ethnicity, post–World War II liberalism, and immigration policy.