Friday, December 15, 2006

Internment of Italians in WWII: Humiliation Caused Code of Silence

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Even moreso the fact that all the Documents concerning Italian Internment were classified "Secret", that made many in following generations dismiss such stories as myths, until the declassification was finally forced 50 years later.

 

The Forgotten Prisoners

Blog Critics Magazine

Written by Allessandro Nicolo  
December 08, 2006

Earlier this year I was engaged in a conversation about history regarding the Italian community and its extraordinary contribution to the North American experience. During the course of the discussion I casually alluded to a period (taking for granted that people would know about this) in Canadian history when Japanese, German, Ukranian, and Italian Canadians were interned in military camps and branded as enemy aliens during World War II. The person admitted that he knew of the Japanese experience, was not surprised of the German one, but was clueless that the Italians were also targeted.

It is also an odd fact that history books in Canada and commentators never mention the internment of Italian-Canadians. I had to find about the Germans in University and the Ukranians in a letter to the editor in a national newspaper.   With this, I decided to write about this period in our history. It is unfortunate that some Canadians of Italian heritage are still not i n! formed about this episode in Canadian, indeed, North American history.

The tragedy is that it did not just happen here in North America. It also took place in Great Britain (including Scotland) and Australia. In Britain, it was under the premise of Winston Churchill's fears of a "fifth column." Many Italians (about 200 in all) were arrested and sent to camps on the Isle of Man. Some were transported to Australia, and others found their way to Canada (as was the case with 2500 internees who came here on the Duchess of York,) about 600 of whom spent three years in a POW camp on St. Helene's Island under the Jacques Cartier bridge in Montreal. Many were sent to Petawawa, Ontario, and New Brunswick and treated as prisoners of war.

During this period, Italians were subjected to strict curfews, and in some places in the United States, travel was restricted to a five-mile radius from home. Regardless of the geographic location, lives and families were uprooted, an d! some even ended in tragedy. For example, when the Arandora Star was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Ireland at the cost of 682 lives, it was carrying 1571 German and Italian internees.

Among those who perished was Silvestro d'Ambrosio, a confectioner and restaurateur from Hamilton who had lived in Britain for 42 years. Ironically, he had a son in the Canadian army. It was not uncommon, for instance, for men in uniform to come back home only to find family members were interned.

Pushing irony to its limits, not only did Italian immigrants form the largest ethnic group at the time; they also represented the largest ethnic group in the U.S. armed forces. In World War I, Italians represented close to 10% (approximately 300,000) of war casualties even though they made up only 4% of the U.S. population. The figure remained 10% of the might of the American forces (1.5 million) in World War II, according to Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller.

In fa i! rness to both the Canadian and American governments, it was time of war and there were fascist organizations operating within our borders. According to Angelo Principe, author of The Darkest Side of the Fascist Years, Italian-Canadian fascist newspapers served as mouthpieces for the Italian consulates, spreading fascist propaganda throughout Italian-Canadian communities. His study was based on detailing the histories of the three largest Italian-Canadian newspapers at the time; L'Italian in Montreal, Il Bollentino in Toronto and L'Eco in Vancouver.

The names of some of these organizations also made this abundantly clear. These included the Italian Fascio Abroad and the National Organization for the Repression of the Anti-Fascists here in Montreal. They were located at La Casa D'Italia (although only about 6% of men in these organizations were actual Fascist party members). To what degree they were is subject to debate.

This is not to condone most of the exaggerated actions the government took, but this should be kept in mind nonetheless. It can also serve as a lesson on today's war on terrorism.

In times of war, the delicate balance between national security and individual civil liberty is difficult to strike for democratic governments. Liberal democracies tend to over estimate the enemy rather than under estimate. The cost of over estimating is cheaper. Luckily, civil libertarian fears notwithstanding, liberal democracies are capable of suspending liberties and reverting back. We've seen this in B! ritain under Churchill during the Second World War, and the suspension of habeas corpus with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

Canada was no exception. The government made its choices because it simply did not know the extent and nature of the enemy within its borders.  In 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney did issue an apology without compensation on behalf of Canadians. The U.S. Congress, for its part, has yet to do so. They are, however, slowly emerging from a 50-year self-imposed government silence. A Congressional bill known as the Wartime Violations of Italian American Civil Liberties Act seek acknowledgement of wartime discrimination against Italian Americans.

The humiliation and anger suffered persisted well after the war, which in part explains the code of silence that prevailed among some Italians who simply wanted to forget this chapter in the community's history. Italians considered it pointless to try and seek compensation and justice fro m! what was perceived to be a racist Liberal Party, the governing party under Mackenzie Lyon King at the time. This perception was further solidified when Liberal party members of Italian descent were interned.

There exists little accessible literature and information during this period. It is hoped that articles such as these may help to raise awareness about this forgotten era. Part of our collective responsibility in the present is to transmit oral history for posterity. This helps to define not only the Italian community, but Italians as Canadians as well. I often lament about Canada's inability to bring its past to life. We are a society that seems to suffer a collective amnesia about our history, and this partly explains the failure of branding our culture abroad.

I have always found it curious that national broadcasting organizations such as the CBC speak only of Japanese internment camps. It is a story that all North Americans should be educated on. Howeve r! , why are the Germans, Ukranians, and the Italians persistently overlooked? Perhaps articles such as this can help to rectify this omission. Maybe then people will not be so surprised when they are told of this period in Canadian history over drinks at a cocktail party.

Facts:

In all, approximately 1,521 Italian aliens were arrested by the FBI for curfew violations in the U.S. In Canada, the government, under the War Measures act, temporarily detained 2,400 Italian Canadians, of which, approximately 500-700 was interned. In the U.S., 600,000 Italians, and in Canada, 113,000 Italians were branded enemy aliens. Most rounded up were in the process of becoming citizens and were not naturalized. American and Canadian citizens, however, were nonetheless also rounded up, interrogated, and interned. Among the most famous people who were deemed enemy aliens included Metropolitan Opera basso Enzo Pinza and New York Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio's fisherman fa t! her. In Canada, the most famous internee was Mario Duliani, a Montreal-based journalist.

Sources:

Una Storia Segreta
U.S Department of War
Ottawa Archives
York University
Sun Media
Scotsatwar.org/Captain Archibald Ramsey
'Isle of the Displaced', Joe Perry
'The OSS in Italy', Max Corvo
'The Darkest Side of the Fascist Years.' The Italian Canadian Press: 1920-1942, Aneglo Principe
'Barbed Wire and Mandolins', Sam Grana


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