"The Arandora Star ", which was transporting to Canada, Italian and German designated "Enemy Aliens" when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Around 800 people died including 450 Italian internees. 

The Internment was Stupid to start with, and shipping these so called Enemy Aliens through shark infested waters when there were a number of camps in Great Britain that could have been used,,,,,, was Double Stupid.and TRAGIC. 

THE 1940 sinking of the Arandora Star included Italians and were among hundreds who died, is at the centre of a new play.

It has been written by Italian author and playwright Alfio Bernabei who has lived for most of the last 40 years in London.

After Italy declared war on Britain in 1940 hundreds of Italians were rounded up, arrested and detained.

Around 450 were aboard the Arandora Star which was heading for Canada when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Around 800 people died including 450 Italian internees.

Thirteen of the dead were from Teesside having been arrested and put in cells at Middlesbrough Town hall before being put on board.

A plaque in their memory was unveiled last year in Middlesbrough Town Hall.

The story of the Arandora Star has now been turned into a play by Alfio.It is to be performed for the first time next month in Italy.

The play - The Tailor at the Bottom of the Sea - focuses on an encounter between the fictional British commandant of an Isle of Man internment camp and a real life character Decio Anzani , a Tailor, who was an anti-fascist campaigner and a fierce critic of the regime of Mussolini. Decio was interned and was among those who lost their lives when the Arandora Star was sunk.

Alfio, 68, said the play considered two aspects of the continuing relevance of the Arandora Star tragedy.

?It is always a problem on how to deal with prisoners of war and internees in the case of a conflict.

?The other aspect is that I have always been interested by the anti-fascists who were arrested and interned and ended up on the Arandora Star, he said.

Alfio hopes that after the play about the tragedy is staged in Italy,  it will also be performed in Britain.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/
2010/11/25/naval-tragedy-comes-to-life-in-new-
play-84229-27710670/#ixzz18o9vH2dr
 
 

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