Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Are you looking for an Italian surname? Do you need more information about your family heritage?
This is the right place to start your genealogy search.
Post Reply
User avatar
jimwest
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 29 Oct 2009, 11:32
Contact:

Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by jimwest »

A Roster of some 500 Italian POWs, held at Camp Atterbury, Indiana is available at www.IndianaMilitary.org. In total there were 3,500 Italians held here, and research continues.

When Italy surrendered, the Italians were replaced with 10,000 German POWs.

The "Chapel in the Meadow", built by the Italian POWs still exists and have been restored and is maintained by the Camp Atterbury Museum. A Mass and Picnic is held here each August by the Italian Heritage Society of Indianapolis, with chairs, tent, etc. supplied by the Army.

At the site above, click on "Camp Atterbury Prisoner of War Camp" and then "Italian".

IF you can add to any of the info, please let me know. Jim West, webmaster
User avatar
Pastore
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 26
Joined: 01 Feb 2008, 05:23
Location: Fishers, IN, USA
Contact:

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by Pastore »

Hi Jim,

Here is a link to the Italian Heritage Society of Indiana's web site page about the Chapel in the Meadow:
IHSI - Our Lady's Chapel in the Meadow
User avatar
Pastore
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 26
Joined: 01 Feb 2008, 05:23
Location: Fishers, IN, USA
Contact:

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by Pastore »

There are still some children of POWs who remained in the U.S. after the war that attend the Chapel in the Meadow event each August. The POWs usually married Italian-American women who visited the camps where they were transferred after Atterbury. I know some were sent to camps in Ohio. Beyond that, I am not sure.
User avatar
johnnyonthespot
Master
Master
Posts: 5229
Joined: 04 Aug 2008, 15:01
Location: Connecticut, USA

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by johnnyonthespot »

jimwest wrote:A Roster of some 500 Italian POWs, held at Camp Atterbury, Indiana is available at www.IndianaMilitary.org. In total there were 3,500 Italians held here, and research continues.

When Italy surrendered, the Italians were replaced with 10,000 German POWs.

The "Chapel in the Meadow", built by the Italian POWs still exists and have been restored and is maintained by the Camp Atterbury Museum. A Mass and Picnic is held here each August by the Italian Heritage Society of Indianapolis, with chairs, tent, etc. supplied by the Army.

At the site above, click on "Camp Atterbury Prisoner of War Camp" and then "Italian".

IF you can add to any of the info, please let me know. Jim West, webmaster
Interesting stuff!

As an aside, my son is a member of the Connecticut Army National Guard, currently active duty temporarily stationed at Camp Atterbury. He (and 700 other Connecticut National Guard members) is currently home for the Christmas holiday but will be returning to Indianna this weekend prior to deployment to Afghanistan. See http://www.connecticutplus.com/cplus/in ... 6947.shtml
PeterTimber
Master
Master
Posts: 6817
Joined: 16 Dec 2007, 18:57
Location: Yonkers NY

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by PeterTimber »

After the warthe personnel files of all POWs were returned to the country for which they fought. The only remaining information for Italian POWs inour US National Archives are one line entries in a roster list from March 1945. Some of their intervew sheets remain in NARA archives

Just some random information that you might fund useful. =Peter=
~Peter~
User avatar
jo123
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 81
Joined: 01 Oct 2009, 06:19
Contact:

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by jo123 »

Hi there,
Is the roster list of Italian POW's available online on the American National Archive. My grandfather was a POW released in 1945 but I have been unable to find where he was stationed in the US. I am waiting for some information from the National Archive of Australia regarding some secret files they have, but am unsure what it is about.

Josie

Surname search: Monterosso
Tracing my family from Sinopoli. Surnames: Monterosso, Puccini, Carbone, Tripodi, Caruso, Rugnetta, Fimmano, Luppino.
User avatar
jimwest
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 29 Oct 2009, 11:32
Contact:

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by jimwest »

My roster was built from info from newspaper articles, notes of the local farmers that had the POWs working on their farms, and mostly from CDs from Kathy Kirkpatrick, wo does a lot of work on POW histories. As far as I know, it is not available anywhere else. That's not to say that there are not more comprehensive lists elsewhere. Mine is specific to Camp Atterbury, Indiana.

One problem is that the individual camps were assigned numbers, and those numbers appear on the records, but no list of those camp numbers has been found to date. So any large lists found may not list the name of the camp.

West
PeterTimber
Master
Master
Posts: 6817
Joined: 16 Dec 2007, 18:57
Location: Yonkers NY

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by PeterTimber »

Dear Joe123 you can first try www.traces.org.

There is also a CD containing the national rosters for Italian prisoners of War held in the Continental US on March 31,1945 and availble thru the
website www.gentracer.org/pow.html =Peter=
~Peter~
PeterTimber
Master
Master
Posts: 6817
Joined: 16 Dec 2007, 18:57
Location: Yonkers NY

Re: Roster of Italian POWS at Camp Atterbury, Indiana

Post by PeterTimber »

Dear West Most if not allof the old US Army bases and POW camps have been quietly refurbished for unknown purposes; the largest being in Alaska to house 200,000.

There is a website that lists all camps, compounds prisons and unknown purpose sites at www.concernedhumanity.net/camps.html for the entire USA but has listings for each state including Indiana with name of the locations.
=Peter=
~Peter~
Post Reply