Screening of the documentary on Italian prisoners in the United States during World War II

On September 27, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. at the University of Notre Dame in Rome, the documentary ‘Fedeltà. Soldati. Prigionieri’ by Steve Mancini, director and professor at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will be presented. The event obtained the patronage of the municipality of Rome and is co-sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies.

“If we do not preserve the memory of our history and our ancestors, someone will come sooner or later to tell us who we were and who we are now,” comments Steve Mancini, introducing his documentary on the history of Italian prisoners of war in the United States during the Second World War.

The work produced by Mancini in collaboration with Blacksheep's Production aims to tell an unusual story of golden captivity that has united thousands of Italian soldiers. The soldiers describe the period spent in captivity as surprisingly positive, enriched by free time to dedicate to music, theater, sports, study, and going out, as well as creating relationships of brotherhood, personal growth, love, and deep religious faith—an experience far removed from the imprisonment that deprives one of any rights and freedoms.

An American with Italian roots, Steve Mancini came across the story of the Italian prisoners a few years ago. Amazed by the quantity of stories, letters, and photographs that emerged and the bonds built over time between the two nations, he chose to reconstruct the story. Mancini's collaboration with Alan Perry, professor of Italian culture and language at Gettysburg College, was important. He was among the first to carry out research on the 51,000 Italian soldiers taken prisoner in Africa in 1943, sent as prisoners of war across the Atlantic and detained in more than 140 camps throughout the United States.

The documentary is based on interviews with the children of 1,200 soldiers assigned to the 321st Italian Quartermaster Battalion and sent to Camp Letterkenny, Pennsylvania. The collaboration with the Association for the Memory of Italian Prisoners (A.M.P.I.L) in Letterkenny, which aims to reunite the children of prisoners held in the Pennsylvania military depot, was crucial to the reconstruction of the story.

The screening in Rome will be attended by the prisoners’ families and relatives and will receive the attention of local media outlets.