The joke of the military internees

• … and they used to rinse clothes in the Ombrone
• After September 8th 1943
• Between the twenties and thirties
• Corrado Capecchi, military internee
  • A medal (at last) for Corrado
  • The joke of the military internees
• Five places of Romanesque Carmignano
• Friar Bocci, at the beginning of the twentieth century
• From archaeologists to farmers
• Gino Balena
• Gino di Fico
• Historical shops in Carmignano
• In the name of Jesus and Saint Peter, may the sty go away
• Liberation day
• Matteucci, the ‘forgotten’ bishop
• Soldier in Greece
• Stories from a school notebook
• Stories of donkeys and jockeys
• Stories of mayors and town councils in Carmignano
• Stories of our home
• Stories of war and displaced persons
• The Battistina and other scary stories
• The colours of the rioni
• The Golden Roster
• The last sharecropper in Carmignano
• The siege in memory of the Princess
• The tree of liberty in Carmignano
• Ugo Contini Bonacossi
• Vittorio’s bicycles
• When the river Arno was fordable ..
• When they were digging pietra serena between Arno and Ombrone
• The colours of Carmignano, a small guide for tourists
  • Ancient churches and abbeys. Montalbano, a crossroads for pilgrims.
    • San Giusto al Pinone
    • San Jacopo in Capezzana
    • San Leonardo in Artimino
    • San Lorenzo in Montalbiolo
    • San Martino in Campo
    • San Michele amarcord
      • San Michele, the theater takes to the streets
• Itineraries for just a few days or more
  • Walking through history and nature
  • A Sunday devoted to the discovery of Artimino
  • A few words about the hamlets of Carmignano
  • The Fontina and Castagnati Lake
• Guides to download

“I AGREE, I was a soldier! but what has it got to do with it? In Germany I was forced to work too: from morning to night and I too returned home after two years as if by a miracle. I weighed just 36 kilos.” The plea and the gesture of annoyance come from the hills of the Montalbano, in the province of Prato. As a matter of fact they concern all the former Italian military internees in Germany during the Second World War. At least the few still alive today. A quibble, a joke could in fact deprive them of the compensation allocated in July by Germany these special deportees. The outburst was in 2001, but nothing has changed since. Actually, discouragement has come too.
Corrado Capecchi was a carabiniere stationed in Albania when, the day after the 8th of September 1943, he was captured by the Germans to end up in a prison camp: one of the last four or five people from Carmignano transported to Germany and then, fortunately returned. In 2001 he learned that the compensation to the deportees forced to work for the Nazis and their companies does not apply to prisoners of war and he was rightly angered. Not for the money. In the end only 540 million of the 10 billion marks allocated by Germany will end up in Europe and in the Balkans: the rest is all for the Jews from the East. In other words: it is at most small change. Besides, in general, the heirs may not be entitled to anything. It is, however, a matter of principle. “It is an outrage he blurts out. After the delays, now the joke … ” The situation is however more complicated than it seems. Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope, even though the letters sent at the end of September 2000 by the National Association of Combatants and Veterans to their local branches or the leaflets posted in the following weeks in the village stores certainly don’t contribute to clearing things up. To get some more information we had then to go to Rome, to the offices of the IOM, which is the Italian Organisation for Migration delegated to collect the requests of all Italians and maintain relations with the newly formed German public foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future “, which will have to manage those funds. It a fact that, according to the peoples jurisprudence, prisoners of war could be used for forced labour by the country of arrest. And to this rule refers in fact the disputed article of the law enacted by the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, after lengthy discussions, on the 14th of July, apparently excluding the military from the compensation going to the so-called “Hitler’s slaves.” The status of the Italian was special, though. As we recalled telling the story of those years, those who were arrested after the 8th of September, often were not considered prisoners, but led to the state of civilian and “free” workers, or arrested as such and then transformed. Corrado, who in 2002 also wrote to Ciampi, indirectly confirms again: “I have the certificates in German in which the activity I have done is documented”. The Germans, however, seem to have returned to the sender any remark and opposition. The only weak hope is entrusted to an Italian compensation (with Italian resources) on which the Parliament will have to decide.
Guiding principles and international law against historical reasons: a real battle. To avoid the confusion that inevitably has now been generated, in June, the national president of the Association of Former Deportees, Senator and lawyer Maris, had written to the highest levels of Italian institutions to make them activate internationally. Already the draft text of that fact circulated. And in the German foundation not even an Italian representative  was sitting. No response has arrived, though. It is up to Germany to decide on the interpretation of this unclear rule . At I.O.M, in Rome in 2001, however, they advised former military internees to submit application in any case. That the status of prisoner of war and military are not a sufficient condition to be entitled to the compensation, does not mean that it should be considered a real obstacle.” And the more documents on the activity carried out in Germany one can produce, they explained, the better it is”. (wf)