Category Prisoners of war

Exhibition: Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States

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The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, New York

May 1, 2025–September 26, 2025

New York, The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute presents its exhibition designed by Polly Franchini Creativity and World War II Italian POWs in the United States, consisting of creative work made by Italian soldiers who were imprisoned by the Allied forces during World War II, with a focus on those held in the United States. These objects, often made from salvaged materials, ranged in size from a small inlaid ring to a large Catholic chapel
with a 65-foot bell tower. The exhibit is based on Dr. Laura E. Ruberto’s (Berkeley City College) research, including historical photographs, rare artefacts, written accounts, and oral testimonies. Dr. Ruberto co-curated the exhibition along with the Calandra Institute’s Dr. Joseph Sciorra.

On view Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm. The Calandra Institute is located at 25 West 43rd St, 17th floor, in New York City

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New open-access book

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Lo sguardo lontano. L’Italia della Seconda guerra mondiale nella memoria dei prigionieri di guerra

For those who are interested in Italian history and the memories of prisoners of war (and for those who can read the Italian language), we are pleased to announce the publication of a new open-access book:Lo sguardo lontano. L’Italia della Seconda guerra mondiale nella memoria dei prigionieri di guerra, by Erika Lorenzon (Edizioni Ca’ Foscari Digital Publishing).

The book can be downloaded at http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/it/edizioni/libri/978-88-6969-268-0/

“Land of Mine”: an Ethical Example of Wisdom and Empathic Rationality

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By Patrizia Piredda

The Oresteia by Aeschylus, like every Greek tragic trilogy, represents a series of catastrophes and grieves provoked by the violent feeling of revenge that prevents reason from evaluating the best actions to take. Orestes is hunted and tormented by the Erinyes because he killed his mother, who assassinated her husband, who originally sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia, Orestes’ sister…

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War as Moral Experience in Wittgenstein’s Secret Diary

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by Patrizia Piredda

When he stopped his studies of engineering in Manchester, Wittgenstein moved to Cambridge to study logic under the guidance of Bertrand Russell because he believed that by comprehending the fundamentals of language, and therefore the limits of language, he would understand its essence,   as well as that of human beings, in primis, himself…

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Interrogations in WW2: any lessons learned?

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By Simona Tobia

Terrorists kidnapping relief workers and journalists, terrorists publishing videos of horrible executions by decapitation and even burning, terrorists wiping out principles such as the freedom of the press and satire in the heart of the West in Paris, while stories of westerners joining the fight on the IS side are profusely present in the news. The ‘war on terror’, far from over, is raging, and it continues to be depicted by Western media and political authorities as a ‘just war’ fought against a heinous enemy…

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Freedom, coercion or torture? The political re-education of German POWs in Soviet concentration camps, 1941-1956

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By Gianluca Cinelli

In all ages of human history, torture has represented a fear and a reality for prisoners of war. Soldiers captured in war can be the victims of the victor’s retaliation immediately after battle as well as far behind the front line, through interrogations for intelligence, forced-labour, brain-washing. In fact, torture is not only physical. George Orwell describes the perversion of psychological torture in his novel 1984 (1948) by means of the symbol of Room 101. Primo Levi, the well-known Auschwitz-witness, once wrote that “useless violence” in Nazi Lagers consisted in inflicting apparently aimless physical and psychological suffering in order to demolish the human dignity and resilience of captives…

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