PG 110 Carbonia

Carbonia is located in the southwest of the island of Sardinia.

PM 50

Operational from July 1941.

Information about this camp can be discovered from here:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=174

Translation for the Campi Fascisti main page:

Carbonia – Prisoner of war camp n. 110
Carbonia (Carbonia – Iglesias) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from July 1941
Source: DPG27 DPG28
History: In operation since July 1941, the P.G. No. 110 of Carbonia has a capacity of 3,000 seats (see DPG18).
In a document dated 23 July 1942, the Carbonia camp is also called “Villaggio Umberto”, the fascist name of the current hamlet of Cortoghiana (see DST03), a place where, according to our documentation, however, a work detachment dependent on the camp stands PG central No. 110.
According to other information found on the web, the camp would instead be located in Carbonia in the Cannas di Sopra area, exactly between via Padova, via Mantova and via Ferrara.

On March 1, 1942, in the P.G. No. 110 there are 1,491 prisoners of war, all belonging to the former Yugoslav army, and all classified as Serbs (see DPG04). A situation which remained practically unchanged until 1 July 1942 when, following the sudden closure1 of the other four work camps present at that time in Sardinia (Bacu Abis N. 124, Montevecchio N. 131, Monteponi N. 137 and Monte Mannu N. 147), the number of prisoners registered in Carbonia rises to 2,224 (see DPG13).
The last significant change regarding the presence of prisoners of war in the Carbonia camp occurs in January 1943, when, following the request of the Italian Carboni Company, 700 prisoners of war of South African nationality (white) are transferred to Sardinia to be started at the Bacu Abis detachment, dependent on the P.G. 110 of Carbonia. Thus, in March 1943, the internees who belonged to the Carbonia camp amounted to 3,056, of whom 1,248 were Serbs, 700 white South Africans, 386 Greeks, 255 Albanians, 168 Croats, 126 Montenegrins, 107 new Italians (i.e. Slovenes from the territory annexed to the Italy), and 63 of other nationalities (Bulgarians or Romanians or Hungarians), (see DPG36 and DPG35).

Given the area where the camp stands – at that time full of mines – it is not difficult to imagine what work the prisoners of war of Carbonia are destined for. We find confirmation of this in the Historical Military Diary of the Prisoners of War Office of the General Staff of the Royal Army, where, on May 26, 1942, it is written: “It is set for June 23 next, at the Military Tribunal of Sardinia, in Oristano , the trial against 6 Serbian officers who refused to work inside the Carbonia mine” (see DCB04).

We recall that the Geneva Conventions on the treatment to be reserved for prisoners of war – ratified by Italy in 1930 – if on the one hand they provide for the possibility of using prisoners of lower grades (non-commissioned officers and enlisted men) in compulsory work, on the other they impose certain limits, including a ban on being forced to work underground. So inside the mines, for example.

In any case, very probably (but in the current state of our research we cannot yet say with certainty) Yugoslavian prisoners of war, as they belong to a country that in fact no longer exists, are not protected by international conventions and as a result they almost certainly do not receive visits and aid from the International Red Cross. A treatment perhaps also applied to prisoners of war of Greek nationality.

At the moment, among the documents found there is only one that helps us understand what the living and working conditions are in the PG camp. No. 110 of Carbonia. On February 16, 1943, the transfer to the continent (precisely to the PG No. 62 camp in Grumello del Piano) was requested for “all the officers of former Yugoslav and Greek nationality who were sick, disabled or in any case unfit – due to their organic deterioration – to unconditional employment in works” (see DCB08).

Discipline too, especially in relation to the obligation to work, seems to be very strict in the Carbonia camp: “all pg. belonging to the aforementioned nationalities who have shown poor performance at work are subjected to severe disciplinary sanctions and – if necessary – the greater rigors provided for by the penal military legislation are applied to them” (see again DCB08).

As we have already partly said, several work detachments depended on the Carbonia camp. At the moment we have identified seven:
Bacu Abis Detachment
Detachment of Villagrande Strisaili
Cortoghiana detachment
Detachment of Arborea (Mussolinia)
Sanluri detachment
Alghero detachment (at the Sella & Mosca company)
Monteponi detachment

Camp research for prisoners of war P.G. No. 110 is still ongoing.

1. At the state of the research we are not yet able to say whether the four camps are actually called.

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PG abbreviation

The full title is ‘Campo Concentramento di Prigioniere di Guerra’ (prisoner of war concentration camp). They were not concentration camps in the normal sense of the word. Camps were normally prefixed PG, but could be referred to as CC, Campo or Campo PG. The exception was the 2 Dulags and 1 Stalag within Italy, which were German controlled transit centres for POWs being transferred to Germany. The camps were originally known by their place names, and numbers were not introduced until early 1942. There are some camps with no numbers, perhaps they closed before early 1942?

PM abbreviation

Camps in Italy were divided into postal areas, each area designated ‘PM [number]’. PM translates to ‘Posta Militare’, meaning ‘military mail’. The number indicated the central postal reception area for the camps’ mail.