PG 120 Chiesanuova, Padova (also known as Padua)

The camp schedules of 31st December 1942 and 31st March 1943 from the Royal Army General Staff, Prisoners of War Office, list the camp as “Chiesanuova (Padova)”, coming under the military jurisdiction of Treviso, which is in the Italian region of Veneto. No camp number is allocated on these schedules. The camp comes under the section heading “Camps for Civilian Internees”.

Italian documents dated March 1943 mention the transfer of prisoners of war from PG 57 Grupignano “to the newly established pg camp number 120 of Chiesanuova, a camp adjacent to the concentration camp for civilian internees of Chiesanuova managed by the soldiers of the II Army”. Refer the Campi Fascisti link on PG 57 for more information.

Information about PG 120 can be discovered from this link:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=432

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Chiesanuova – Camp for prisoners of war n. 120
Chiesanuova, locality in the municipality of Padua (Padova) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from March 1943
Source: DPG39
History: In the first days of February 1943, the Prisoners of War Office established two agricultural work camps in the province of Padua (see PGCH05). The prisoners of war are from the P.G. no. 82 of Laterina. However, the two work detachments are placed under the administrative and logistical dependence of the camp for civilian internees of Chiesanuova di Padova (a camp managed in any case by the army and not by the Ministry of the Interior).
But, before the end of the month, the Army General Staff decides to separate the management of civilian internees from military ones and establishes – in the same place where the camp for civilian internees stands – the P.G. no. 120 of Chiesanuova (see PGCH06).

The PG camp No. 120 appears for the first time in the list of prisoners of war camps dated 31 March 1943. On that date, 110 prisoners of New Zealand nationality and 510 South African (white) military personnel were assigned to the camp (see DPG35). A document dated the following day, 1 April 1943, describes this place as a labor base camp for prisoners of war housed within the concentration camp for civilians of Chiesanuova (see DPG39). In March 1943 at the P.G. No. 120 numerous prisoners of war from other camps are assigned. Prisoners who are then transferred to the various work detachments dependent on the base camp.
Each Detachment is assigned a Roman numeral. Thus, for example, on March 23, 1943, a group of 60 South African prisoners of war was formed, taken from the PG camp. N. 65 (Gravina in Puglia) which make up the 120/X Detachment to be used as agricultural workers at the Valgrande estate (Sant’Anna railway station, Rovigo-Chioggia railway) (see PGCH03).

Other Detachments of which we have currently found traces – but the effective constitution has not been verified – are those of Cittadella (Fratelli Gottardo farm) (see PGCH01); Detachment 120/VIII (Millecampi farm, Piove di Sacco) (see PGGU01); Detachment 120/VII (AVAS company, Bagnoli di Sopra railway station) (see PGCH02); Detachment 120/IX (Toffano Marcello company, Cona railway station) (see PGCH04); Saonara Detachment (see PGCH05); Detachment of Villa Vollemberg of Abano Terme (see PGCH05).
Camp research P.G. No. 120 of Chiesanuova is still in progress.

Note: Research on Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing (summer 2013). The information reported here is taken from some documents conserved in the Historical Office of the Army General Staff and concerns only the period from March 1942 to March 1943. The data on this sheet are therefore incomplete and still to be verified.

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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?