PG 127 Locana Canavese, Aosta

War time place name:
Locana
Contemporary local place name:
Locana

Locana, Metropolitan City of Turin, Italy

Locana is a municipality located about 28 miles (45 km) north west of Turin, in the Italian region of Piedmont. It is on the border with Val d’Aosta, in the narrow valley of Orco.

PM 3100

Discover information about this camp here:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=380

Translation for the Campi Fascisti main page:

Locana Canavese – Camp for prisoners of war n. 127
Locana (Turin) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from January 1942
Source: DPG28 DPG27
History: Since January 1942, the labour camp* for prisoners of war P.G. has been operating in Locana Canavese. N. 127. It has a capacity of 200 seats and is made up of barracks (see DPG28 and DPG27).
On March 1, 1942, there were 196 prisoners in the camp, all of Greek nationality (see DPG02). On March 20, Greek prisoners of war refuse to go to work “making demands on the replacement of an officer in the security department, on the freedom to approach the barbed wire, etc. Measures have been taken against some prisoners. The order was immediately restored” (see PGLC03). This is how it is reported in the military historical diary of the Prisoner of War Office.

But the protests of the P.G. Greeks (as also occurs in other camps, see for example DCB03 and PGCT01), evidently they do not stop there, if the same Office of the General Staff of the Royal Army requests, on 25 April 1942, the immediate transfer of all Greek internees at the PG camp No. 95 of Cairo Montenotte, the place from which they had probably arrived in Locana. The order to remove the PCs Greeks from Locana follows a complaint from the Municipal Electricity Company of Turin (where the Greek prisoners were evidently forced to work) regarding the repeated absences of the internees and therefore their poor performance (see PGLC01). Also in the same document, the Prisoners of War Office of the General Staff recalls the camp commander P.G. N. 127 for not having intervened promptly and severely against the protests of the internees. “It could have been, at least in part, remedied through energetic direct action by the camp command, denunciation of the reluctant elements, reduction of the food ration to that foreseen for the unemployed prisoners with regard to those who abstained from work, sanctions disciplinary measures, etc.”. And he concludes by asking that further measures be applied to the internees (see PGLC01). As can be deduced from the number of internees in the camp, the Greek prisoners of war were transferred from Locana to Cairo Montenotte during the month of May 1942.

But the camp is not abandoned, however. As envisaged by the Prisoners of War Office, the Greek internees are replaced by 100 P.G. Serbs “whose work performance has so far been found to be satisfactory” (see PGLC01). Thus, from 1 July 1942 to 31 March 1943 (the date on which our research ends for now), between 100 and 90 former Yugoslav prisoners of war(note 1) were present in the camp.

In the month of September, as evidenced by a document relating to an escape of two Serbian prisoners of war (see PGLC04), a work detachment is in operation – dependent on the PG camp. N. 127 – in the locality of Lago Agnel. Somehow related to the P.G. No. 127 also seems to be the story of 44 prisoners of war employed in agricultural work in the town of Veneria Reale.

In the Historical Military Diary of the Prisoners of War Office of 6 April 1942 we read “The trial before the military tribunal of Turin against 44 defendants accused of having refused the order has been set for 15-16-17 June next given to work, being employed in agricultural work in Veneria Reale” (see PGCT02). Which suggests that a work detachment located in Veneria Reale depended on Camp No. 127. Most likely, but specific research should be carried out on this, the trial ends with a conviction. In fact, in the fortnightly summary on the situation of prisoners of war of 1 September 1942, a new place of internment appears at the end of the list of camps for PGs. This is the military prison of Turin where 44 Greek prisoners of war are held (see DPG18). A presence that is recorded at least until March 1943, the date on which the P.G. Greeks detained in the military prison of Turin have risen to 48 (see DPG36).

1. In the schedule of the month of September 1942 (see DPG24), and only in this one, the former Yugoslav prisoners of war present in the P.G. No. 127 of Locana are classified as civilian internees. From the following month, as it was in the previous one, the internees are again considered prisoners of war. A demonstration of the (relative) confusion about the legal status to be assigned to Yugoslav prisoners, citizens of a state that no longer exists after the invasion and partition.

Note: Research on Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing (November 2012). 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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*Italian work camps (also referred to as satellites, work detachments or labour camps) have two numbers. The first is that of the main camp, the second of the work camp, for example PG 127/IV represents work camp IV of PG 127. The administrative management of the work camps was entrusted to the main camp. In Italy, work detachments could be sent from different prisoner of war camps to a work camp and one camp in the area selected as the main camp.

Work camps were allocated Roman numerals, although Arabic numerals are often used by many sources. Some main camps were also work camps, but were assigned the conventional number as opposed to a work camp number.

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.

 

Found 0 POWs

No working parties found

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