PG 38 Poppi

Poppi is a commune in the Province of Arezzo, in the Italian region of Tuscany. It is located about 19 miles (30km) north of Arezzo and about 25 miles (40km) east of Florence.

PM 3200

Information suggests that the camp was located in a monastery/ex-convent and was operational from January 1942.

There is more information about this camp here:

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-1Epi-c5-WH2-1Epi-i.html

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=219

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Poppi – Prisoner of war camp no. 38
Poppi (Arezzo) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from January 1942
Source: DPG27
History: Opened in January 1942, the P.G. N. 38 of Poppi, according to some information found on the web, is located at Villa Ascensione, a sixteenth-century building, a former convent of the Capuchin friars, on top of a hill not far from the town. It has a capacity of 94 places and is intended to accommodate higher grade prisoners of war (see DPG27). A document dated 28 April 1942 (see DPG46), seems to allocate the Poppi camp in particular to officers of New Zealand nationality. The transfer to Poppi of 12 New Zealand officers from the camps of Sulmona, Montalbo and Torre Tresca was then arranged. At the same time, two British officers present in Poppi were sent to camp No. 35 in Padula, mainly intended for British prisoners of war.

However, in Poppi there is no shortage of prisoners of war of other nationalities. For example, from a telegram signed by the camp commander we learn that on 18 October 1942, while being accompanied to the camp, the second lieutenant of Polish nationality Niki Dragomir escaped (see DPP02).

On March 31, 1943, 114 prisoners of war were interned there, divided as follows: 82 British senior officers, 2 Canadian soldiers, 2 Australian non-commissioned officers, a Canadian officer and a non-commissioned officer, 7 New Zealand non-commissioned officers, 2 officers and 15 white South African non-commissioned officers, an Indian officer and 2 Americans (see DPG35).

However, further changes take place in the following months regarding the national provenance of the prisoners of war in camp N. 38. At the end of November, attendance is halved, mainly due to the departure of New Zealand officers, subsequently replaced by prisoners of South African and English nationality. (see the schedules of the months following September 1942).

An American journalist captured by the Italians during military operations in North Africa was also interned in Poppi for a certain period. His name is Denny Harold and after a period spent in Poppi, by order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he was transferred to Perugia, to the Brufani Hotel (see DPP01).

In September 1943, Greek soldiers were also present in the Poppi concentration camp, considered civilian war inmates (see DPP03).

At the moment we have no other information on the P.G. No. 38 of Poppi.
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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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.