PG 59 Servigliano

Operational from February 1941. Up to 5,000 prisoners at a time (Greeks, Maltese, Cypriots, British, Americans, French, Slavs) . This was one of the largest prisoner of war camps in Italy, situated near the town of Ascoli Piceno, about 90 miles north-east of Rome.

PM 3300

There is more information on this link:

http://camp59survivors.wordpress.com/

Information and images of the camp and prisoners can be discovered here:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=354

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Servigliano – Prisoner of war camp n. 59
Servigliano (Fermo) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp from February 1941
Source: DPG27
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.

History: Since February 1941 in Servigliano (today in the province of Fermo*) the PG camp has been in operation. No. 59. In December 1942 it had a capacity of 2,000, which grew to 3,000 in March of the following year (see DPG28 and DPG27). The barracks housed prisoners of war – only non-commissioned officers and simple soldiers – of British (and dominion), Australian, South African, New Zealand, Cypriot, American and other nationalities.

From our partial research, the maximum number of prisoners of war occurs on December 31, 1942, when in the Servigliano camp there are 2,012 internees divided as follows: 690 British, 11 Australians, 15 Canadians, 1 white South African, 13 black South Africans, 45 Cypriots, 4 white Degaullists, 416 Americans and 13 of other nationalities (see DPG33).

Water shortage in the camp and Swiss Legation inspection in PGVA02
Censored letters from British officers on hygiene conditions in PGVA04
Camp research P.G. N. 59 of Servigliano is still in progress.

* The province of Fermo was established in 2004. Previously, Servigliano was part of the province of Ascoli Piceno.

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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.