PG 77 Pissignano / Dulag 226

The Italian village of Pissignano is a town or hamlet of the municipality of Campello sul Clitunno, in the province of Perugia, region of Umbria.

The village is about 22 miles (35km) southeast of Umbria.

PM 3300

The camp was in operation from August 1942.  After the Armistice on 8th September 1943, the camp was under German control, used as a transit camp and renamed Dulag 226.

A list of men interred there, kindly provided by Janet Kinrade Dethick from the UK National Archive WO 392/21 collection and various escape and liberation reports is here PG 77 List From Janet Kinrade Dethick

More information about this camp can be discovered here:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=363

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Pissignano – Camp for prisoners of war n. 77
Pissignano, fraction of Campello sul Clitunno (Perugia) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp in operation in August 1942
Source: DPG27
History: The PG camp N. 77 of Pissignano, a fraction of the municipality of Campello sul Clitunno in the province of Perugia, officially began operating in August 1942. In March 1943 it was described as an attended camp with a capacity of 4,000, reserved for non-commissioned officers and troops (see DGP27).

The first document in chronological order that we traced during our partial research dates back to 9 August 1942, when the Prisoners of War Office wrote a letter to the Ministry of the Interior to reiterate that the site chosen for the construction of the camp it is suitable for its function (obviously thus responding to the criticisms advanced, probably, by the local authorities) (see PGPI01).

For the construction works of the camp, 208 prisoners of war were sent to Pissignano, coming from the PG camp. N. 54 of Passo Corese (see PGPI02).

From the schedule of 30 September 1942 we learn that they are 168 English and 40 South African (see DPG23). From the following month and until January 1943, there were just over 60 PGs present in the camp, always divided between the British and South Africans (see DPG25, DPG29 and DPG32).

In February and March 1943, the nationality and number of prisoners of war in Pissignano completely changed. On February 28, 221 soldiers were interned, all white Degaullists* (see DPG33). The following month, the figure of 1,372 PGs was reached, divided into 6 English, 22 white South Africans and 1,344 white degaullists (see DPG35).

Our research for the moment stops at these data. They help us understand something more about the PG camp N. 77 of Pissignano in particular two texts published by the Institute for the history of contemporary Umbria (see NAR01 and NAR02). In particular as regards the presence of Montenegrin civilian internees (but also Serbs and other Yugoslavs) in the prisoner of war camp. In fact, starting from December 1942, the Pissignano camp became a place of transit for civilian internees coming from the concentration camps of Albania or Montenegro and heading to Colfiorito.

In the book by Nardelli and Kaczmarek (see Dino Renato Nardelli, 2010, p. 21 and following), some important testimonies of Montenegrin internees are reported, which also concern the relations between civilian and military internees within the same camp, as well as a map of the camp reconstructed on the basis of the testimonies collected; while in Deportation and Internment in Umbria (see Dino Renato Nardelli, 2007, p. 43 and following), a text for didactic use on the P.G. No. 77, various documents on the history of the camp from the municipal archive of Campello sul Clitunno are reproduced.

* With the term “degaullists” fascism indicated the soldiers who were part of the army led by Charles de Gaulle, sometimes also called “Free France”. It is also made up of citizens of French African colonies (Chad, Cameroon, French Congo, Algeria, Senegal). At least from a certain period onwards, the shedules on the Degaullist prisoners of war in the hands of the Italians are divided into white Degallists and colored Dagaullists. A brigade of the Foreign Legion was also part of the Degaullist army, as evidenced by the letter of a Spanish prisoner of war interned in Pissignano (see PGPI03)

Note: Research into the Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing. 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.