Evening star., 1943-07-18
RoyaIist and Fascist
italian Prisoners Held
Separately in Africa
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star Staff CorreSppndent,

cthr oldu SOIIeSpOuOeuE.
ADVANCED ALLIED HEAD
,QUARTERs, July 17-Italian SOL
'diers of the Kings Army" and
Fascist prisoners are placed in sep
iarate Enclosures at their own re-
quest as they arrive from Sicily at
a great receiving camp in North
Africa, so intense Is the bitterness
between the two factions
It was considered joke at first
when the soldiers insisted over and
over again that they expected the
Sicily invasion for weeks and were
waiting to be taken prisoners by
British or Americans to end the in
tolerable situation of the past few
weeks.
"1f we had fought you wouldn't
have got in so easily" is the fire.
,quent remark to soldier interpre-
ters.
Many Of the prisoners arrive raw
enously hungry. They say they had
been on the way to the front for
two or three days without food.
There were several bad cases of
malaria.
Prisoners Eager to Work.
: The men say they are eager to
work and to forget their troubles,
and when volunteer is asked for to
{, do any Job 80 or 40 offer themselves.
They freely predict the Sicily cam
,paign will be over in month.
, When American bombers fly over
the camp the prisoners say, mo
:straf-no pennsera." This means,
i"Our planes, don't worry
F., The prisoners insist their sympa-
,thies are all with the Allies, and that
the Germans have drained every
thing out of Sicily.
: They are poorly clothed and some
ARE without shoes. They explain
that decent shoes now cost 1000
: lira, compared with 80 lira before the
war. and that they must buy these
on the black market.
, Some dissension among the Ital-
ians has been shown. One captain
, begged to be given special guard
since some fellow officers had
threatened to kill him. His request
was granted. All OF the Italians are
very cooperative.
, Nazis Bitter at Italians.
, There are about 100 Germans
among the prisoners, most of them
quite young and less amenable.
Their feeling is bitter against the
italians.
: Bullets are too good for them"
one officer told an interpreter He
claimed that the Italians got all
of the decent food in Sicily.
Most of the Italians pockets are
loaded with pictures, letters and
pictures of saints. The Germans
only own dog tags, and those taken
from dead comrades which they
passed over with request that
their relatives be notified.
Many of the Germans claim re-
cent service in Russia A few we're
evacuated from Tunis before the
Nazis surrendered
The soldier interpreter, Erwin
Nonnemecker of Newark, N. j., who
was born in the Black Forest town
of Kiarsage, found one prisoner who
was born in the same place in the
same year as himself. The prisoner
insisted the town had never been
touched by bombs of the Allies.
Nonnemecker knew better because
of letter from relatives two years
ago, and gave the prisoner some
home town news.
All of the Italian prisoners claim
relatives in the United States and
are anxious to get there as soon as
possible. The Germans are much
more downhearted.
The prisoners are all housed
temporarily in pup tents on sunny
hillside and get the same rations as
Americans, They are making forks.
spoons and sandals out of odd bits of
-hOa RI