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This week, British Italians will remember the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of the Arandora Star. Hundreds of civilians interned as prisoners of war - including my great-grandfather - drowned because the British government sent off a ship of internees painted as a warship.
The British govt. has never apologised. Here's the story. In 1940, thousands of Italians living in the UK were declared enemy aliens by Winston Churchill who declared 'collar the lot'. Civilians were rounded up en masse and put in prisoner of war camps.
My nonno was interned in a prisoner of war camp on the Isle of Man for 5 years - here's a pic with him in. But his father was put with hundreds of other Italians and Germans on a ship headed for a camp in Canada. It was a requisitioned ocean liner called the Arandora Star.
It had been painted battle ship grey to be requisitioned in war, but in carrying prisoners of war it should have had a Red Cross displayed to show that it wasn’t a war ship. But it didn't. A German U-boat saw it and torpedo-ed it.
The British shot the lifeboats to stop the Italians from escaping. My great-grandfather was found on the coast of Ireland, with his wallet still intact, making him one of the few Italians to be identified. Many others lie in unmarked graves. He was buried in Donegal.
He, like many other Italians, had left total poverty in pursuit of a better life in England. St. Peter's Italian Church in Clerkenwell regularly remembers the tragedy and has two memorials.
Here is my bisnonno with his ice cart. There was an immense loss of life and yet it is a largely forgotten WWII tragedy. But my family and many others remember them.
