Description
Equally skilled in trade as in the art of living, the Italian prisoners-of-war (POWs) incarcerated in South Africa during World War II left a colorful and complex legacy.
Written by historian Karen Horn, Prisoners of Jan Smuts explores the reality behind the popular myth of the “reluctant soldier” who enjoyed an idyllic, creative captivity under the Union government. Starting in early 1941, tens of thousands of Italian POWs were detained at Zonderwater Camp outside Cullinan and in labor camps across the country, deployed by Jan Smuts’s government as a source of cheap labor for road-building projects like the Du Toit’s Kloof Pass, farming, and prickly-pear eradication.
Through the personal memoirs and letters of five distinct prisoners—Giovanni Palermo, Pietro Scottu, Luigi Pederzoli, Paolo Ricci, and Raffaello Cei—the book uncovers a nuanced spectrum of experiences: while many embraced new skills and integrated into local communities (such as sculptor Edoardo Villa and ice-cream entrepreneur Aurelio Gatti), others stubbornly clung to Fascist ideals and resisted the regime.
Challenging nostalgic stereotypes with nearly a decade of rigorous historical research, this 272-page work from Jonathan Ball Publishers paints a vivid picture of survival, adaptation, and the unexpected human connections forged in wartime South Africa.
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