Enemies Within: Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad

438 Pages·2000·24 MB·English

by  Franca Iacovetta

ENEMIES WITHIN
Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad
In the recent campaign led by the National Congress of Italian Canadi-
ans to gain redress for compatriots interned during the Second World
War, leaders claimed that the Canadian state had waged a 'war against
ethnicity/ The Congress's version of history, argue the editors, drew
on selective evidence and glossed over the fascist past of some Italian
Canadians.
The editors have assembled scholars with diverse views who seek
to stimulate informed debate. Enemies Within is the first study to
examine not only the formulation and uneven implementation of
internment policy, but the social and gender history of internment.
The book offers differing interpretations of Italian internment in
Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. It
invites comparisons between Italian Canadians and Canada's other
internees, including Communists, German Canadians, Ukrainian
Canadians, and Jewish refugees. It examines contemporary campaigns
for redress. Masculinity, female internees, campaigns for releases, and
memory culture are some of the little-studied subjects that also receive
attention.
A general introduction and four section introductions provide
valuable background to the issues being discussed. Never-before-seen
photographs raise troubling questions about some Italian Canadians'
interpretations of their internments.
FRANCA IACOVETTA is a professor of history at the University of
Toronto.
ROBERTO PERIN is a professor of history at York University.
ANGELO PRINCIPE teaches part time at York University and the
University of Toronto.
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ENEMIES WITHIN
Italian and Other Internees
in Canada and Abroad
Edited by
Franca lacovetta, Roberto Perin, and Angelo Principe
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2000
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-4446-8 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-8235-1 (paper)
Printed acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Enemies within: Italian and other internees in Canada and abroad
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-4446-8 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-8235-1 (pbk.)
1. World War, 1939-1945 - Prisoners and prisons, Canadian. 2. Prisoners of
war - Canada. 3. Prisoners of war - Italy. 4. Italian Canadians - History.*
5. Italians - Canada - History. 6. Concentration camps - Canada.
I. lacovetta, Franca, 1957- . II. Perin, Roberto. III. Principe, Angelo,
1930-
D805.C3E63 2000 940.547271 C99-931427-0
The publication of this book was made possible through the financial help
of the Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian Canadian Studies at York University.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
This book has been the help of a grant from the Humanities
and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Canada
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction - Italians and Wartime Internment:
Comparative Perspectives on Public Policy, Historical Memory,
and Daily Life 3
FRANCA IACOVETTA and ROBERTO PERIN
Part One - Italian Canadians, Fascism, and Internment: Black Shirts
or Sheep? 23
1 A Tangled Knot: Prelude to 10 June 1940 27
ANGELO PRINCIPE
2 Exporting Fascism to Canada: Toronto's Little Italy 52
LUIGI G. PENNACCHIO
3 The Internment of Italian Canadians 76
LUIGI BRUTI LIBERATI
4 'Uneasy Neighbours': Internment and Hamilton's Italians 9
ENRICO CARLSON CUMBO
Part Two - Other Canadian Internees: Drawing Distinctions 121
5 A War on Ethnicity? The RCMP and Internment 128
REG WHITAKER and GREGORY S. KEALEY
6 The Curious Case of Female Internees 148
MICHELLE MeBRIDE
vi Contents
7 The 'Camp Boys': Interned Refugees from Nazism 171
PAULA J. DRAPER
8 Political Prisoners: The Communist Internees 194
IAN RADFORTH
Part Three - Italians Interned Abroad: Three Case Studies 225
9 The Internment of Italians in Australia 227
R.J.B. BOSWORTH
10 The Internment of Italians in Britain 256
LUCIO SPONZA
11 When Italian Americans Were 'Enemy Aliens' 280
ROSE D. SCHERINI
Part Four - Memory and Redress: The Uses of the Past 307
12 Actor or Victim? Mario Duliani and His Internment Narrative 312
ROBERTO PERIN
13 Images of Internment 335
GABRIELE SCARDELLATO
14 The Politics of Redress: The Contemporary Ukrainian-Canadian
Campaign 355
FRANCES SWYRIPA
15 Redress, Collective Memory, and the Politics of History 379
FRANCA IACOVETTA and ROBERT VENTRESCA
Contributors 413
Illustration Credits 417
Index 419
Preface
The idea for this book came in the wake of a 1995 conference that the
three of us hosted on the internment during the Second World War of
Italian Canadians for their alleged association with fascism. As histori-
ans and Italian-Canadian specialists, we wanted to inject more histori-
cal context into current debates about the subject of internment, which
have been emotionally charged but not always well informed. In our
view, the efforts of community leaders to focus public attention on the
wartime mistreatment of Italians (and extract some form of redress),
and Prime Minister Mulroney's 1990 blanket apology to Italian Canadi-
ans for the 'wrongs' committed against them, endorsed a simplified
version of history. According to this interpretation, Italian Canadians
were victims of a government's war against its minorities and, like the
Japanese Canadians, were imprisoned simply because of their ethnic
origin. All the internees were political innocents whose lives, and com-
munity, were irreparably damaged by a vindictive government.
We sympathize with those falsely accused or victimized by wartime
hysteria against 'enemy aliens.' We also have no interest in becoming
apologists for state repression. As historians, however, we are con-
cerned about the lack of public knowledge about and perspective on
these controversial events. The version of history endorsed by the
Italian-Canadian redress campaign simply left too much out.
Since that conference, we have been involved in the public debates
that continue to stir up much passion and controversy. They convinced
us of the need for more concerted efforts to create a meaningful context
for informed discussion. This book is our contribution to furthering
that aim. It offers original essays on aspects of the Italian-Canadian
case, new essays on several of the other groups interned in Canada, and
viii Preface
three studies of the internment of people of Italian background in other
countries. There are also contributions that focus on the politics of
redress. The authors develop various points of comparison and con-
trast, map important new terrain, and suggest topics for further re-
search. We hope that readers will be provoked into debating the
approaches, controversies, and assessments contained in these pages.
We want to thank those who made the original conference a stimulat-
ing experience. Annamarie Castrilli and Emilio Bisceglia of the Na-
tional Congress of Italian Canadians, and writer Antonino Mazza,
graciously agreed to participate in a conference organized by people
who disagree with them. Our colleague and friend, Bruno Ramirez,
with whom we have also done intellectual battle over the issue, re-
minded us of the dangers of oversimplification. Contributions by U.S.
historians Gary Mormino and Rudolph Vecoli (no strangers to similar
debates among Italian Americans) underscored the value of compara-
tive contexts for assessing the Italian-Canadian case. In order to broaden
the comparative context we invited contributions to the book from
several Canadian colleagues - Reg Whitaker and Gregory Kealey,
Michelle McBride, Paula Draper, and Ian Radforth - who produced fine
essays on, respectively, RCMP activities among Canada's ethnic com-
munities, women internees, Jews from Europe placed in Canadian
internment camps, and interned Communists. We also invited foreign
colleagues to join our collaborative project: Rose Scherini, Lucio Sponza,
and Richard Bosworth; each contributed a substantial and informative
essay on Italians in the United States, Britain, and Australia, respec-
tively. Both at the conference and in this book, Frances Swyripa has
provided a comparative context for the Italian-Canadian campaign for
redress by her scholarly examination of the contemporary politics of
the Ukrainian-Canadian redress lobby.
For its financial support we gratefully acknowledge York Universi-
ty's Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian Canadian Studies, Gabriella Colussi-
Arthur and Elio Costa, former and current directors, respectively, of its
academic advisory committee, as well as Erindale College, University
of Toronto. We are especially grateful to Gabriele Scardellato for his
generous contribution of time and effort to the project. Warm thanks
also to Gerry Hallowell of University of Toronto Press for his support.
For their assistance in the revision process and final production of the
book, we thank Emily Andrew, now with UBC Press, and Jill McConkey
and Frances Mundy.
ENEMIES WITHIN
Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad