80th Anniversary celebrations at Servigliano, September 2023
Last September saw a recurrence of the Trust’s five-yearly meet-up in Italy for a long weekend of feasting and reminiscing. In the past the anniversaries have been celebrated at Fontanellato where we have been royally entertained by the town and its people.
However, 2023 was an important milestone, being the 80th anniversary of the Italian Armistice and the consequent mass escapes of Allied PoWs into the Italian countryside, to be sheltered by local people who had been their sworn enemy only days before.
So this time we took the decision to move the events to the town of Servigliano, home to camp PG 59 from which our founder Keith Killby escaped, and close to the eponymous hilltop town of Monte San Martino where he was initially sheltered. This meant an opportunity to involve other organisations in the commemorations, in particular the local Casa della Memoria (CdM) which has done a great deal of work on keeping alive the memory of the camp via its museum, tours and now the rebuilding of some of the principal structures on the site. We also teamed up with our old friends at WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS), who shifted their annual Freedom Trail, based on Servigliano, from May in order to take part.
Thus all three organisations were involved in the preparations for a major series of events, from talks from eminent Italians to visits to sites of interest containing tales of courage and compassion and sometimes tragedy, as well as the requisite banqueting and networking. Not to forget the presence of dignitaries such as local mayors, the British Ambassador and the American Defence Attaché.
This year was different from past events, in that a large contingent of descendants of those imprisoned at PG 59 were present, having travelled from America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as all corners of the UK. For some this was the first and possibly only time they were able to visit the place which played a pivotal role in their forefathers’ lives, and some joyous meetings with the families of their Italian saviours were accompanied by not a few tears.
Given its importance, the organisers – Nermina Delic and Anne Copley of the Trust, Giordano Viozzi of CdM, Roger Stanton and Ian McCarthy of ELMS – were determined to make this a four-day extravaganza to remember, and the year’s hard work in preparation was amply repaid by the enjoyment of all who took part.
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