Trevor Dunn

In September 2024, my wife Kate and I travelled to Sicily to enjoy its many delights, intending while there to visit the sites of both the island’s WW2 prisoner of war camps: the initial camp at Castelvetrano, and its replacement camp at San Giuseppe Jato. The Castelvetrano camp was replaced because it proved to be unsuitable for holding prisoners; the area was swamp, and prone to outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. Both camps carried the designation of PG 98, and their prisoners were accommodated in canvas tents without any flooring.

Our reflections on that trip, September Sunshine in Sicily, were published in the MSMT newsletter in December 2024. In it I expressed our disappointment that we couldn’t discover the precise location of either camp, despite many enquiries before and during our trip. Visiting both camp sites was of great significance for me; my father Stanley Thomas Dunn had been captured in north Africa in 1941 and certainly spent time in one or the other PG 98 camps before being moved on to camps on the Italian mainland. In September 1943, he escaped from Sforzesca, in Lombardy, and was assisted by many kind and courageous contadini to make his way to Switzerland, and freedom.

By writing that article, I had hoped that I was lighting a fuse that might elicit responses from readers that would enable the two camp locations to be precisely identified. In fact, that fuse ignited an explosion of enlightenment when, in March 2026, (and through the MSMT), I connected with Mario and Svetlana Minardi, and Tom and Karen Miersma – both couples resident in the USA, but until then, unknown to each other. This led to the wonderfully detailed explanations of their fascinating, and in many ways emotional, connections with the San Giuseppe Jato camp.

It turns out that the San Giuseppe Jato camp was built on land at La Traversa owned by Mario’s grandfather, Francesco Cangelosi. Read Mario’s extraordinary story of how the Italian Army temporarily confiscated his grandfather’s land and how Maria Cangelosi, Mario’s mother, met his father, also named Mario Minardi.

A team effort

I had not been the only one hunting for the exact location of PG 98 San Giuseppe Jato. This was also the quest of Tom and Karen Miersma, as Karen’s father Louis VanSlooten had been a prisoner at PG 98. Read about Louis’s war and about the trip that Tom and Karen made to Sicily last year. This failed to pinpoint the camp but, through contacts they made while there, they eventually came up with the precise map references. Mario confirmed that these were correct.

Independently of each other, Mario and Tom have jointly confirmed the specific Longitude and Latitude of the camp; possibly the first time that this information has been made openly available since 1942. This now enables descendants of the British and other Allied Forces PoWs who passed through San Giuseppe Jato to visit the actual site and pay their respects to those in their family who endured formidable living conditions.

Alternatively expressed Latitude and Longitude map references for the now confirmed site of a PG 98 San Giuseppe Jato camp are: Decimal Degrees : 37.974611, 13.222750

Degrees/Minutes/Seconds : 37° 58’ 28.6” N, 13° 13’ 21.9 “ E 

Today, all that is needed to arrive at this precise position is either of these map references and a mobile phone.

The challenge that now remains is to uncover and verify the precise Latitude and Longitude map references for the Castelvetrano camp. Wartime Italian Army records advise that the selected location was within a small and sparsely populated area known as Borgo di Buturro; approx.10 kilometres directly north of Castelvetrano, and directly to the west of Santa Ninfa.

Alternatively expressed Latitude and Longitude map references for Borgo di Buturro are: Decimal Degrees : 37.761362, 12.809667               

Degrees/Minutes/Seconds : 37° 45’ 40.9026” N, 12° 48’ 34.8006” E

I hope that this article will light yet another fuse, which leads us to the discovery of the precise Longitude and Latitude of the Castelvetrano camp. Suggestions and information from readers to me at trevor_dunn@hotmail.com will be warmly welcomed. As Churchill might have succinctly, but firmly, instructed in one of his famous wartime memos: “This mission requires completion.”

Stop press! The Castelvetrano camp site has been located! Watch out for the final instalment of the quest on our website.