Research
We help academics and family researchers investigate the activities of prisoners of war and partisans in Italy between 1943 and 1945, as well as those of the contadini – the subsistence farmers who risked their lives in sheltering and feeding escapers. This section also contains research articles.
Bibliography
This list focuses on the Allied POW experience in Italy in the Second World War, concentrating on first-hand accounts that cover imprisonment, escape…
Indian PoWs
Annu Palakunnathu Matthew, Professor of Art (photography) at the University of Rhode Island, USA, conducts research into the experiences of…
Research guide
The Trust’s guide to researching prisoners of war. This guide focuses on the State Archives in the UK and USA.
Our research posts
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Robert Thurgood’s “Scappata”
Much to his surprise, in 2014, while in Le Marche on a Freedom Trail, Lawrence Thurgood made contact with the family who had hidden his PoW father. Here he recalls the adventure.
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Audacious escapes
Letitia Blake attended the launch of Karen Farrington’ s book, The Great Italian Breakout, which brings stories of resilience and resourcefulness to a wider audience.
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Isabella Insolvibile, Allied Prisoners of War in Italy, 1940–1943
Malcolm Gaskill reviews a book by Isabella Insolvibile that lays bare the shortcomings of the Italian state in its treatment of Allied prisoners of war. Translated by Andrea Hajek (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026)
Our online archive
The memoirs of Allied servicemen on the run in wartime Italy, accounts of the brave Italians who hid them, and information about the PoW camps are all to be found in the Trust’s invaluable archive.
Our partners
Escape Lines Memorial Society
The WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS) is dedicated to the ‘helpers’, escapers and evaders who either organised or used the escape lines of mainland Europe during WW2. Our membership is made up of former WW2 ‘helpers’, escapers and evaders, their families and friends, historians, researchers, and others who are interested in our aims.
Parri Institute
MSMT has a five-year collaboration agreement in the field of research with Istituto Nazionale Ferruccio Parri, which is based in Milan and co-ordinates 65 historical institutes throughout Italy.
Casa della Memoria
Founded in 2001, our association has the aim of recovering and reviving the memory of all the events that directly affected the former prison camp of Servigliano and indirectly the Tenna Valley through the collection of documentary material, testimonies and l welcoming visitors and scholars.
The National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records.
Cambridge University
Allies in Italy
In 2020, the UK-based Monte San Martino Trust and the Istituto Nazionale Ferruccio Parri decided to collaborate on telling the story of the Allied prisoners of the Second World War in Italy. A project to map the prison camps was readily agreed and it was decided to include this in a broader framework, which would systemise the studies carried out in the past and present new evidence on the overall theme of the Allied presence in Italy from 1939 to 1947.
Support us by buying our books
Bugle Call to Freedom: The PoW Escape from Camp PG 49 Fontanellato 1943
A People’s Courage: Civil resistance in German-occupied Italy Paperback
The Girl with a Peach: Courage and Compassion in Wartime Italy
Escaping has ceased to be a sport – Frank Unwin
To the River: Why would you risk your life and all that you love for a stranger?
Where the Hell Have You Been?: Monty, Italy and One Man’s Incredible Escape
Love and War in the Apennines – Eric Newby
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