The Trust’s guide to researching prisoners of war


This Guide is in three sections: 

  • Section One is devoted to a brief explanation of the history of Allied escapers in Italy in WW2 followed by a list of sources.   
  • Section Two takes you through how to access the UK National Archives at Kew (TNA), both online and in person.   
  • Section Three describes the huge archive housed in the US National Archives in Washington (NARA), slowly becoming available online and giving a lot more information on the Italian helpers themselves as well as the men they sheltered. 

This Guide is not intended as the last word on research sources, but as something to get you started.  If in the course of your own research you come across something that is not listed here, or that is erroneously referenced, please let us know via info@msmtrust.org.uk 

This Guide focuses on the State Archives in the UK and USA.  There are references to other commercial sources such as Findmypast and Ancestry, both of which require you to take out a subscription after an initial free trial. 

Section 1 – Allied PoWs in Italy

In September 1943 some 80,000 Allied prisoners of war were held in Italian prisoner of war camps. They included British, South African, New Zealand, Australian and Indian soldiers who had been captured in the Western Desert in 1941-42, together with Americans captured in the later stages of the North African Campaign and some airmen downed over Italy after the Allied invasion of Italy itself.  

Officers were separated from their men and placed in their own camps, or sometimes separate compounds in the same camp.  Conditions varied greatly with the common soldiers suffering malnutrition and death (up to eight a day during the worst times), sometimes ameliorated by the more kindly of the Italian camp commandants. 

On 8 September 1943, Italy concluded an Armistice with the Allies and most Italians rejoiced thinking the war was over.  Camp guards disappeared back to their homes, leaving their charges free to leave if they chose. A notorious “Stay Put Order” had been issued from London in June, in the mistaken belief that the Allies would sweep up through Italy emptying the camps and collecting the ex-prisoners in their wake.  In fact Germany was already pouring troops through the Brenner Pass to take up defensive positions all down the mountainous spine of Italy and prisoners who obeyed this order were swiftly collected and ended up in German camps where they languished for another 18 months until liberated in April and May 1945. 

Even so 50,000 men decided to attempt to make the break for freedom. For the most part they were unprepared for their escape. Few spoke Italian or were fit enough for the arduous journey across the mountains to Allied lines or north to Switzerland. Many were soon rounded up by the “Nazi-fascisti” (Germans and Italian Fascists working together) and transported north to join their fellows in German prison camps. 

Of the 25,000 who remained at large, they had a choice of a risking the snow-bound journey over the Alps to Switzerland, or the route south to the Allies through German defensive lines and the consequent active battle zones. Geography and the weather played a part in decisions made, and in the early stages after the September breakout some did make it, but as winter closed in and the enemy’s grip tightened, many came to a stop and took refuge within the close-knit communities of rural Italy.  

They received courageous help from the poorest of Italian society – the contadini (sharecroppers) who gave vital aid to the escapers by way of food, shelter, civilian clothing, papers, cash and directions to those determined to continue on their way, whilst taking in those who could not go any further, sheltering them for up to 18 months as part of their family and the wider community.  In doing so they were risking the destruction of their homes and the lives of themselves and their families. Many of the escapers and their descendants owe their existence to these illiterate and impoverished Italians, something acknowledged by the escapers themselves in almost every subsequent account of events.  

Unlike other occupied countries, there was never any proper network of escape routes or organisations in Italy. After the Armistice a variety of “irregular” British units began to operate inside occupied Italian territory, either to liaise with and assist the partisans or to attempt to extract those escapers who had so far evaded recapture. The list and acronyms were extensive, described by Roger Stanton of the Escape Lines Memorial Society: 


There were many independent British units operating in the country. Apart from the Partisans and Italian Resistance, irregular units included: Popski’s Private Army, the Long Range Desert Group, Commandos, Phantom Squadrons, Raiding Forces, SAS, SBS, SIG (Special Interrogation Group, which was a German Jewish group often operating in German uniforms), Parachute Brigade, SOE, OSS, 1 Special Force, IS9, ‘A’ Force. [. . .] Never before or after had Italy had so many irregular units operated in one campaign.  

Attempts were made to drop supplies and to send boats to pick up men from beaches. With the help of sympathetic Church officials the British Ambassador to the Vatican sheltered several hundred men in houses across Rome.  

Those former prisoners who found their way across the Allied lines or the border into Switzerland or France were interrogated partly to establish whether they were enemy spies, but also to glean information that could be useful to the advancing troops.  The men were then sent back to Britain for a period of leave. Once recalled to the colours the rule was that they would not serve again in Italy. However, almost without exception they did not forget the Italian civilians who had so selflessly helped them. 

Research resources

  1. Lists of prisoners of war

2. Escape and Evasion reports

  • Men who had either escaped from captivity or successfully evaded capture in Europe were interrogated on their return to Britain or to Allied lines, firstly to ensure that they were not enemy agents, but also to learn from their experiences. Detailed Escape and Evasion Reports were prepared, comprising a narrative of variable length which describes an individual’s experiences on the run, sometimes mentioning civilians who helped them, other Allied personnel in their party, and their experiences in enemy hands. TNA has the surviving interrogations as a subdivision of series WO 208, described here.
    Not all reports survive and in particular those for Special Forces have often been removed.
  • Although catalogued by name, the reports themselves are not yet online. Using TNA’s Online Discovery Catalogue https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk it is easy to find the person you are looking for.  
  • Escapers to Switzerland were interrogated soon after arrival and those documents are at TNA at: 
  • https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C77600 TNA also holds quite a bit of other information on escapes to Switzerland https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=escapes+AND+Switzerland&_sd=&_ed=&_hb=  
    Other sources 
  • Lists of men who crossed the Alps are on the Escape Routes to Switzerland website https://escapetoswitzerland.webador.com/ 
  • A few reports can be found on the Airborne Paradata website www.paradata.org.uk. 

    3. Camp reports
  • Delegates from the International Committee Red Cross inspected PoW Camps and reported back on conditions. They offer an interesting insight into the conditions experienced by POWs. The reports are in series WO 224 https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ser=WO+224&id=C14430&_q=Italy 
  • It may also be worth searching for Italy AND camp and apply the filter “1925-1949” WO 361 https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ser=WO+361&id=C14430&_q=Italy (which deals with missing personnel in both German and Italian camps) also has some documents that may be of interest, for instance WO 361/1783
    https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11604187 has a report on PG53 Sforzacosta.
  • These documents are not online nor indexed so a visit to TNA and a trawl through each file is necessary. 

    4. Other sources
  • It is worth Googling to see whether there is anything about the relevant camp.  On occasion personal accounts can also be found online.  For the widest access it is advisable to search for Italian sites as well using, for instance, the search words PG (number of camp and camp name) prigionieri.  That should bring up anything relevant and then it’s a matter of using Google translate in order to get the gist. 
  • Records for British service personnel are being transferred to TNA at present. The project should be complete by 2029. Details at www.gov.uk/government/collections/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records 
  • The Imperial War Museum, National Army Museum and regimental museums may have memoirs, interviews, diaries and photographs relating to individual experiences. 
  • The brilliant WW2talk forum has many threads about Italian POW camps and the experiences of escapers: https://ww2talk.com/index.php?forums/prisoners-of-war.26/ is the forum directly concerned with PoWs but other parts of this site may also be useful.  Posting your own thread almost always brings helpful replies. 
  • The website Camp 59 Survivors started off as dealing only with Camp 59 at Servigliano, but over the years has widened its remit and is a fund of personal stories https://camp59survivors.com  The site is run by Dennis Hill who is always happy to hear from researchers. 
  • The WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society is a valuable resource.  It deals with escapers from all over the European theatre including Italy ww2escapelines.co.uk 
  • The writer and historian Janet Kinrade Dethick maintains several websites devoted to the experience of escapers and the Italians who helped them. There are linked from   https://janetkinradedethick.weebly.com
  • The Pegasus Archive has a section on Italian PoW camps https://www.pegasusarchive.org/pow/frames.htm  
  • In a collaboration between the Instituto Nazionale Ferruccio Parri and the Trust a website telling the story of the Allied presence in Italy is developing https://www.alleatiinitalia.it/en/pagina-di-esempio-english/# 

    5. Further reading
  • Janet Kinrade Dethick has published several books about the escapers and those who helped them.  They are described at: https://janetkinradedethick.weebly.com/publications.html 
  • A very comprehensive bibliography on this subject – mostly first-person accounts – has been complied by Trustee Julia Mackenzie: https://www.librarything.com/catalog/JuliaMacKenzie  

Section 2 – The National Archives (TNA)


  • The UK National Archives holds many millions of historic records from Domesday Book of 1066 to Cabinet records from the 2000s. About five percent are now online, the rest are available in the reading rooms. You will need to obtain a reader’s ticket before you can see any original documents, so bring a form of identity (passport or driving licence) and proof of address (bank statement or council tax bill). If you know the documents you want to look at (and have the references) it is a good idea to order them before you visit. 
  • The first visit can be a bit overwhelming, but the staff are very helpful and extremely knowledgeable. Further guidance can be found on the Archives website:  
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us
  • There’s also an excellent bookshop, a good café, free wi-fi, and often a very interesting exhibition.   
  • The Archives are off the South Circular Road in Kew (it is signposted) where there is a car park. It’s about a ten minute walk from Kew Gardens Station. 

A TNA research guide specific to PoWs is at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-prisoners-second-world-war-korean-war 

The numbering on each document reflects where it is stored, for example those starting WO are subdivided thus: 

Step 1 – do the online search:


You will have one of 3 results here:

  1. Digitised documents:. Very occasionally you will find the full documentation digitised online and downloadable for a small fee (or free if you register with TNA). As an example here is a recommendation for an award for Job Masego for his actions after capture in North Africa: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7369613.   
    You just need to “add to basket” using the standard online purchasing method and it will be delivered to you automatically as a pdf. 
  2. Indexed series: The series you are interested in has been indexed online, so you can find the exact reference to the document you are looking for, but it has not been digitised.  The Escape and Evasion reports and the nominations for gallantry awards are well indexed in the online catalogue: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk 
    A full explanation of the contents of these documents is at: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14414#:~:text=Many%20escape%2C%20evasion%20and%20liberation,help%20given%2C%20and%20relevant%20dates 
  3. The catalogue is very good, but if you are not familiar with search engines it can be confusing. The short cut is to use this phrase Unger AND WO 208 (Unger standing for the surname you are researching). This will come up with all individuals with that name in series WO 208, where all the records relating to escape and evasion reports (and much more besides) are to be found.  There are, for example, four entries for Unger, three relating to German PoWs, and one for Gunner Hans Ernest Unger of the South African Artillery. Click on his name and you will be taken to his report reference – in this case WO 208/3319/1890. You will need this reference when ordering the document. 
    Having found the relevant document(s) in the Index, if you want to acquire it you will either need to pay a researcher to copy and send it or visit the Archives yourself.   
  4. Non-indexed series: The series headline is available online, but does not drill down any further and a visit to TNA will be necessary to go through all the files that might contain the document you require.  The Camp Reports at: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ser=WO+224&id=C14430&_q=Italy fall into this category. 

    Step 2 – acquire the relevant document:

    (1) TNA copying
    Going back to our example of Gunner Unger, click the button marked Request a Copy.  That will start the process of TNA copying, where a researcher will find the file and give you a quote.  There is a fee to pay for the researcher’s time in checking for the document before getting the actual quote itself. 

    (2) Booking a visit
    The other button on Unger’s page says Book a Visit – click through to make an appointment to view the documents you have identified.  Be aware that most records will be in a file containing multiple documents and you will need to look through the whole file to find the one you want.  For instance, Unger’s report is identified by the last part of his reference – 1890 – and you will need to look out for that number as you go through the file. Copying a document is straightforward, you can take photos with your phone or TNA supplies proper camera stands if you want something more professional. 

    (3) Finding your own researcher
    There are people who spend almost all their waking lives at TNA, doing their own research as well as working for others.  There are also professional researchers, and TNA has a list at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/paying-for-research/independent-researchers/  
    Another route to independent researchers is through the WW2 Talk site mentioned above.  You may need to post a thread asking about researchers, but here are two who seem (2024) to be active https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/anyone-require-war-diaries-or-other-files-from-the-national-archives.28717/  
    And https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/anyone-require-war-diaries-or-other-files-from-the-national-archives.28717/page-60 (scroll down to Gary Tankard) You will find them enthusiastic and a lot cheaper. 

Section 3 – Researching Italian helpers


  1. Searches in the UK
    Names of individual Italians who helped Allied prisoners of war may appear in the interrogations of returned men, which are in series WO 208 at TNA. Names, addresses and other details are usually given in a separate appendix which may have been separated from the file due to its sensitivity at the time. 
    After the War the British gave medals or commendations to the ordinary men and women across Europe who had assisted the Allied war effort in some way. However, for political reasons no awards to Italians were actually made. Details on individuals who were nominated for British honours and awards are in series WO 208, together with the reasons for their nomination. They are fully indexed on TNA’s online Discovery catalogue at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ser=WO+208&id=C14414&_q=Helpers+AND+%22nationality%3A+Italian%22 
    There are only 289 records of Italians nominated, which you can spool through online.  Alternatively, if you know the name of the Italian you are researching you can narrow it down to Name AND WO208 as for Unger above.  Biographies of those who were nominated for a King’s Medal can be found in Brian Gordon Letts: Italy’s Outstanding Courage: the story of a secret civilian army in World War II (Author, 2018). 

    Lists of helpers who received certificates of thanks from Field Marshal Harold Alexander are in WO 208/5479: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11199923  They are not online.  

    See below re the Allied Screening Commission (ASC).   TNA has several key records relating to the work of the ASC – notably the final report at WO 208/3397. Also of interest are WO 204/6675 about the establishment of the ASC and FO 371/67771 which has much about the work of the Commission in 1946 and 1947. The documents are not online.  
  2. Searches in the USA
    Immediately after WW2, the British set up the Allied Screening Commission (ASC), whose job it was to investigate and reward the courageous acts of the Italian contadini (as well as some other nationalities).  The call went out for any Italian eligible to make a claim, and a file was opened for each claimant. Teams of staff from the Commission visited villages and towns across Italy to investigate cases and to encourage applications. Some 75,000 claims were submitted to the Commission, the vast majority of which were approved. The process took some two years and created about 1.5 million documents. They ranged from official reports and administrative correspondence through to very personal accounts from both the PoWs themselves and their Italian saviours.  It was formally wound up in March 1947, although in practice it continued operating under the Americans as the Prisoner of War Screening Commission (PWSC) for a few months. 

    Of the 75,000 claimants, most received a letter of thanks signed by Field Marshall Harold Alexander, Commander of British forces in Italy (“the Alexander Certificate”).  Money awards were also made depending on the type and amount of assistance provided, though the amounts were considered pitiful by the escapers who had been sheltered, particularly given the rapid decrease in the value of the Lira as Italy struggled to recover from the War. 

    The British were planning to destroy all these documents, but by good luck the Americans decided to preserve them (possibly with an eye to the developing Cold War) and in due course they were all shipped off to Washington (NARA), where they have remained, hardly touched, for the last 80-odd years.  They were assumed lost until the 1980s when the British academic Roger Absalom discovered their whereabouts. 

    Originally considered of no historical importance, these files are a treasure trove of letters, photographs and other documents which add up to very personal stories.  Each claimant has their own file, with a summary sheet giving details of the helper(s) personal information, the names of the Allied servicemen accompanied in some cases by their service numbers, the nature of the support provided (food, shelter, clothing, medical attention, etc.) and the relevant timespan. Sometimes the statement is signed by more than one person, usually all members of the same household; there are cases in which the same individual lodged multiple claims.  There are also heart-rending stories of retribution carried out on those Italians discovered to be involved. 

    2(a) The records
    Case files of individual applicants seeking redress from the Allied Screening Commission are with the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington DC, in record series 331.23.1 
    2(b) Using the USA archives
    Thanks to a grant from the Trust the case files are slowly being digitised. Details at https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/644?q=Allied%20Screening%20Commission You can do a search for a particular case in the main search engine by typing in “Allied Screening Commission” AND “name of Individual”.  As an example, ‘“Allied Screening Commission” AND “Dalla Riva”’ brings up the file of Angelo Dalla Riva, killed by the Fascists along with Lt Lyon Williams whom his family had been sheltering. 
    Currently the best online resource from NARA is the Index to Helpers https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75857261  

    This is an index of each helper’s file, allowing you to search for any Italian names of which you are aware.   The files are in batches (152 file units in total) alphabetically, so you will be offered up the first name in an alphabetical series.  So if you search for “de Benedetti”, you will be directed to a file series “Bazzo Giuseppe THRU Berenice Maria (2 of 2)” (amongst others).  Some tips: 
  • Somewhere in the 992 index cards in that particular file unit is a card for de Benedetti.   
  • Both sides of each card have been digitised so every other one is blank, meaning there are about 500 cards to search through.   
  • An educated guess as to what number card you are looking for (given they are in alphabetical order) can speed up the process. Type in a number in the numbers field at the bottom and press Enter on your keyboard (do not click on “Next” on screen which will merely take you to the next entry). 
  • In this case de Benedetti is number 101.  On that card one can see a cross-reference to a claim by Giuseppe Borghi.  If you had searched for “Borghi” you would have been offered up the same file unit.   
  • Both individuals have claim numbers allocated (de Benedetti is Number 47951), and from this point you can write to NARA asking for a copy of the file with that claim number.  
  • The email to use is archives2reference@nara.gov Give the claim number (and a copy of the card if you can download it) stating that it is to be found in 331.23 Records of the Allied Screening Commission (Italy) and its Successor, The Prisoner-Of-War Claims Commission [AFHQ].   
  • A researcher will reply with a costing for copying and sending the file to you. 

    NB – you may see more than one file unit offered up, sometimes not making any alphabetical sense.  This is because every iteration of a name has been recorded during the scanning process, so that just as “Borghi” appears on the “De Benedetti” card, “De Benedetti” may appear as a cross-reference on other cards. 

    NNB – at the moment the only search criteria is the Italian name.  Thus if you only have the name of an escaper or evader this resource will not help.  As the digitisation process continues and full files come online, it is planned for a “Citizen Archivist” project to get under way which will tag relevant information to each file, making it possible to search for prisoners’ names directly.  Should you be interested in contributing to this project please contact acopley@msmtrust.org.uk 

    NNB(2) - We’ve discovered that the simple search is not always comprehensive.  So don’t give up – it is still worth calling up the file series in which the name is likely to be alphabetically stored (in the de Benedetti case: “Bazzo Giuseppe THRU Berenice Maria”) and manually searching as described above. 

    3. Other sources
    A selection of claims submitted to the Allied Screening Commission from residents of the Tuscan city of Pistoia can be found on The International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive  https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/1233 Janet Kinrade Dethick’s book As if he were my brother: Italians and escapers in Piedmont 1943-1945 includes many accounts of claims to the ASC from Northern Italy