August 6, 2026
FreeReading and discussion of the book "The Suitcase of Memory: Ezio Armando Salvadori - Memories of an Italian Military Internee" edited by Giovani Peretti and published by Alpina Editrice.
Ezio Armando Salvadori was just over twenty when he was captured by the Germans and deported to a internment camp in East Prussia and then to Germany for two long years. He was one of the 650000 Italian Military Internees forced into hard labor amid hunger, exhaustion, and humiliation. Salvadori’s memories, written years later with incredible clarity, offer a direct look at the reality of the IMI, men who, at great cost, chose not to collaborate with Nazi-fascism.
A wooden suitcase becomes a symbol: not only a container for the little food he had, but a refuge for memories and dignity. Everything Ezio Armando Salvadori had during the two years of imprisonment in the internment camp in Germany from 1943 to 1945.
Ezio Armando Salvadori was just over twenty when his life changed forever.
With his fellow soldiers from the 5th Alpini Regiment, he was in South Tyrol on 8 September 1943, when Italy signed the armistice. In the chaos of those days, he was captured by the Germans and, like another 650,000 Italian soldiers, deported to the internment camps. Stripped of prisoner-of-war status because they refused to collaborate with Nazi-fascism, the Italian Military Internees were forced into hard labor and to survive amid hunger, exhaustion, and humiliation.
Salvadori spent two years first in East Prussia, then in Germany in a large railway workshop.
In his diary, written years later with incredible clarity, fear and loneliness resurface, but also friendship and small acts of humanity that helped him and his companions endure.
In the foreword, Giovanni Peretti places the diary in its historical context, explaining the story of the IMI, men who chose not to collaborate with Nazi-fascism at a high cost. A page of history that deserves to be remembered.
