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University of Nevada
Oral History Program
Mail Stop 324
Reno, NV 89557-0099

775/784-6932
Fax: 775/784-1365
E-mail: ohp@unr.nevada.edu

Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Room 109 of the Mack Social Science Building on the University of Nevada, Reno campus

 

Italian- and German-American Experience
And the ex-POW camp in Herlong

During World War II, German Americans and Italian Americans were in a difficult position, as they were associated (either directly or through their heritage) with two of the nations at war with the United States. For the most part, there were few restrictions on German Americans, perhaps because they had been a presence in northern Nevada for so long. Any limitations on the activities of Italian Americans seem to have been sporadic and inconsistent. Some chroniclers recall no regulations, while others remember the internment of non-citizen family members or having firearms or shortwave radios confiscated from their homes. Neither group experienced the widespread uprooting and relocations that Japanese Americans were subjected to.
     One aspect specific to the Italian American experience was the community's relationship with former Italian prisoners of war at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, California, about sixty miles north of Reno. These Italians were captured in the North African campaign and also after the landings at Anzio in Italy. After Italy signed the armistice on September 8th, 1943, however, many Italian prisoners of war took loyalty oaths supporting the Allies in the war. This was the case with the former POWs at Herlong, who were working for the U.S. Quartermasters Corps. It was common for Italian-American families from the Reno area to make Sunday trips up to the army depot, where they would often bring specialty foods and socialize with the Italian men working there.


  Fred Settlemeyer (1892-1989) was a rancher of German descent living in the Carson Valley during World War II.  
  Grace Dangberg Grace Dangberg (1896-1985) was an anthropologist raised in a German-American family in the Carson Valley.  
  Delia Rossi Delia Rossi (1917-) was a young Italian-American woman who visited the former Italian POWs at the Sierra Army Depot camp.  
  Elmer Vacchina Elmer Vacchina (1920-) was from an Italian-American family and served in the army during World War II.   
  Italo Gavazzi Italo Gavazzi (1922-) was a student at the University of Nevada at the time of the war and grew up in an Italian-American family living on the Comstock.   
  Teresa Manfredi (1923-) worked at the First National Bank in Reno during the 1940s and was the daughter of Italian immigrants.   
  Nello Gonfiantini, Jr. Nello Gonfiantini (1926-), also an Italian American, served in the Army Air Corps at the end of World War II.   
  Lena Porta Green Lena Porta Green (1924-) was part of an Italian-American family that visited the former Italian POWs at the Sierra Army Depot.   
  Piero Zorio Piero Zorio (1933-) was an Italian-American teenager in Winnemucca during the war.   
  Harold "Treat" Cafferata Harold "Treat" Cafferata (1937-) was a young boy in Reno in the early 1940s with both German- and Italian-American grandparents on his father's side.   
  Mary Forson Mary Forson (1921-) worked as a clerk at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, CA, from 1942-1945.   
  Robert Capurro Robert Capurro (1941-) was born in Reno into an Italian-American family and was a young boy during World War II.   
  Judy Matley Edwards Judy Matley Edwards (1943-) is a native of Reno and was born into a Swiss-Italian family.