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A CAMP WITHOUT WALLS

As an international resistance fighter during World War II, Salvatore Lombardo risked his life to stop oppression so that others could live. This book tells the story of a man who was raised in Southern Italy, went to work in Turin, joined the Italian army, served in Africa, and fought with the Greek partisans. He was then captured by the Nazis and was imprisoned in a slave labor camp. He survived because of his will to live and because of the love of a Greek woman who bore him a daughter he would not meet for forty years. Through this great love story, the author includes various memories of her father's life, secrets he held within himself. One example, is the Friday ritual when hungry German shepherd dogs were put in an enclosure with Italian Catholic prisoners of war. The starving prisoners had to fight the dogs for scraps of meat, while the Nazis were entertained.

My father and 254 other inmates were told by the Nazis day after day that they were marked targets. Either they would die from the conditions of the camp or they would be blown up. The Nazis reminded them every morning, "You will die, whether we win or lose the war, you will die."

This book speaks of a man who did not physically die but whose soul was killed. A man who was removed from the camp, but the camp walls were never removed from his psychological being as he has relived the enslavement for the rest of his life through tormenting nightmares during which he begged God for mercy and relief from pain.

Hitler's devastating influence did not end when the war was over. It has resonated through subsequent generations. As a result, the fear of the night and of death has lingered in my throat and through my own actions, and I even inflicted these fears upon my own children. They, in turn, have found nights ominous and full of unknown fears of impending death.

REVIEWS OF THE BOOK

Dr. Maria Lombardo's clear and concise account about Salvatore Lombardo, her father's and the rest of her family's struggle to survive during WWII, is a remarkable story of a former Italian soldier. It retells his imprisonment by the Nazis, together with 254 other Italians, in a labor camp in Yugoslavia in subhuman conditions. Her book is intimate and enormously interesting, essential reading for scholars, teachers and students who want to learn about international resistance and the German treatment of POWs and ordinary civilians during the war years.


The book includes illustrations, chronology of events spanning from 1918 up to 1947, the history of Italian immigration to America, and the Italian language for the last two hundred years. It presents us with a creative blend of social history and family connections, past and present. " A Camp Without Walls" is written with clarity, vigor, thoroughness. It is an example of a daughter's love for her father. Maria deserves our gratitude for writing this book, which is a great contribution to the literature and history of WWII.

Herman Taube
Accredited Correspondent
The White House Press Corps

Reviews and Other Writings Concerning the Book

Il libro parla di un uomo che non morí fisicamente, ma la cui anima fu uccisa allora. Un uomo che fu tolto dal campo, ma non dai suoi muri che rinchiusero per sempre il suo essere psicologico. Un uomo che rivisse la schiavitú per il resto della vita attraverso tormentosi incubi.

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