Transplanted Some Italians Rounded Up During World War Ii Became Captivated And Stayed In Area

They served dinner at the Spokane Hotel, cleaned hospitals in Missoula, led railroad unions in Helena.

Their accents said Italian, their circumstances said immigrant.

But that was only part of their stories.

In the spring of 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Axis ships in U.S. waters.

Eight months before America entered the war, 1,200 Italian merchant sailors, world’s fair employees and cruise ship crew members were officially detained.

Rounded up from ships, rooming houses and cafes, they were loaded onto trains and shipped to a virtually empty historic military fort outside Missoula.

They would spend nearly two years behind fences. Eventually, a growing manpower shortage and the liberation of Italy would send them out into neighboring communities.

They fought forest fires outside Spokane, installed railroad ties in Walla Walla, staffed restaurants and hotels in Missoula and Spokane.

They fell in love, married, and then - when the war ended - were told to go home.

For these immigrants, the streets of America did not flow with milk and honey. They were dusty and windy and so cold the men can feel that Montana chill to this day.

In today’s IN Life section, learn what happened to the Italian internees. How they came, how they survived, how a fraction managed to stay.

Please see Page E1.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo