There were seven sisters, so I figured there would be at least one for me.” He was right.Īfter the Allies defeated the Axis forces in North Africa in May of 1943, 51,000 Italians and 380,000 Germans were brought to the United States as POWs. I could speak Sicilian, French, and Italian, so I would translate. “My friend Larry was interested in a girl, but he didn’t speak Sicilian. “It started with a dance at the Jackson Barracks,” he said in perfect English with a soft Italian accent. Legally blind but still with a twinkle in his eye, he took the microphone and told his story. Giovanni DiStefano, a spry ninety-four-year-old, was the star attraction that day. All of them shared a common history as descendants of unique romances between Italian prisoners of war and the local Sicilian women they met in New Orleans during World War II. Some were related, but some had never met. In a meeting room at the East Jefferson Public Library, members of ten families gathered the day before Easter, 2019. Inspired by little-known historical events and set to a swing-era soundtrack, The Italian Prisoner is an engrossing story of wartime love, family secrets, and a young woman’s struggle to chart her own course at an inflection point in American history.All’s Fair in Love and War French Quarter Sicilians and Italian POWsīrides and grooms, left to right: Mary Messina Pezzana and Antonio Pezzana, Dorothy Messina DiMarzio and Ermanno DiMarzio. When Rose gets a promotion at work, she must make an agonizing choice: Follow a traditional path like Marie, or keep working after the war and live on her own terms. Italy has switched sides in the war, so the POWs are allowed out to socialize, giving Rose and Sal a chance to grow closer. There, Rose falls for Sal, a handsome and intelligent POW. When the parish priest organizes a goodwill mission to visit Italian prisoners of war at a nearby military base, Rose and her vivacious best friend, Marie, join the group. Behind her parents’ back, Rose lands a job at the shipyard, where she feels free and important for the first time in her life.
But she secretly dreams of being more like her fiercely independent widowed godmother.
Her parents expect Rose to marry a local boy and start a family. Her older brother and sister both joined the army, and Rose prays for their safety as World War II rages overseas. Rose Marino lives with her Sicilian immigrant parents and helps in the family grocery store.
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