Figure 1.-- This photograph was taken after the War in 1946. It shows the Italian Police collecting street children. There were many children who had lost their families in the war. There is no infiormation on the circumstances. We are not entirely sure why the police were neeed, in this case five police officers. Perhaps the children were not aware of the institutional care being arranged for them. It is not clear if the children were fraid of the police.

Italy was not a rich country before the War. Rhe War worsened the situatin for many Italians. Drafting millions of men and taking them out of the productive ecoonomy worsened the situation. Large numbers of Italian soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner in North Africa, meaning many families not longer had a family wage earner. Allied bombing caused further problenms. But the major problems came with the Allies invasion (September 1943). This led to fighting up and down the length of Italian Peninsula. It began with the Germans interning much of what was left of the Italian Army and transporting them to labor camps in the Reich. This mean more fathers lost. The immediate fight was for for Naples nd its port with the Amercan landing at Salerno south of the city. Naples was city of enormous contrasts. It was known for its street children before the War--the scugnizzi. It was an italian term meaning 'street kids'. it's used to describe Neapolitan kids (Naples children). And it meant children, espcially boys, spent a lot of time playing on the streets rather than staying inside. It gradually becme to be a derogatory term because the children were poor and often engaged in petty crimes, in many cases to acquire food. The American invasion and German offesive to drive the Americans in the sea left Naples in ruins. A novel about this is rather exgerated for dramatic purposes. [Carcaterra] An Italian reader tells us, however, that it is absolutely true that some Neapolitan street children participated in the Four Days of Naples (September 27, 1943). The important American pictooral newsweekly, Life Magazine even reported on this. ["The battlefield ...] The fighting left one of Italy's great cities in ruins. The Germans were intent on leaving the important port of Naples useless. They also conductd roundups of ciivilians for labor camps. Leaving more children without any support. And the collaosing Italian state could offer little support. The Church assisted many children, but had limited resources. This was the beginning of a fight for nearly 2 years up the Italian Peninsula. Italian villages and towns were left in ruins and street children becme a serious national problem. There were huge numbers of children with no adult to care for them or in many cases older children whose mothers had no way of feeding them. The subject was taken up by Americans, including many Italian Americans. Images of forlorn children appeared in American newspapers. There was even a comic strip about a streek kid adopted by GIs 'Dondi'. It was not all fiction. The note American units adiptuing boys duruing the War. This was especially the case during the Italian campaign.

Sources

Carcaterra, Lorenzo. Street Boys.

"The battlefield of Naples," Life Magazine (November 8, 1943).

Created: 10:31 PM 11/28/2018
Last updated: 10:31 PM 11/28/2018