Pasqua 1942

The Dunera Italians were residents of Loveday Camp 10, South Australia for Easter 1942.

Below is the menu for the occasion and it highlights that despite internment, the Italians' sense of humour was intact.

Vivid memories of Loveday Camp were the geography and climate: red sand and ferocious wind storms and also an incident involving Australian Captain Patchy and home brewed wine.

Luigi Beschizza remembered the terrible dust storms while they were living in tents and priority was to get the tents closed up to limit the amount of sand in their possessions and beds. According to Nicola Cua, many tents were blown away because some of the men, waiters and cooks , himself included didn't know how to peg down the tents securely.

The reference to Ditta Patch and Co. was clarified by Gino Guarnieri in his oral testimony for the Imperial War Museum. Gino remembered Filippo Guidobaldi had a work tent in which he had hidden his illicit wine. Captain Patchy ordered a 'raid' on Filippo's tent but a clever plan hatched by the younger men in the group thwarted seizure of the wine.

Antipasto di uova di canguro

Canelloni al vento con sabbia

Dolce Bell’Australia

Birra e Liquori della Ditta Patchy and Co.   

The menu is from the collection of Marco Gazzi as published in The Dunera Affair 

edited by Paul R. Bartrop with Gabrielle Eisen.