Tuesday, 17 January 2017

La Grande Guerra +100 - Life in refugee camps

The January episode of the digital calendar that traces back the main events of World War I is now online

Versione stampabile

The 33rd episode is available here: www.lagrandeguerrapiu100.it

The focus of this episode is on the refugees from Trentino and Venezia-Giulia who were forced by the Austro-Hungarian military to leave their homes and all their belongings when Italy entered the war, in May-June 1915.

Francesco Frizzera pays special attention to living conditions in refugee camps, the so called “wooden cities”. In these places, especially built for the purpose, tens of thousands of displaced civilians coming from the Empire’s border regions were imprisoned.

Among them were thousands of people from Trentino and Venezia-Giulia, Italian speaking subjects of Franz Josef. The military did not trust them and they were therefore expelled when the war broke out.

The infographics and photo gallery deal with the same theme. The infographics, in particular, takes a deeper look at living conditions and lack of food in refugee camps, which worsened over time. In the first year of imprisonment, the mortality rate in the camps was very high, especially for elderly people and children.

In winter 1916/17 the lack of food became more severe, and living conditions deteriorated in every corner of the Empire.

The panel reports an event that occurred in January 1917: a coded telegram was sent to the German ambassador to Mexico by Berlin’s government, offering a military agreement in case Mexico entered the war against the United States. The telegram was decoded by British intelligence and published in the Anglo-American press, encouraging the decision of the American government, led by President Wilson, to enter the war against Germany. This would later put the Entente in a favourable position.

To navigate the digital calendar: www.lagrandeguerrapiu100.it

Follow us on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/La-Grande-Guerra-più-100-223695561154219/
Twitter: twitter.com/GGpiu100

Since May 2015 all the website contents are available in English. Special features are prepared by historians from the universities of Innsbruck, Krakow and Montpellier, to learn about the other war fronts.

The calendar month by month