REVEALING THE MALTESE TRIPOLINI, VICTIMS OF ITALIAN INTERNMENT POLICIES DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1940-1945)

In June 1940 Italy set in motion a series of provisions for the internment of enemy aliens on the mainland and its colonies. Over the next few years, the entire community of Maltese Tripolini - all British subjects by birth or ancestry who for decades had been settled in Tripoli and Benghazi - faced detention, exile, expulsion, and deportation. The Italian Governor of Libya cited the need 'to repress the espionage inherent in treacherous elements' among the 'political and military reasons' for the deportations. Despite the nature of the circumstances, historiography has ignored the whole episode. Using untapped primary sources held in Maltese, British and Italian archives, this paper delves into the deportation of whole families from the Italian colony of Libya and explains the spatial, temporal, and legal contexts. These same sources have made possible the naming of all the anglo-maltesi,1 known to have been placed in concentration camps or Tripoli to Italy, equivalent to nine-tenths of the community. Sources also reveal the names of those born in concentration camps and the circumstances of those who lost their lives during internment.