POW #: P280
ARRESTED: June 10, 1940
RELEASED: July 16, 1940
NATURALIZED:
BORN: February 28, 1883
DIED: November 20, 1956

CAMP(S): Petawawa
TOWN/CITY: Hamilton
MARITAL STATUS: Unknown
OCCUPATION: Businessman – owner of grocery store

RELEASE NOTES: Release may have been affected by Dr. Vincenzo Agro (as per Custodian of Enemy Property file)

Antonio Olivieri was born in Italy on February 28, 1883.  At the outbreak of World War II, he was living in Hamilton, ON where he owned and operated a grocery store.  He was arrested and interned because he was mistaken for his brother, Donato Olivieri. An investigation into Antonio Olivieri’s case revealed that he was not a fascist and, therefore, his release was recommended on July 8, 1940.

Olivieri was a citizen (a naturalized British subject) at the time of his arrest. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had information that suggested Olivieri was an outspoken fascist, which led to his brief internment. However, the investigation revealed that: “He was an anti-fascist and that the information on which the order for his detention was made had reference to another man of the same family name who had been detained at the same time” (W. Stuart Edwards, Deputy Minister of Justice, Ottawa, to William Morrison, Mayor/Chairman, Board of Control, Hamilton, Aug. 14, 1940).

While Antonio Olivieri was freed after these findings, his brother was not released until February 6, 1943.

Biography by Krystle Copeland

SOURCES:

• Hamilton Board of Control. W. Stuart Edwards, Deputy Minister of Justice, Ottawa, to William Morrison, Mayor/Chairman, Board of Control, 19th Report of the Board of Control, Hamilton, Aug. 14, 1940, 351-352.
• Interview with Antoinette Olivieri. May 17, 2011. Columbus Centre Collection.
• Library and Archives Canada, RCMP: RG 18, F-3, Vol. 3563, Part 1.
• Nicaso, Antonio. Rocco Perri: The Story of Canada’s Most Notorious Bootlegger. Mississauga: John Wiley and Sons Canada, 2004.

POW #: P287
ARRESTED: June 18, 1940
RELEASED: February 06, 1943
NATURALIZED:
BORN: December 19, 1893
DIED:

CAMP(S): Petawawa, Fredericton
TOWN/CITY: Montreal, Hamilton
MARITAL STATUS: Married
OCCUPATION: Hotel Owner

RELEASE NOTES: Ordered released on February 1, 1943. Conditional release (Defence of Canada Regulations) and had to report monthly to the RCMP

Donato Olivieri was a married man with three children at the time of his arrest and internment. His brother, Antonio Olivieri, was arrested and interned for a short period. Donato Olivieri’s wife, Francesca Olivieri, was arrested briefly. Her daughter-in-law recalled the event:

…one day we got a phone call that they picked up my mother-in-law and another woman and they were brought to a jail in Hamilton. And by that time everybody started to panic because they said, “Now what? Now what are we going to do? What are the kids going to do?” And I remember my two sisters-in-law and my husband saying, “Oh my God. Now we got no mother, no father.” … It was panic but thank God it was only for a day. I don’t think they were there overnight or as far as I remember.

Olivieri owned a hotel on Sherman Ave. in Hamilton. Many Italian immigrant men lived at the hotel while working to bring their wives and children over to Canada. The hotel was profitable prior to the war. During Olivieri’s internment, his wife was forced to take over the business. However, soldiers from the barracks on the same street caused trouble at the hotel and, without Olivieri’s support, Francesca Olivieri was forced to sell the family business: “And what happened, my mother-in-law ― while my father-in-law was interned ― could not handle the hotel without her husband and it happened to be on the same street as the army barracks on Sherman Ave. And the soldiers would come into the hotel and cause trouble … would break chairs or do damage and she just couldn’t handle it. She had to sell the business”.

Francesca Olivieri was born in Italy and was naturalized (through marriage) in 1913. According to Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) records, she was arrested for fascist activities.

According to his family, Olivieri was one of the first Italian men in Hamilton to be interned, and he was one of the last to be released. After his arrest, he was held at the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in Toronto, then sent to Petawawa and later to Fredericton. His daughter-in-law said that he referred to his internment as time away at college: “Really, when he came home he never, never spoke [about it]. The only thing he would say [was that] he was away at college. He called it college!… And he would never, I never ever heard him and even after we were married or all the years or even with my children and grandchildren, he never once talked about it. He came home. That was it. He got on with his life”.

Olivieri was ordered released on February 1, 1943, after more than two years of internment. His release was based on specific conditions, including reporting monthly to the RCMP, and he was not allowed to change his place of residence without informing the local police. Other conditions of his release included:

That he will not journey from Montreal without first reporting details of his proposed trip to your Force at Montreal, and if so required by your Force, he will report at his destination or destinations, to such police officer or officers as may be designated by your Force; that he obey all laws and regulations, and do everything reasonably possible to assist in Canada’s war effort, and that he do or say nothing that might in any way detract from the war effort of Canada or its Allies, or that might in any way assist or encourage any enemy of Canada or its Allies; that he have nothing to do with Fascism or any Fascist or other forbidden club or organization; that he sign an undertaking to abide by all of the above conditions (Louis St. Laurent, Minister of Justice, to S.T. Wood, RCMP Commissioner, Feb. 1, 1943).

Antonio Olivieri’s RCMP file stated that Donato Olivieri was an active fascist. However, Libero Sauro explained that Donato Olivieri may have been interned due to his involvement with Camillo Vetere, in Montreal, prior to World War II. Vetere was the editor-in-chief of L’Italia, a fascist Italian-language newspaper. Sauro explained in his letters to Mr. Peat, of the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Hamilton, that Olivieri may have helped Vetere by funding his book Oltremare: “[Vetere’s] personal disposition and attitude moved people to a sort of compassion for him, especially when they happened to know that he had a large family, so that, whether they wished to subscribe to his newspaper or to his ‘Oltremare’ or not, they would subscribe to help him out financially” (Libero Sauro to Mr. Peat, Feb. 16, 1942).

Sauro further explained that Rome had appointed Vetere to establish and oversee the fasci in Canada. Sauro indicated that the wording of the Oltremare forms could lead one to believe that the signee was a fascist. The book was never published. 

Sauro described Olivieri as a “very good hearted man, lending his help to whoever asked him. I have known him through our relations in the Order of [sic] Sons of Italy of Ontario Mutual Benefit Society, and can testify that whenever an appeal to help some distressed member reached him he was always ready to give his contribution and do his best to help” (Libero Sauro to Mr. Peat, Feb. 16, 1942). In the fall of 1939, for instance, in response to the Order Sons of Italy’s appeal to collect funds  for the Canadian Red Cross Society, Sauro said that Olivieri “showed great patriotic and humanistic zeal” in collecting a large sum of money from club members and friends.

After Olivieri’s release, he and his wife purchased another hotel – the Cecil House on James North in Hamilton – and they continued working in the hospitality industry.

Biography by Krystle Copeland

Do you know…
Where was the Hamilton prison located?

SOURCES:

• Interview with Antoinette Olivieri. May 17, 2011. Columbus Centre Collection.
• Libero Sauro to Mr. Peat, Canadian Bank of Commerce, Hamilton, Feb. 16, 1942. Courtesy of the family of Libero & Clementina Sauro. Columbus Centre Collection.
• Library and Archives Canada: Louis St. Laurent, Minister of Justice, to S.T. Wood, RCMP Commissioner, Feb. 1, 1943.
• Library and Archives Canada, RCMP: RG 18, F-3, Vol. 3563, Part 1 and 5.
• Library and Archives Canada, RCMP: RG 18, Vol. 3569, File E.

POW #: P227
ARRESTED: June 10, 1940
RELEASED: February 12, 1943
NATURALIZED: Yes
BORN: July 17, 1889
DIED:

CAMP(S): Petawawa, Fredericton
TOWN/CITY: Toronto
MARITAL STATUS: Married
OCCUPATION: Tailor

RELEASE NOTES: Conditional release (see below)

Eliseo Orlando was married to Maria. The couple had three children – Lidia, Italo and Roy – and lived at 106 Balsam Ave. in Toronto. Orlando’s sons were also interned during World War II – Italo Orlando and Roy Orlando. His son Roy, who was only 16 in 1940, was probably the youngest Italian Canadian interned. Lidia (b. 1914) was a trained nurse who lived independently of her parents.

Orlando owned properties on Queen St. West and Danforth Ave. The Custodian of Enemy Property (CEP) managed the properties while Orlando was interned. It would appear that the CEP rented the properties, without consulting Orlando, and charged him for doing so.

Orlando’s release conditions were as follows: he had to report to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) once a month, could not change his place of residence or leave Toronto without the consent of RCMP, and was forbidden to be involved in fascist activities or organizations.   

Biography by Travis Tomchuk
 
SOURCE:

• Library and Archives Canada, Custodian of Enemy Property: RG 117, Vol. 623, Internee File 395, “Eliseo Orlando.”

POW #: P278
ARRESTED: June 10, 1940
RELEASED: November 15, 1940
NATURALIZED: Canadian born
BORN: August 04, 1921
DIED:

CAMP(S): Petawawa
TOWN/CITY: Toronto
MARITAL STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: Engineering Student, University of Toronto

RELEASE NOTES: Conditional release upon undertaking Regulation 24 (Defence of Canada Regulations)

Italo Orlando lived with his parents at 106 Balsam Ave. in Toronto. He was an engineering student at the University of Toronto. He was arrested and interned on June 10, 1940 – the same day as his father, Eliseo Orlando. Three months later, Orlando’s 16-year-old brother – Roy Orlando – was also interned at the Petawawa Internment Camp.

Biography by Travis Tomchuk

SOURCES:

• Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Armed Forces, RG 24, Vol. 6586, File 5-1-1.
• Library and Archives Canada, Custodian of Enemy Property: RG 117, Vol. 684, Internee File 6373, “Italo Orlando.”

POW #: P296
ARRESTED: September 18, 1940
RELEASED: October 29, 1940
NATURALIZED: Canadian born
BORN: 1924
DIED: October 21, 2000

CAMP(S): Petawawa
TOWN/CITY: Toronto
MARITAL STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: High School Student

RELEASE NOTES: Conditional release upon undertaking Regulation 24 (Defence of Canada Regulations)

Sixteen-year-old Roy Orlando was probably the youngest Italian Canadian to be interned during World War II. His father, Eliseo Orlando, and his older brother, Italo Orlando, were also interned. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raided the family home, located at 106 Balsam Ave. in Toronto, they seized fascist clothing (ties, shirts, and a mantle), a film, and a Sam Brown Belt. After his arrest, Orlando admitted to being a fascist.Biography by Travis Tomchuk

SOURCES:

• Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Armed Forces: RG 24, Vol. 6586, File 5-1-1.
• Library and Archives Canada, Custodian of Enemy Property: RG 117, Vol. 661, Internee File 4380, “Roy Orlando.”
• Library and Archives Canada, RCMP: RG 18, Vol. 3563, File C-11-19-2-3, Part 1, Letter from RCMP to the Inter-Departmental Committee, Sep. 18, 1940.

POW #: P1053
ARRESTED: June 10, 1940
RELEASED: November 19, 1941
NATURALIZED: August 22, 1936
BORN:
DIED: June 07, 1885

CAMP(S): Kananaskis, Petawawa
TOWN/CITY: Vancouver
MARITAL STATUS: Separated
OCCUPATION: Musician, Music Teacher

RELEASE NOTES: Conditional release (see below)

Piero Orsatti arrived in Vancouver in 1929. He and his wife had separated in 1925. She lived in Italy. Orsatti roomed with a family in Apartment 4 at 768 Granville St., and he used the premises as a music studio. His Custodian of Enemy Property file indicates that he made $1500 a year but had trouble paying bills due to a “fast life.”

Orsatti’s release conditions were as follows: he had to report to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) once a month, could not change his place of residence or leave Vancouver without the consent of RCMP, and was forbidden to be involved in fascist activities or organizations.

Biography by Travis Tomchuk
 
SOURCE:

• Library and Archives Canada, Custodian of Enemy Property: RG 117, Vol. 684, Internee File 6392, “Piero Orsatti.”