Order Sons of Italy in America

Sponsored by Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.)

The Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) is voicing its support for Congressmen Rick Lazio (R-N.Y.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and their efforts to reintroduce the Wartime Violations of Italian-American Civil Liberties Act (H.R. 2442). OSIA National Executive Director Dr. Philip R. Piccigallo attended a press conference held by Congressmen Lazio and Engel to rally support, in majority leader Richard Armey's office at the Capitol on July 1.

"The Order Sons of Italy in America ...totally and unequivocally endorses this legislation ...I am very proud that we were part of the uncovering of this story," Piccigallo said. "As the principal and largest grass-roots organization representing the nation's 26 million Italian-Americans, OSIA will use all its resources to advocate on behalf of this important bill."

The bill calls on the president, on behalf of the U.S. government, to formally acknowledge the civil liberties atrocities against Italian-Americans of World War II and also calls on the Justice Department to prepare a comprehensive report on the matter. During World War II, Italian-Americans were treated as enemy aliens and, in many cases, were forced to leave their homes, subjected to curfews, forced to give up personal possessions such as radios and flashlights, and were moved into internment camps. This happened even while those whose rights had been infringed upon had sons in the armed services, physically fighting in World War II.

"The civil liberties abuses of Italian-Americans suffered during World War II are not well documented and are not well known. But they did occur and the truth about the story, 'Una Storia Segreta,' 'The Secret Story,' must be told," said Rep. Engel to open the press conference.

Present at the press conference to show their support were a number of congressmen, including Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.), Rep. Sam Farr (D-Ca.), Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas), Rep. Connie Morella (R-Md.), Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.). OSIA member Rose Scudero and "Una Storia Segreta" exhibit creator Lawrence DiStasi were also on hand to relay their experiences.

"It was a little traumatic, I would say, because I didn't know where I was going, how long I'd be gone, or if I would ever return again," Scudero said of her experience as a child being removed from her home with her mother and sisters and leaving her father and brothers behind. "I watched my mother cry herself to sleep every night. We lived in a home 19 miles away, but it might as well have been the moon. We didn't see our family except on weekends, if they could get a car to come see us."

Scudero told of giving away her belongings to her friends because she wasn't sure that she would ever be back. She recalled the images of posters of Mussolini, Hitler, and Hirohito hung up in town that read "Do Not Speak the Enemy Language." Scudero's mother did not know how to speak or write English.

Team Entertainment Producer Mark Barron announced a project for a made-for-television mini-series depicting the story of Italian-American internment.

John Calvelli, administrative assistant for Rep. Engel, head of the NIAF Public Policy Institute, and founder of FIERI, said in L'Italo Americano that the press conference put a human face on the issue.

The bill must have 100 co-sponsors in order to be brought up before Congress. At the time of the press conference there were 65 co-sponsors, and at the time of publication that number had increased to 79.