Hereford – In the Panhandle Plains of Texas, coming across cows grazing the fields is a common occurrence in these parts. But over near Hereford you’ll find something out of the ordinary that’s been sitting in the middle of a pasture for quite some time. A chapel, surrounded by a barb wired fence that’s dedicated to a moment in time 80 years ago. “I think that there’s something important about places of memory,” said Michaela Wegman.
Michaela grew up in nearby Umbarger and is working on her PHD in history. She works at the Panhandle Plains Museum, and she has always had a fascination with the story that took place in the fields outside of Hereford. “Not a lot of people even in the town ever get the opportunity to recognize how significant it is,” said Michaela.
This small chapel is the only remnant of a massive prisoner of war camp that spread over 800 acres and housed thousands of Italian soldiers during the height of World War II. “In 1942, the U.S. military realized that they were going to have to house prisoners of war, and so they started building all of these camps across the country,” said Michaela. “There were a lot more POW camps than people realized. In 1945 at its height, there was probably about 660 camps spread throughout the United States.”
Hereford was the second largest POW camp in the United States, and most of the Italian soldiers sent here came from the North African campaign. They were also faithful to Mussolini. “What is interesting about Hereford is they were non-collaborators,” said Michaela. “So Italy went into World War II under Mussolini as fascists, and then in 1942, ’43, King Victor Emmanuel deposed Mussolini and put in Pietro Badoglio. He then worked to sign the Armistice of Cassibile, which effectively switched sides. Italy then became Allies. The prisoners of war who were already captured had a choice to sign a collaboration agreement and work with the Allies. Some men decided not to sign those and those who chose not to sign them were eventually shipped to Hereford. So Hereford had all of the non-collaborating. You could even perhaps call them dedicated fascists because there were some that were like Mussolini’s men.”
Despite the difference in ideologies, there’s one thing the Italians had in common with their caretakers: religion. “I’m actually amazed that it got built to begin with, because Fascism isn’t very conducive to religion because essentially it’s political religion rather than religious ideology,” said Michaela.
Over the years, the POWs started to fill their time with projects like the chapel and other forms of art. “What else are people going to do while they’re interned and can’t go anywhere?” said Michaela. “They create art. They create plays and poems and music, and that’s what I think is like you are living this difficult experience mentally and emotionally and they made up for it by creating beautiful things.”
Having Italian artists serving time in the Lone Star State lead to a unique opportunity for locals to see some art. “August of 1945, the POWs created an art exhibit and invited people from Hereford and Dimmitt to come in and view the art that they created,” said Michaela. “And so the priest in Umbarger, his name was Father John Krukkert. He came out and he met with Franco Di Bello, and saw all of his great artwork and was like, ‘Hey, I have this really bare, empty church that needs some decorating.’ They were really apprehensive at first and they thought, ‘No, we’re not collaborating with the U.S. people because we specifically did not sign this collaboration agreement.’”
Somehow the project for St. Mary’s Church in Umbarger was approved by the POW Camp. “They were really surprised when they actually got the authorization to go out there,” said Michaela. “And they were officially asked, and then they were like, ‘Oh, well, just so we’re clear, it can’t be seen as a collaboration with the U.S. government. We’re doing this out of Christian brotherhood.’ It also didn’t hurt that the Umbarger people were offering to feed them a meal while they were there, so that definitely was probably a contributing factor.”
The artists at the camp were a perfect match for what Father John Krukkert had always wanted to do to his church. “Before Krukkert got here, it was all plain white walls and the floor was red and he hated it,” said Michaela. “And that’s one of the reasons why he decided that the POWs should come here and paint the walls.”
Today St. Mary’s still has those works of art on the walls of the church. “Like, only nine people worked in Umbarger, but everybody found some sort of connection there in Umbarger, even though they didn’t work there,” said Michaela. “My favorite are the murals on the sides of the sanctuary. They have a little bit of Umbarger in the background. Dino Gambetti made sure to put in the homesteads of a couple of people in the background of those murals. And I think that’s probably the coolest thing in this place. Dino Gambetti painted the image of his wife as Mary, and his baby daughter is the one cherub at the bottom with the hand upheld pointing toward Mary. So he painted his family within that portrait.”
The POWs never were a problem. They enjoyed their time painting the church and even made jewelry for local ladies out of coins. Eventually the project came to an end, and so did the war. “So they spent only six weeks in Umbarger and then they told the team that, ‘Hey, you can’t go there anymore because we’re working on sending you home,’” said Michaela. “And they begged for three more days.
No doubt three days to say their goodbyes and get a few more good meals. “They were a nice group of Italian men,” said Michaela. “A lot of people really liked them, and I don’t know if it’s just because they were personable or they were Italian and foreign is sexy kind of thing. But they did make an impression.”
All these years later, those POW are still making impressions not only with their chapel in the middle in the field, but also the art that makes St. Mary’s in Umbarger a great stop on The Texas Bucket List. “I grew up hearing all about the art because I went to church in Umbarger,” said Michaela. “My grandmother was one of the people who fed the POWs. What I really like about it is how excited people get whenever they see it because you think, ‘Oh, it’s just some dinky little town in the middle of nowhere,’ and it’s actually really cool.”