News: The SS Arandora Star and the Italian community in Scotland

Instructions under Defence Regulation 18B (1939) 1940 (NAS ref. HH57/320)

SS Arandora Star undergoing trials (Glasgow City Archives ref. UCS2/132/637/1)

When the 'Arandora Star' was torpedoed off Ireland by a German U-boat on 2 July 1940, among those who died were 446 Italian internees. Ninety-four came from Scotland.

The exhibition uses previously unseen Scottish Office and other official records to tell the story of some of the Scots Italians caught up in the tragic events of 1940.

A Saughton Prison register lists some of the Scots-born Italians who were interned and initially held in Edinburgh. Among them was Eduardo Paolozzi (1924-2005), who was later released because he was too young. He lost his father and grandfather on the 'Arandora Star', but he went on to become an artist, and achieved international fame as a sculptor and printmaker.

Italian internees: Saughton Prison Register, Edinburgh, 1940 (NAS ref. HH21/71/5)

Letter from Home Office concerning the case of Antonio Mancini, 1940 (NAS ref. AD57/23)

Alberto Pompa, whose café on Leith Walk was wrecked, raised a court case. It failed because of a legal technicality, but fortunately the Scottish judges upheld his appeal in an important judgement.

The original documents are part of the exhibition 'An Open Secret', which has been specially extended to commemorate the loss of the 'Arandora Star'. The show charts changes in government attitudes to giving access to official records.

The exhibition is open 2 July until 4 August 2010, Monday to Friday, 09.00– 16.30, at West Register House, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. Admission is free.