DiStasi, Lawrence, ed. Una Storia Segreta: the Secret history of Italian American Evacuation and Internment during World War II. Heyday Books, Berkeley, California, 2001.

It is little known that Italian Americans had been interned, evacuated and otherwise restricted during World War II. In California, Italian resident aliens were subjected to an 8PM to 6AM curfew, there were searches of their homes and seizure of their property, and there was an evacuation of thousands from prohibited zones along the coast.

In a collection of essays, Una Storia Segreta brings together the voices of the Italian American community and experts in the field, including personal stories by survivors and their children, letters from internment camps, news clips, photographs, and cartoons.

Una Storia Segreta is the secret story/history of Italian Americans that brings a new perspective to the history of wartime violations of civilian populations. The range of scholarly essays detail which parts of the Italian American community were targeted, where internees were sent, how the communities reacted, what some of the long term effects have been, and an analysis of government actions and motives, both stated and secret.

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