Month: August 2025

WW II Internment of Italian Americans

By Bob Small

Previously, we had discussed the hidden history of the German-American WW2 Interments,

Now we move on to the equally unknown internment of the Italian-American population. Some 1,881 Italian-Americans were taken into custody and detained during the war.

In 2010, the California Legislature passed a resolution apologizing for US mistreatment of Italian residents during the war.”

Though there were WWII restriction zones for Italians in places like San Francisco these were only on the West Coast, even though Eastern cities such as Philadelphia had large amounts of Italian-Americans.

Among the Italians affected were Giuseppe Dimaggio, who son Joe was possibly the most famous professional baseball player of his time. Even more bizarre, Ezio Pinza, possibly the most famous Opera singer of his time, was even arrested and imprisoned, albeit briefly, on Ellis Island.

Finally on Columbus Day, 1942, the US Attorney General announced the lifting of the stigma of “enemy” status.

According to this article, Fort Missoula Camp Help during World War 11” Most of the men were deemed a risk because the hearing officers couldn’t be sure they were not a risk “ One notable member of the Alien Enemy Board members was Democrat Senator Mike Mansfield, who would go on to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

There are a number of discussions of this time, including Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American …, Public Law 106-451 106th Congress An Act, and A Review of the Restrictions on Persons of Italian Ancestry …

See also

Proclamation 2527 and the Internment of Italian Americans

POW Camps in Pennsylvania – GenTracer

Alleged Cult Murder in Delco

By Bob Small

Very rarely does a Delco Murder catch the nation’s eye, but the alleged murder in Chester Heights by Michelle Zajko of her parents Rita and Richard Zajko seems to be all over Fox News and other outlets. It could be because she is a “person of interest” in the previous killing of Border Patrol Agent David Maland Jan. 20 in Coventry, Vt.

Or it could be her membership in a cult-like group known as the Zizians.

Or it could be that she’s a transexual.

She’s certainly aware of the Zizans’ status, saying of the coverage of the group “ has painted them as “Satan’s lapdogs, the devil and the Manson family all rolled into one.”

There are many articles on the Zizians most of which tirelessly remind us that Ziz Lasota, the alleged founder, is a transexual as are many o Zizians. Many of them are also vegetarians, but that’s not as frequently mentioned.

One fascinating tidbit can be found in this BBC article. In 2022 after her failure to show up at a court hearing her lawyer said she was “now deceased after a boating accident in the San Francisco Bay area”. She even received an obituary in an Alaska Newspaper. How many of us, besides her and Mark Twain, have been able to claim to have read their own obituary?

Forget the noise about the Zizians being transexual and vegetarian. According to the Desert Sun quoting the San Francisco Chronicle, many Zizians had worked previously at either Google or NASA. Poulami Saha, a professor at UC, Berkeley said “The internet culture and the absolute immersion that’s possible there means there are forms of connection that only appear only after the fact” She went on to add, “We are kind of grasping for a story that makes sense of it. … People on the outside can never fully know what’s happening on the inside.” Basically, this is not an hour documentary, more like a twelve chapter mini-series.

As we get closer to trial date, in Maryland, it gets curiouser and curiouser. Stay tuned!