Who Was Francesco
Fantin
Francesco Fantin was an Italian internee at Loveday with strong
anti-Fascist views. He was brought to Loveday on 28th February 1942
with 115 other Italians from the Gaythorne Internment Camp in
Queensland.
Concerns were raised about the fact that
in Australian internment camps internees were grouped together by
nationality with no regard for their political or religious
beliefs, leading to Nazis and fascists and anti-Nazis and
anti-fascists being imprisoned together. Friction between those
with opposing political views was often evident and some suggested
that their incarceration together contravened the Geneva
Convention.
At Loveday an Italian anarchist and
anti-fascist, Francesco Fantin, was killed by Bruno Casotti, a fascist, on 16 November 1942. The
fascists, however, claimed that Fantin and Casotti had argued,
Casotti had pushed Fantin and he had fallen and hit his head on a
tap. It is well documented that the anti-fascists were in a
minority in the camps and were abused and threatened by the
fascists for being traitors to Italy.
Fantin was one of the leaders of the
anti-fascists and thus was particularly singled out for abuse.
Fantin had complained several times to the camp authorities and
asked to be moved, but his concerns were generally ignored. Casotti
was tried for manslaughter. Evidence later came to light that meant
he could have been charged with murder, but the Australian
authorities wanted the affair dealt with quickly lest it attract
public attention to the tensions within the internment camps
resulting from the policy of incarcerating fascists and
anti-fascists together. Casotti was found guilty and sentenced to
two years hard labour at Yatala Labour Prison.
Despite the attempts made to stop Fantin’s
death becoming a scandal, or perhaps because of them, the incident
did come to the attention of the public and there was a general
outcry about the leniency of the sentence handed to Casotti and the
government’s internment policies. Eventually this led to the
release of anti-fascists from the Australian internment
camps.
The end result of this case was a gradual
change in internment policy in Australia. Notably, if anti-Fascists
could satisfy the authorities that they posed no threat, they were
released from internment.
The Berri and Barmera Visitor Information
Centres have a brochure which I recommend you collect which
provides a brief history on the Loveday Internment Camps. You will
need to ask for it as it is photocopied on demand.
For a more comprehensive history of the
Loveday Internment Camps you can follow this link to the State Library of South Australia for
digitalised images of an original 1946 publication.
For a more comprehensive analysis on who
Francesco Fantin was you can follow this link.
Source: State
Records of South Australia
The Cache
The cache container has room for the log
book, pen and small war themed swaps. When it was
placed it contained five toy soldiers.