A project to give voice to places
The exhibition is an act of collective memory, empowering people and places, not serving as an empty frame for objects. The images were carefully chosen to elicite a conversation between image, space, and memory. «Lampi nella Notte» reminds us that keeping memories alive is an active process, an action that restores meaning to forgotten locations, voices to those who have remained silent, and light to what has remained too long in the shadows.
The 45th Infantry Division: From Oklahoma to the Salerno Landings
The 45th Infantry Division was a National Guard unit orginally formed from the state militias of Arizona, Colo-rado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. First seeing combat in World War II in Operation Husky and the landing in Sicily, the Division was attached to the Fifth Army for Operation Avalanche, the amphibious landing in Salerno. The unpublished documents housed in the Oklahoma National Guard archives in Oklahoma City bring long-overdue attention to the pivotal role played by the 45th Division, and its unique Native American composition, during Operation Avalanche. Published and seen here for the first time, this information opens new areas of historical research and changes the history, both academic and popular, of the Italian Campaign in World War II
October 1943: The Thunderbirds in Sannio
After liberating Benevento, the Thunderbirds entered the Telese Valley along the ancient Roman road Via Latina, which connected Roman Telesia to Vena-fro and Benevento. The advance of the Thunderbirds was hampered by German sappers, who destroyed critical bridges as they retreated. The most important and hard-fought battle of the campaign was the Battle of Titerno, which lasted from 12 to 15 October. The 45th Infantry Division set up its Headquarters in the Telese bath complex, where the Division recovered and regrouped after 40 days of continuous combat from the landing in Paestum on 10 September until 21 October.
Traces of Memory: October 1943 in the Telesina Valley
The Telese Valley has witnessed centuries of warfare and important historical events, most recently the fighting in October 1943 during World War II. As the Allies advanced into the valley to liberate Italy from fascism, civilians suffered a wave of brutal and unprovoked Nazi mas-sacres. Knowledge and memory are important tools to understand history, honor the innocent victims, and pay tribute to the young soldiers who fought and died under the banner of freedom for universal peace and human rights.
Military War Burials: The American Cemetery of "Telese"
From the autumn of 1943 to the summer of 1948 more than 7,000 American soldiers were buried in temporary cemeteries in northern Campania. Buried alongside Americans were also several hundred British and German soldiers, all casualties of the brutal fighting along the "Viktor" and "Gustav" Lines from the Fall of 1943 to the Spring of 1944.