Last September, during the “Paths to Freedom” (Sentieri di Libertà) celebration to honor the 80th anniversary of the Italian Armistice and the breakout of Allied POWs from Italian camps, several attendees had the thrilling experience of meeting descendants of the Italian families who protected their father or grandfather. 

This post is about the meeting of two of escaped POW Louis VanSlooten’s children, Tom VanSlooten and Karen Miersma, and Antonello Palmoni.

Antonello’s grandmother Iginia and grandfather Luigi Palmoni hid and fed Louis and fellow PG 59 escapee Luther Shields. 

Antonello’s father, Marino Palmoni, was a 10-year-old boy when the desperate soldiers emerged from the woods near his family’s home to ask for food.

Read “Martino Palmoni on the Sheltering of the POWs” and “Louis VanSlooten’s Story.”

Tom VanSlooten was accompanied on this Italian adventure by his wife Carmen, and Karen by her husband Tom Miersma.

Tom VanSlooten emailed me soon after returning to the U.S. 

“Karen and I were on an emotional roller coaster during those days in and around Servigliano. Many tears were shed for what our dad had to go through. 

“While sitting at a little cafe in Montefalcone, we talked about how dad could never have imagined his children, 80 years later, sitting there in Italy talking about him and retracing his footsteps. It was surreal.

“Meeting Antonello was fantastic. Some of the stories that his father passed on to him were exactly what I heard from my father. The special event in Servigliano was great, but the time we spent with Antonello Palmoni was in itself worth the trip!”

Karen added, “Even though it’s only been a couple of weeks since our return, the memories and friendships will last a lifetime.

“When my brother and I went to Servigliano, we didn’t know quite what to expect, but we knew it would be emotional.”

They first visited the PG 59 site on the day before the “Paths to Freedom” event began. 

“Driving along and suddenly realizing we were seeing the wall of the camp brought tears to my eyes,” Karen told me. “Sitting in the parking lot, I couldn’t believe we were actually where our dad had spent nine long months as a prisoner of war. I was almost scared to go in, given the emotions I was feeling.

“As we walked in and made our way along the stone wall, we noticed the barbed wire at the top in places and the shards of glass sticking up from the top of the wall, something our dad had talked about. We eventually came to the hole in the wall that dad escaped through. I’m actually tearing up now as I am writing this—it was such a powerful experience.”

A equally intense experience for Tom and Karen was seeing the old Palmoni home near the comune of Montefalcone Appeninno, where their father and Luther were hidden, and meeting Antonello.

They arrived at the Palmoni house before Antonello. The property has new owners, who were absent on the day they stopped by.

“So this was the place my dad had talked about so many times!” Karen said. “Then we heard a car and knew it had to be Antonello. I felt very emotional, seeing him for the first time, coming up the hill alongside the house. Tom and I both hugged him tightly—we are so grateful for what his family had done for our dad!”

Although the language barrier made communication a challenge, Tom and Karen managed to learn about the house and surrounding area from Antonello. Antonello then took the visitors back to Montefalcone for a tour.

Sue Procko—daughter of another American PG 59 POW, John Procko—was hard at work on a documentary about the escaped prisoners during the week of the “Paths to Freedom” event. Accompanied by videographer Giordano Viozzi, she interviewed Tom, Karen, and Antonello on location in Montefalcone. 

Karen said, “There were many times during our trip to Servigliano that we felt our dad’s hand guiding us. We were meant to be there. I think he would be proud to know that two of his children were able to go back and experience the Italy of today, as well as pay tribute to one of the families that helped him in his escape.”

Read more about the Palmoni family and the old family home on “A Visit to the Palmoni Home.”

The friendship Louis forged with Luther Shields while the two were on the run continued through their long lives. Louis died in 2011, and Luther in 2015—72 years after the escape from PG 59!

Tom spent time filming from the air with a drone while in Italy.

He posted on YouTube a four-minute video of the landscape around the old Palmoni home and the hilltop comune of Montefalcone Appennino: “Montefalcone Italy 9-9-2023.” A still photograph could never capture the dramatic Marche as effectively as this drone footage.