The US National Archives hold a series of photographs about the Marshall Plan, the American aid programme for rebuilding Europe after the Second World War (European Recovery Program). Two of these pictures, taken between about 1948 and 1955, are about Lampedusa.
Back from Tunisia
The original caption says the fishermen are returning to Lampedusa after two days’ fishing off the Tunisian coast. Yet there are no boats in the picture: on a wide open ground hundreds of flat pieces are laid out in the sun, most likely fish left to dry, while a few men work between the rows next to large bales under tarpaulins. Do you recognise the place or the work? Let us know.
A flotilla built with aid
The second photograph shows the launch, at a Trieste shipyard, of one of the ships of the «Lampedusa flotilla», built with European Recovery Program aid.
A story still to be written
Who were those men? What were the boats called? If your family keeps photographs, documents or memories of Lampedusa in those years, write to us at info@lampedusa.pro. We are gathering material for the island’s historical archive, to be told in six languages.
Sources. U.S. National Archives, Photographs of Marshall Plan Activities in Europe and Africa, series NAID 541631, photographs 541725 and 541726.
