30
D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 6
formed by detained violinists. According to the Missoulian, pia-
nist Vittorio Beccaria led a white-sport-coat-decked jazz band.
He then conducted a 30-piece military band that played Wag-
ner. Sleight-of-hand tricks by detained juggler Giorgio Rocarro
followed. Proceeds went to Missoula's purchase of an iron lung.
Haney likens ships like Il Conte Biancamano to the Titanic. They
had the same caliber of musicians and entertainment aboard, he
says.
However, Haney cautions against viewing Bella Vista as a sum-
mer camp. He emphasizes balancing pleasantness with enormi-
ty. It could have felt purgatorial. Depressing. Infuriating. They
had committed no crime, yet could not know when they would
see their families again.
Model ships covered horizontal surfaces. With scarcely a wom-
an in sight, they were held against their will. They were home-
sick—bored. But many endeavored to make the most of the long
detention.
"I think he was incredibly brave," says Alfredo Cipolato's daugh-
ter Eletra Vandeberg about her father.
Living conditions could be cramped with dozens of bunks lined
in small barracks: breeding grounds for illness. Stepping into
one today, robust insulation is no striking feature. Sometimes
you'd build a painstaking model from twenty thousand tooth-
picks just to pass the time.
December 7, 1941, marked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
which sent shockwaves through the U.S. A few days after, the
