While the tragedy of World War II played itself out in the cities and across the countrysides of Europe, a different drama took place in the Texas Panhandle, where three thousand Italian prisoners of war were interned in a camp at Hereford. In the last year of the war, the prisoners suffered a siege of hunger dictated by government-ordered cutbacks in rations. Only a handful of prisoners found a way to supplement their meager meals. Franco Di Bello, an Italian officer who spoke English, and a small band of fellow artists agreed to decorate St. Mary s Church in the nearby town of Umbarger. There, amid the small farms and the hard-working German immigrants who had settled the area, the Italian POWs painted murals and carved figures reminiscent of the Renaissance. The good people of St. Mary s provided the artistic Italians with a hearty meal each noon feeding their thin bodies with an abundance of home-cooking and nourishing their souls with simple respect and friendship. This compassionate story of courage and kindliness is as enduring as the art work that still graces the walls of a modest Catholic church in a Panhandle town."