Alessandro Sabbadini

Alessandro Sabbadini
Portrait of Sgt. Alex Sabbadini, 1944.
Personal details
Born	1916 Rome, Italy
Nativity	Italy
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	32626304
Rank	Technician Third Grade
Enlisted	New York City, New York
Team	IPW Italian 4

Teammates

Team — IPW Italian 4

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Alessandro Sabbadini (born 1916) was a Ritchie Boy (from Italy) who trained at Camp Ritchie. The record lists a final rank of Technician Third Grade.

Biography

Sabbadini was born in Rome to a Jewish family in 1916 and escaped Fascist Italy on the eve of WWII, only to join the fight with the U.S. 5th Army a few years later. He unconscious, shrapnel wound; returned to duty 11 August 1943. Alessandro graduated from Special Class (SC) No. He worked as a career as professional fine arts appraiser and auctioneer in California. He worked as manager in factory producing smoking pipes. After three years in the U.S., Sabbadini became one of the first Ritchie Boys and was one of the very few Italian-born Jews to fight with the Allies in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Sabbadini graduated from Camp Ritchie in late 1942 and served in combat, initially as an enemy alien until he received battlefield citizenship in North Africa prior to the invasion of Sicily on July 10, 1943. After Sicily and Salerno, Sabbadini’s third amphibious landing was at the Anzio beachhead (Operation SHINGLE on January 22, 1944), where he arrived on the beach just two hundred yards from the Sabbadini villa where he spent the first 23 summers of his life. There was no trace of the Sabbadini family in the beach house, and only after four more months would he know that his family in Rome had been hiding, and that all were safe. In another episode near the end of the war, Sabbadini was assigned to a special unit ordered to capture Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. They missed Il Duce by mere hours in late April 1945, but Sabbadini was able to sit at Mussolini’s undisturbed desk, examining the late Italian dictator’s military and personal documents, including those that led to Sabbadini's expulsion from Italy 7 years earlier.

On 13 June 1943, Sabbadini worked as a naturalized as an American citizen while in Algeria by INS Director Henry.

Research notes

• OCR (100%) of `1459807756183480.jpg` (gallery document) — dated 28 August 1943 — rank mentioned: Major.
• OCR mentioned officer rank Major (not auto-filled — verify).

Gallery

• 
• 
  Sabbadini poses with four-legged and four-wheeled friends, Naples, early 1944.
• 
  The Alex Sabbadini Documents Trust has donated Sabbadini’s extensive collection of WWII documents and artifacts to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• 
  The Alex Sabbadini Documents Trust has donated Sabbadini’s extensive collection of WWII documents and artifacts to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Nara ASN	32626304
Nara Name	SABBADINI ALESSANDRO
Nara State	23
Nara County	061
Nara POE	2364
Nara DOE	111142
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Race	1
Nara Race Description	White citizen
Nara Height (inches)	68
Nara Weight (lbs)	142
row_source	demographics

Timeline

• Born 26 October 1916 in Rome, Italy.
• 11 November 1942 — Joined Army in NYC as Pvt (ASN 32626304). Assigned to Camp Upton NY.
• 6 January 1943 — Promoted to SOS Cpl.
• 13 February 1943 — Promoted to T/3. Ordered away. Assignment: I-29.
• 15 February 1943 — Shipped by air to Algeria (arr. 2/28) assigned to special G-2 Advanced Document Section.
• 13 June 1943 — Naturalized as an American citizen while in Algeria by INS Director Henry.
• 10 July 1943 — Landed near Licata, Sicily with 3rd Infantry Division (Operation Husky).
• 6 July 1945 — Assigned to OSS.
• Unconscious, shrapnel wound; returned to duty 11 August 1943.
• Assigned to IPW It Team 4 (included DeBondini and OIC Lt. Ciforelli).
• Served with IPW It Team 4 attached to AFHQ of the 5th Army in North Africa, Sicily, and Italian Campaigns (Anzio, Rome,..).

Sources

• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2018-03-06 (2 posts)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2026-06-30 (1 post)
• Facebook-linked source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
• OCR-reviewed Facebook gallery document: 1459807756183480.jpg
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Alessandro Sabbadini for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Sabbadini, Alessandro for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: ALESSANDRO SABBADINI (2021).doc)