Turin area

Camps in the Piedmont area of Italy were the first stop for DPs who entered Italy from Austria. Even though generally overcrowded, the camps maintained a thriving cultural and community life. ORT ran its courses in a number of camps in the region- in the large refugee camp in Rivoli, the Avigliana Home of Youth Aliyah, Nichelino, Lucento, Grugliasco and Trani.

Due to its location near the border, the Rivoli camp  was constantly over-populated, housing at times almost 2,000 DPs. Despite that, the camp was known for having one of the best developed communities of all camps in Italy. It was for example the only DP camp in Italy to have its own newspaper.  In March 1948 ORT established in Rivoli a very successful trade school for building construction. In the field of construction the inhabitants of the camp could also attend courses for plumbing and tinsmith training. Additionally, ORT organised  training workshops for locksmith training, joinery, shirt making, corsetry, dressmaking and  vocational courses for cutting out of men’s suits. They were attended by over 300 students. In the big children’s workshop, some 100 children of camp inhabitants attended pre-vocational manual work after-school courses.

In Grugliasco in February 1948 ORT had 190 students and ran courses in dressmaking, mechanical knitting, corsetry, shirt making, upholstery, cutting out of men's garments and children’s workshops for forty students. Six months later, courses in welding, tinsmiths training as well as dental mechanics were added to the curriculum. There was also an ORT building construction school and a children’s workshop with boys working with cardboard and girls learning knitting and embroidery. 

In 1948 a school for divers opened in the seaside camp of Trani. The students received full theoretical and practical training and were examined on their progress by Italian naval officers. They were later expected to serve in the Israeli Navy.

The Avigliana Home of Youth Aliyah , located in a small town near Turin, housed a large ORT training workshop which opened in late 1946. The school ran courses in metal work and joinery, which in in February 1948, were attended by thirty students. An agriculture school in Avigliana trained in mid-1947 twenty-five pupils, members of Hahulatz movement. The school had eight hectares of land with a large garden and orchard. Students also trained in the neighbouring vineyard. Varied activities included wheat and grain cultivation and truck gardening. The students learned dairy farming, as well as cattle, poultry and rabbit breeding.

In  Lucento courses were held in agriculture, which in June 1947 were finished by seventeen professional gardeners. The schools also ran short training courses for agricultural managers of the training farms. The program included courses on soil cultivation, fruit-growing, horticulture, chicken-farming and dairy farming.

Agricultural courses were also ran on a farm in Ivrea, near Turin. The school was established in 1947 and trained at a time fifty-four students. The training comprised of truck gardening, poultry farming, rabbit-raising and bee keeping. Among the students were members of Zionist youth groups preparing for the Aliyah. The centre also organized short-term advanced level training for DPs with farming experience.

Also in Ivrea ORT had a unique school for typewriter repair. It was inaugurated in 1947 and was situated at the site of the 'Olivetti' typewriters factory. Among the instructors were the typewriter mechanics from 'Olivetti' as well as ORT translators. The board and lodging of the Ivrea students was provided by UNRRA. In February 1948 the school trained twenty-one students as typewriter and calculating machine mechanics.