HEREFORD -- The Camp Hereford Prisoner of War Camp Memorial Chapel, on the border between Deaf Smith and Castro counties, looks about the same as it did sixty-five years ago.

Unless you saw it through the eyes of a POW, like Dr. Vincenzo Centofanti.

"I had been in the concentration camp for six years, from the age of seventeen to the age of twenty-three."

Centofanti, now in his eighties, was one of thousands of Italian POWs held here during World War II between 1943 and 1946. The POWs built the chapel after five of their fellow soldiers died at the camp, "to remember the people that pay with their lives. They sacrificed their lives in the line of duty," said Vincenzo Arcobelli, President of the Committee for Italians Living Abroad for the States of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas (COMITES).

On Saturday morning, a crowd of about 150 people, including many former POWs, gathered at the chapel to rededicate the site after vandals defaced it in 2008. COMITES provided the funding for the renovation while local residents put in the hard labor.

"I'm so moved here because of the participation that we have from the local people here. I'm really very, very pleased because we need this, together and become friends," said Centofanti.

Dozens of locals showed up to the event, including Lee Norris and her daughter, June Norman, both of Dimmitt.

"We love it. We have met a lot of the people through the years. This is about my third or fourth time. My husband and I, we came back to see a lot of the friends and the POWs."

Italians and Italian-Americans came from all over the country and the world. The crowd included members of the Italian Air Force, as well as The Honorable Roberto Menia, Undersecretary of State in Rome.

"I am emotionally touched by the fact that these ex-POWs are here today to show their honor, their individual honor, besides their political ideology," said Hon. Menia in Italian, with Arcobelli translating.

Their presence carried on a tradition that many there hoped would not be the last.

"We hope that this friendship will continue and will promote and continue to have every year this kind of event because it needs to be an example for the next new generations," said Arcobelli.

The re-dedication ceremony was organized by the Castro and Deaf Smith County Historical Commissions, as well as COMITES.