Parco della Resistenza, Rome, Italy - World War II Memorials / Monuments on Waymarking.com

On September 8, 1943, at 7:45 PM (which followed the one by General Eisenhower at 6:30 PM) a radio broadcast by the Italian general Badoglio, in which announced the signing of an armistice with the Anglo-American forces. The armistice was signed in secret five days earlier.

The German Nazi command learned about it from the radio broadcast, and incensed at the abandonment of its former ally, occupied the entire peninsula within 48 hours in an amazing feat of logistics. (in cinema, Hollywood produced a comedy in 1969 called "The Secret of Santa Vittoria", starring Anthony Quinn, to portray this confusing period between collapse of the Fascist government, occupation by Germans, and finally, liberation by Anglo-American forces)

Half a million of soldiers of the italian army were interned by the German army, and most of them sent to labor camps in Germany, camps and industrial underground factories where people died of malnutrition and exhaustion.

As the allies slowly liberated the italian Peninsula, progressively from South to North, they were joined by resistence groups, the so-called partisans.

This monument is dedicated to those half million italians interned by the German Army, and to those that participated in the resistence to the occupation of German armed forces.

The memorial cites:
590,000 italian military that refused to collaborate with the German armed forces after September 8
80,000 italian military men that joined the partisans resistence units
87,000 italian military men that perished after September 8, by action of German armed forces

The location of the memorial is a bit ironic, as it is located next to a large government building, a major post office, that was built in the mid-1930s by an architect popular during the Fascist regime, which followed the Razionalisto [trans: Rationalist] style of many of the fascist-era architecture, and also seen in the paintings by De Chirico.

Property Permission: Public Website for Waymark: [Web Link] Commemoration: italian military members that perished or were interned in labor camps after the armistice of September 8, 1943 Date of Dedication: Not listed Access instructions: Not listed Access times: Not listed Location of waymark: Not listed

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