Polish cemetery at Monte Cassino
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 Polish Cemetery, as seen from Monte Cassino monastery |
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 Location of Polish cemetery at Monte Cassino
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Year established | 1944 |
| Location | Monte Cassino |
| Country | Italy |
| Type | Polish soldiers |
| Number of graves | 1,000 |
The Polish cemetery at Monte Cassino holds the graves of over a thousand Poles who died, storming the bombed-out Benedictine abbey atop the mountain in May 1944, during the Battle of Monte Cassino.
The religious affiliations of the deceased are indicated by three types of headstone: the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox headstones feature different forms of the Christian cross, and the Jewish headstones bear the Star of David.
The cemetery also holds the grave of General Władysław Anders, who had commanded the Polish forces that captured Monte Cassino. Anders died in London in 1970.
The Polish memorial at Monte Cassino bears the following two inscriptions
The first, based on the Epitaph of Simonides, reads:
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- Passer-by, go tell Poland
- That we have perished obedient to her service
The other translates from Polish:
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- We Polish soldiers
- For our freedom and yours
- Have given our souls to God
- Our bodies to the soil of Italy
- And our hearts to Poland.
An anthem, The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino — composed on the eve of the Polish storming of the German stronghold — memorializes the Polish soldiers who gave their lives. The refrain is familiar to all Poles:
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- The red poppies on Monte Cassino
- Drank Polish blood instead of dew...
- O'er the poppies the soldiers did go
- 'Mid death, and to their anger stayed true!
- Years will come and ages will go,
- Enshrining their strivings and their toil!...
- And the poppies on Monte Cassino
- Will be redder for Poles' blood in their soil.
[edit] Gallery
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Orthodox (front)and Catholic (rear) gravestones at Monte Cassino
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Jewish gravestone at Monte Cassino
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Gravestone of General Anders at Monte Cassino
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View of Monte Cassino monastery from Polish cemetery
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Polish cemetery seen from Monte Cassino monastery
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Plaque at Polish cemetery in Monte Cassino
