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27-412: In the 19th century, as a consequence of the rapid demographic growth of Milan, a thorough reorganization of the cemeteries of the city was due. At the time, Milan had a large number of small cemeteries located in areas that were originally peripheral but, as the city expanded, had experienced a quick urbanization. Plans were made to close down most of these small cemeteries and build a few, larger ones, in

54-543: A court in Osnabrück in 1968 with 22 cases of murder., commanded by SS-Hauptsturmführer de:Friedrich Bremer . The court found the first three guilty of murder and sentenced them for life while the other two received a jail sentence of three years as accessories in the crime. The case was taken to Germany's high court, the Bundesgerichtshof , which ruled that, while not overturning the guilty verdict, that

81-473: A local forest where they were shot. The bodies were then placed in sacks filled with stones, rowed out in boats and sunk in the lake. A number of other Jewish prisoners were murdered and then buried in mass graves. Only very few of the prisoners escaped, with one family surviving because of their Turkish passports and assistance from the Turkish consul who arranged passage to Switzerland for them. Apart from

108-513: A wide range of contemporary and classical Italian sculptures as well as Greek temples , elaborate obelisks , and other original works such as a scaled-down version of the Trajan's Column . Many of the tombs belong to noted industrialist dynasties, and were designed by artists such as Adolfo Wildt , Giò Ponti , Arturo Martini , Agenore Fabbri , Lucio Fontana , Medardo Rosso , Giacomo Manzù , Floriano Bodini, and Giò Pomodoro . The main entrance

135-610: A younger generation of state prosecutors who were actually interested in prosecuting Nazi crimes and their perpetrators. For the murder of the Ovazza family, Austrian SS-Obersturmführer de:Gottfried Meir was charged in 1954 in Klagenfurt but found not guilty. He was however convicted in absentia by a military court in Turin in 1955 and sentenced for life but never extradited. The events and massacre at Hotel Meina were made into

162-418: Is divided into six fields and an addition in the eastern side. There are also three common fields, including one for children, where burials date from 1873 to 1894, with small gravestones on the ground bearing the names and dates of death. The monuments, built from 1866 onward, are located along the walkways. There are also family shrines, two of which were designed by Maciachini, columbaria, and ossuaries along

189-824: Is found here include: Mario Quadrelli (Pisa shrine), Giuseppe Daniele Benzoni (Ottolenghi Finzi tomb), Luigi Vimercati (Estella Jung tomb), Agostino Caravati (Alessandro Forti tomb), Rizzardo Galli (Vittorio Finzi tomb), Enrico Cassi (De Daninos tomb), Attilio Prendoni (Errera and Conforti tomb), Eduardo Ximenes (Treves shrine), Giulio Branca (Giovanni Norsa tomb, Michelangelo Carpi tomb), fratelli Bonfanti (Davide and Beniamino Foà tomb), Enrico Astorri (Carolina Padova and Fanny Levi Cammeo tomb), Egidio Boninsegna (Giuseppe Levi tomb), Dario Viterbo (Levi Minzi columbarium), Giannino Castiglioni (Ettore Levis and Goldfinger tombs), Adolfo Wildt (Cesare Sarfatti tomb), Eugenio Pellini (Bettino Levi tomb), Arrigo Minerbi (Renato del Mar tomb), Roberto Terracini (Nino Colombo tomb). The central building

216-519: Is located in the center and is the work of the group BBPR , formed by leading exponents of Italian rationalist architecture that included Gianluigi Banfi. The cemetery has a special section for those who do not belong to the Catholic religion and a Jewish section. Near the entrance there is a permanent exhibition of prints, photographs, and maps outlining the cemetery's historical development. It includes two battery-operated electric hearses built in

243-532: Is one of the two largest cemeteries in Milan , Italy , the other one being the Cimitero Maggiore . It is noted for the abundance of artistic tombs and monuments. Designed by the architect Carlo Maciachini (1818–1899), it was planned to consolidate a number of small cemeteries that used to be scattered around the city into a single location. Officially opened in 1866, it has since then been filled with

270-513: Is through the large Famedio , a massive Hall of Fame -like Neo-Medieval style building made of marble and stone that contains the tombs of some of the city's and the country's most honored citizens, including that of novelist Alessandro Manzoni . The Civico Mausoleo Palanti designed by the architect Mario Palanti is a tomb built for meritorious "Milanesi", or citizens of Milan. The memorial of about 800 Milanese killed in Nazi concentration camps

297-406: The 1920s. The section, designed by Carlo Maciachini , opened in 1872 to replace the cemeteries of Porta Tenaglia, Porta Magenta, and Porta Vercellina. It lies east of the Catholic cemetery and has a separate entrance. The area is the result of a 1913 expansion to the southern and east. The central building was originally the entrance to the cemetery. Tomb numbering is repeated because the cemetery

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324-569: The Eastern Front. At this point the division had strict orders not to commit any violence against civilians. Despite this, a unit of the division under Joachim Peiper committed the Boves massacre on 19 September in retaliation to the capture of two German soldiers and murdered 23 civilians despite the release of the two soldiers. Despite having no authorisation or orders to do so the division hunted down Jewish refugees attempting to escape

351-648: The Italian surrender a battalion of the Leibstandarte was stationed on the western side of Lake Maggiore to assist with the disarming of the Italian Army. A number of Jewish families lived in the villages on this side of the lake, some of them Jewish Greek refugees, others Italian Jews who had escaped the cities. Their identity and location was passed on to the Germans by local Italian Fascists. Members of

378-656: The Jewish section: Carlo Maciachini (Davide Leonino and Pisa shrines), Giovanni Battista Bossi (Anselmo de Benedetti tomb), Ercole Balossi Merlo (Leon David Levi shrine), Luigi Conconi (Segre shrine), Giovanni Ceruti (Vitali shrine), Carlo Meroni (Taranto tomb), Cesare Mazzocchi (Giulio Foligno shrine), Manfredo d'Urbino (Jarach shrine, Mayer tomb, Besso tomb, Monument to the Jewish Martyrs of Nazism), Gigiotti Zanini (Zanini tomb), Adolfo Valabrega (Moisé Foligno shrine), Luigi Perrone (Goldfinger shrine). Sculptors whose work

405-579: The Lake Maggiore, and buried the bodies. The exact number of victims varies, but at least 50 Greek and Italian Jews were murdered by the division in September and October 1943 during the Lake Maggiore massacres, and as many as 56 victims are stated in what has been described as the first German massacre of Jews in Italy during World War II. The case received international attention after one of

432-668: The Maggiore. A dedicated tram was employed to move the graves; it is said that the people of Milan nicknamed this tram "La Gioconda" ("the joyful one"). Benito Mussolini was buried in an unmarked grave in the Maggiore immediately after his death, although his corpse was later moved, to be eventually buried again in his hometown Predappio . 45°30′24″N 9°06′53″E  /  45.506709°N 9.114826°E  / 45.506709; 9.114826 Cimitero Monumentale di Milano The Cimitero Monumentale ( Italian: [tʃimiˈtɛːro monumenˈtaːle] " Monumental Cemetery ")

459-554: The aftermath of the Italian surrender on 8 September 1943, members of the SS Division Leibstandarte murdered 56 Jews, predominantly Italian and Greek. Many of the bodies were sunk into the lake to prevent discovery but one washed ashore in neighbouring Switzerland, drawing international attention to the massacre and prompting an inconclusive divisional inquiry. It is commonly referred to as the first German massacre of Jews in Italy during World War II. The war crime

486-532: The bodies washed ashore in Switzerland and the case was reported in a local Swiss newspaper. This forced an investigation into the events by two judges of the Leibstandarte division. While members of the division were interviewed no outcome has been recorded and the division was soon moved back to the Eastern Front. Five members of the Leibstandarte , Hans Krüger , de:Herbert Schnelle , de:Hans Röhwer , Oskar Schultz and de:Ludwig Leithe , were charged by

513-410: The cemetery point visitors to several of the most remarkable tombs and monuments. Some of the persons interred in the cemetery include: Mayors of Milan Lake Maggiore massacres The Lake Maggiore massacres was a set of World War II war crimes that took place near Lake Maggiore , Italy in September and October 1943. Despite strict orders not to commit any violence against civilians in

540-538: The division arrested over 50 of those and held them in a number of local hotels. The best-known of these massacres was that of the sixteen prisoners held at the Hotel Meina , at Meina . On 19 September the involved officers of the division held a meeting in which it was decided to shoot the Jewish men, women and children and to sink their bodies into the lake. The Jewish prisoners were taken in small groups from their hotels at night on 22 and 23 September and taken to

567-541: The former Italian occupation zone in France who were trying to find safety in Italy. The division arrested and executed Jews and looted Jewish property and, eventually, was ordered to stop this practice by SS-corps commander Paul Hausser who had made it clear that the arrest of Jews and confiscation of their property was exclusively reserved for the security police and the Sicherheitsdienst . Immediately after

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594-486: The northern and western cemetery walls and burials in the central building. There are 1778 burials, some in memory of people killed by in Nazi concentration camps or in the Lake Maggiore massacres , including at Meina. There are many monuments of artistic value built by important architects and sculptors, described in the guide book by Giovanna Ginex and Ornella Selvafolta . The following architects have worked in

621-578: The outskirts of the city. The Monumentale was built first (in the early decades of the century), but it soon became clear that at least another large cemetery was needed. Core samples proved that the rural area of Musocco, bordering on Milan, had suitable geological properties; after some quarrel with Musocco's administration, construction began in the late 19th century, on a design by architects Luigi Mazzocchi and Enrico Brotti. The cemetery opened in 1895; it originally covered an area of 400,000 m. Graves from at least four different cemeteries were moved to

648-542: The perpetrators had to be freed on a technicality. As the crime had been committed in 1943 and was actually investigated by the division already back then, also without a conclusion, the usual start date for the statute of limitations for Nazi crimes, the date of the German surrender in 1945, did not apply, meaning the 1943 massacre's statute of limitations had been expired. This verdict caused much frustration in Germany with

675-487: The sixteen murders at Meina on 22 and 23 September, fourteen Jews were killed at Baveno between 14 and 22 September, two at Pian Di Nava, near Premeno , on 15 September and nine at Arona , three at Mergozzo and two at Orta San Giulio on 16 September. The following day, 17 September, four Jews were killed at Stresa . In October 1943, members of the same battalion murdered the Jewish banker Ettore Ovazza and three of his family members at Intra, near Verbania , also on

702-765: Was enhanced in May 2015 with artistic windows that represent the Twelve Tribes of Israel by the artist Diego Pennacchio Ardemagni. The cemetery contains the Crematorium Temple, which was the first crematorium to open in the Western world . The crematorium opened in 1876 and was operational until 1992. The building is also a columbarium . As with other early crematoria in Italy, it was built in Greek Revival architecture . Signals located throughout

729-534: Was subject to a trial in West Germany in 1968 in which five of the accused were found guilty but later controversially released after a verdict by the German high court which ruled that the statute of limitations for the case had expired. Following the Italian surrender on 8 September 1943 the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was stationed in northern Italy, having recently returned from

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