The German World War II Cemetery, Pomezia

The German World War II cemetery in Pomezia, 25 kilometers outside of Rome, is a calm, well-maintained green space.  We first ventured there on the advice of our friend Virginia Jewiss, a Dante scholar and author of an essay on the Pomezia cemetery [linked and quoted below]. She knew we toured towns founded - from scratch - by the Fascists in the Agro Pontino, the flat plains that run from the Castelli Romani to the sea (malarial plains for most of their existence, and hence, little occupied before then). [This post follows an earlier one about the town of Pomezia, its Fascist architecture and its vaccine industry.]

We had a second goal - to find the grave of the father of a German woman, who had posted online that she wished to have a photo of her father's grave. We had seen her post in our efforts to find information about the cemetery location and hours.

What struck us first about the cemetery was the immensity of it - the numbers of crosses - only some of which are in the photo above. On closer inspection, we were even more struck by the fact that every cross represents 6 soldiers - so one must multiply this vision by 6 to have a sense of the 27,000+ soldiers who are buried here. Here is a one of the crosses; 3 names are on the other side as well.  

There's a "Herbert Gräbner" on this cross.

Jewiss's article, written after we went to the cemetery, points out the bisecting path through the graves leading to a large memorial in Roman travertine (see photo at top). She notes the two soldiers, facing the cemetery (see photo at bottom), and, at the back of the monument, female figures - an old woman, as she says, "clearly a mother figure" and "a wife and small child."  (Photo below, left)

There - at the back - she says one also can read the inscription (in German flowing into Italian without pause) on the monument:

"UNSER FRIEDE LIEGT IN SEINEM WILLEN E 'N LA SUA VOLONTADE E' NOSTRA PACE DANTE" 

Here the Dante scholar takes flight, pointing out these words are from the third canto of Paradiso by the nun, Piccarda, who was forced to break her vows. And, that this inscription is "startling": "Rarely--if ever--do the inscriptions [in a war cemetery] derive from another national tradition, let alone from a belligerent nation in the conflict."

The inscription is translated as "In His will is our peace."

Jewiss notes the "extraordinary moral complexity" of honoring a sacrifice "made for a dishonorable cause" (something Americans still struggle with relative to the Civil War, of course). And goes on, "what is the Italian poet doing in a German cemetery, why this verse, and why is it carved on the back of the memorial?"

She suggests the quotation means--at the simplest level, "a utopian expression of hope that God grant peace to the dead, that his will remain unfathomable." There's much more in Jewiss's piece, including statements such as this one: "The soldiers here are both in exile from their patria and recognized as citizens of the wider world of the dead." You will profit from exploring her analysis in more detail. It's here.

Jewiss also notes that most of the soldiers in this cemetery were killed after the Italy-Allied Forces armistice of Sept. 8, 1943. That was the case with both of the Graebners we found, and the father of the German woman who wanted a photo of her father's final resting place; they died in 1944.

My recollection is that the German woman's father was Felix Klose (one of the photos we sent her is at right).  We were able to look up the location of his burial ground in the book kept at the entrance to the cemetery.

Above the book (photo below) is the sign reading: "Nambücher...Friedhof Pomezia...Gefallene A-Z" - "Book of names of the fallen, Pomezia Cemetery."

After we sent her the photos, the daughter of the fallen soldier wrote us back: "My father died of his wounds in Rome and was buried in Rome, then he was moved  to Ponetzia [sic] in 1966. It was a small stone like flat cross on the ground. I have a picture of it and I always wanted to know he ever was moved again and when. Again I thank you so very much, you don't know how pleased I am to know and see the place at last.  I would like to know when he was moved for the second time.  He still is in my heart, never forgotten, Best wishes and thank you again from the bottom of my heart.., Mrs E.S."

As in many war cemeteries, this one was founded well after the end of the conflict (it was inaugurated in 1960) and gathered the remains of soldiers from all parts of areas in and around Rome, as was the case with Mrs. E.S.'s father's remains. 

Front of monument, with soldiers in greatcoats "looking at their fallen comrades."

The first lines on the cross at right read "Ein Deutscher Soldat" - "A German Soldier," with no dates. An unknown soldier, of which there were many in this cemetery.

We left the cemetery on this lovely road (photo below), observing the diligence of some of the young Germans who were maintaining it.

Dianne

  

The town of Pomezia, 25 km from Rome - of vaccines, Fascism, World War II

Bill looks like he's in a de Chirico painting here in Pomezia

We were surprised to learn that Pomezia, a small town created from scratch by the Fascists (inaugurated in 1939) in the Agro Pontino outside of Rome, is the site of the maker of one of the most promising Covid-19 vaccines. We knew nothing about that when we visited the town - several times in years past. We tried to figure out how we missed such an important industry. You may have heard of the Advent vaccine. That vaccine is being developed by Advent, which is an offshoot of Pomezia's IRBM, together with Oxford University. Some recent information on this vaccine trial is here. It's the Astra-Zeneca vaccine whose trial was halted for a while and is now restarted.

Our mission in the times we went to Pomezia was to view the Fascist architecture (see here for a reference to other forays) and visit the WWII German Cemetery. In those days, we were exploring the iconography of war cemeteries in and around Rome (e.g. here).  

Dianne posing with enormous fasci
 in a doorway, likely to the town hall.
The year is listed as "A. XVII E.F. -
Era Fascista, year 17 (or 1939)

We stopped in Pomezia's main square to get the requisite coffee (see Bill above) and saw some signs indicating there was to be a celebration of Garibaldi. We think that's the subject of the painting above.

We didn't have to look hard for the Fascist architecture.  Here are a couple examples (left and below, plus photo at top). There are more at the end of the post.

We then headed to the cemetery, which is only a short ways out of the town center. It's beautifully maintained and peaceful, the resting place of almost 30,000 German soldiers, some of them "unknown." 

I'll skip a description of the cemetery here, since our friend and Dante scholar, Virginia Jewiss, has written eloquently about it, and I want to give more space to her analysis in a later post.

The question remains, where is the famous laboratory making these vaccines, and why did we - who scour towns and cities - miss it?

It turns out the lab is very close to the town center, across the notorious via Pontina. It appears to be not very visible from the road (on a higher piece of land).  No doubt we scootered right past it.  See maps below.

IRBM Science Park. Pomezia's town center is at the upper right. This photo is looking South.

The map below right shows the IRBM plant on the map - at Google's inverted red drop -  with Pomezia's town center just to the West. The red cross below the green space (the town cemetery) shows the location of the German Cemetery - so obviously, we scootered right by the IRBM facility.

Italy's important connections to the Covid-19 vaccines also include a glass manufacturing company near Venice, founded in 1949 to make bottles for perfume and liquors, now devoting itself to glass vials for the vaccines. Forbes featured the family-owned company in an article here.

Jewiss says there's some irony that Pomezia, a town designed to laud the Fascists, is the resting place of Germans who fought with, and then against, the failed Italian regime. I view the cemetery as a cautionary reminder of the wages of war, and Pomezia now as a sign of the future - waging a different war - against the virus.

More on the German cemetery, and some of Jewiss's interpretations of its iconography, in a subsequent post.

Dianne

Church - a central church was a
part of all the Fascist "new towns."

Pomezia's "GIL" or  youth center
(Gioventu' italiana del littorio -
the Fascist youth movement party),
the letters framed by two fasci.

 

A 50th anniversary monument (1990), testament to the town's forefathers - note the hand-driven agricultural equipment as the main symbol.

The ubiquitous "Bar dello sport,"
with a very nice 1953 decoration above the door,
echoing the style of Fascist figures
and also the town's agricultural founding.

The Balls of Rome

We were introduced to the balls of Rome by architecture professor Pia Schneider, who had graciously agreed to show us Garbatella through her practiced eye.  Behind the old public baths off Piazza Brin, in the courtyard of a public housing complex constructed in the late 1920s, she pointed out a ramp decorated with balls.  "Very Fascist," she said. (Garbatella, and these balls, is one of the itneraries in our new book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler; see below for more information.)





She's right, of course, about the link between Fascist-era architecture and balls.  The next year--now we're scouting for balls--we found an ample supply in the Fascist-era village of Pomezia.  Indeed, in the city's charming public square, in front of the building that in the Mussolini era housed the police department.  Here, the balls alternate with square blocks of marble.  The rationalist architects of the era loved geometry. 










Closer by, in Pigneto/Prenestino, there's a 1930s school with ball decoration.   

Balls to sit on

You'll find another example in Ostiense, across from the pyramid, adorning the station for the Rome-Ostia-Lido train line.  Built in 1924, the station was designed by Marcello Piacentini.  Although clearly a work of Fascism--the station itself was intended to emphasize and promote Rome's reach to the sea and the larger imperial impulse that reach represented, and the poetry of Fascist poet Gabriele D'Annunzio is on its walls--the building as a whole has a 19th-century feel.  Still, the balls are there.








Even so, Rome has plenty of balls that have nothing to do with Fascism (at least not the Mussolini variety).  In the city center, lines of balls are designed to restrict vehicular traffic.  Local artists benefit, too.












And there's a delightful, "arty" ball in front of the headquarters of the Province of Rome, just off Piazza Venezia.
 








Regrettably, balls are also commonly used as an anti-loitering device, to prevent people--perhaps not only vagrants--from sitting down in front of stores or on public objects, such as planters.  Or perhaps, in the case of the planters below, they're just decoration.

If you spot some Rome balls, let us know!
Bill

And for more on Fascist architecture in Rome, see our new print AND eBook,  Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler.  Along with the tour of Garbatella (that includes the balls above), Modern Rome features three other walks: the 20th-century suburb of EUR, designed by the Fascists; the 21st-century music and art center of Flaminio, along with Mussolini's Foro Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics; and a stairways walk in classic Trastevere. 

This 4-walk book is available in all print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers.  See the various formats at smashwords.com. 

Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores,  and other retailers; retail price $5.99.

Hunting for Fasci (Fasces) in Rome

Prominent, column-size fasci on a government building in Pomezia, a nearby "new" town,
built under Mussolini's regime.  Above the door, we learn that the building was constructed
in the year (A., anno) 17 (1939) of the Fascist (F.) Era (E.).

As readers of this blog and our book, Rome the Second Time, are well aware, we enjoy exploring the Rome cityscape for signs of Mussolini's Fascist regime (1922-1943), the most important political event in 20th-century Italy.  Some of those signs are obvious, including the monumental complex at EUR, south of the center, and Foro Italico (once Foro Mussolini), the complex of sports facilities north of the center, across the river from the Flaminio area.  Although neither of these areas is featured in Rome the Second Time (the book), the book's Itinerary 5, "Nazis and Fascists in Central Rome," offers a look at Fascist-era architecture on Via Leonida Bissolati and the lower reaches of Via Veneto.   For more on Fascist architecture, see our new book, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler (more at the end of this post).

There are other, more subtle ways to engage the Fascist heritage.  As we explain in a sidebar in Rome the Second Time (p. 85), many buildings constructed in the Fascist era proclaim their origin under the regime by using the Fascist dating system, which begins with 1922 (Year I, using Roman numberals).  Many if not most of these buildings retain these Fascist markings. 

Another way--and the subject of this post--is to look for fasces (the Italian word is fasci), the foremost symbol of the Fascist regime.   The fasci--a bundle of sticks with an ax blade emerging--dates to ancient Rome and means something like "strength through unity." 

The symbol has been widely used through the ages.  It appears on the "tails" side of the U.S. mercury dime; on the emblem of the Knights of Columbus (right); on the insignia of the National Guard Bureau; and on the seal of the Adminsistrative Office of the United States Courts (above).  In the twentieth century, it was most prominently employed by Italy's Fascists, whose movement takes it name from the fasci. 

Hacking away at a symbol of the
Fascist regime, Milan, 1943.

Although some fasci were removed by angry anti-Fascists when Mussolini's regime fell in 1943 (left), and others since then, many still remain as reminders of the dictatorship.

Fasci on a school building in Centocelle, a
close-in suburb of Rome

A high schematic example, from Fascism's
year (A.) 9.  In Garbatella

Here the fasci decorate an ornate fountain
in the main piazza in Grottaferrata,
a town in the Alban Hills.  Probably 1920s. 

Below, we offer some of those we found in the last two years.  Good hunting! 
Bill

The base of a flagpole at Cinecittá, the
movie-making center, with wrap-around fish.

One seldom sees a light standard with fasci, perhaps because they're quite public.  This one, featuring a schematic design, was in an ironworks exhibit in the Casino delle Civette, in Villa Torlonia.

Because manhole covers are seldom changed and seldom stolen, they are a good source of fasci.  This one is obviously from Pomezia. 

Here, a contemporary artist has juxtaposed fasci with
other images from or of the 1930s. 

For more on fasci and Fascist architecture, see our new print AND eBook, Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler. Modern Rome features tours of the "garden" suburb of Garbatella; the 20th-century suburb of EUR, designed by the Fascists; the 21st-century music and art center of Flaminio, along with Mussolini's Foro Italico, also the site of the 1960 summer Olympics; and a stairways walk in Trastevere.

 This 4-walk book is available in all print and eBook formats The eBook is $1.99 through amazon.com and all other eBook sellers. See the various formats at smashwords.com. 

Modern Rome: 4 Great Walks for the Curious Traveler now is also available in print, at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, and other retailers; retail price $5.99.

Graffiti Report: Howen



Howen, on the Metro viaduct, at San Paolo

 We're rank amateurs in the complex, fast-moving field of Rome graffiti.  Still, emboldend by a recent visit to MOCA's daring new exhibition on graffiti in several of the world's major cities, we're offering this report on one of Rome's most talented and prolific writers.  He has two names: Howen and POISON.  In a 2002 comment that we found on-line, a fan wrote, "this dude has got to be one of the kings of the b-line in rome, every photo I have of it he's up in it, even  after the buff he still had stuff running so ive heard."  (We're not sure what the "buff" was, but suspect it was an effort by the city to cover up/erase graffiti).  Sure enough, it was on the b-line--actually a viaduct carrying the b-line through the suburb of San Paolo--that we first saw Howen's work (see photo at left). 


Dianne, pensive at the Pomezia cafe

Then, on a scooter trip to Pomezia, a modernist village created under Mussolini and the home of a massive cemetery housing German dead from World War II, we found another piece by Howen just over our shoulders (see the bottom of this post) at an outdoor cafe in the city center. 

As you can see, Howen appears to enjoy writing his own name (at least what we assume is his name).  Sometimes he also writes his other name, POISON. 

We also found an on-line profile for the guy.  It lists POISON's interests as: "Graffiti, muri (walls), treni (trains), e la mia metro (and my Metro).  The profile notes his mood as "implacable" and offers this bio:

                POISON

                male
                102 years old
                Roma, Roma
                Italy 

Bill


Howen, in Pomezia



   



Nero Burned Rome: A Favorite Poster

Italians, and Romans, love and hate their posters. On the one hand, the poster is a preferred form of advertising and selling a product, whether a film or a politician. On the other hand, there's plenty of abuse of a system that's not adequately regulated; the newspapers regularly feature stories about unauthorized posters and, more egregious, banks of unauthorized poster brackets, which are quickly filled with unauthorized posters. Anyway, each year we have our favorite posters, and here is one we enjoyed in 2010. It reads, "Nero burned Rome, and we're burning prices" (and below, Eurofurniture, in [the city of] Pomezia). If you have a favorite poster, send it in! Bill