Monument to the Fallen of Cephalonia
The Monument dedicated to the Fallen of Cephalonia, a work by Professor Renzo Orvieto (partisan, sculptor and painter from Piedmont with ties to the City of Flowers), is located in the centre of the lower flowerbed of Corso Mombello, towards the junction with Via Nino Bixio.
It commemorates the extreme resistance and extermination of the "Acqui" Division in Cephalonia and Corfu which, following the armistice of 8 September 1943, refused to surrender to the Nazis.
The few survivors were taken prisoner and sent to concentration camps.
It was inaugurated on 23 September 1979 during a solemn ceremony, held on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the massacre, which was attended by many veterans and citizens, who attended the greeting of the mayor of Sanremo Osvaldo Vento and the official speech of the president of the National Association of veterans and families fallen of the "Acqui" Division, General Renzo Apollonio.
A marble plaque placed under the statue of the monument bears the inscription: «Even in the earth always rise the just».
For the analogy near the work of Orvieto was placed by the Municipal Administration on January 27, 2012, Memorial Day for not forgetting, a slate plaque in memory of the I.M.I. (Italian Military Interned).
It was strongly desired by Mr. Gerolamo Merlo, to remember the I.M.I. sanremaschi and in particular his brother, Stefano Merlo, deported from Split after 8 September 1943 and died of hardship at only 24 years on January 18, 1945 in the extermination camp of Fullen, West Germany.
After many bureaucratic difficulties, but thanks to the support of the ANPI, the Historical Institute of Resistance and associations of former combatants, the slab was finally approved by the municipal administration and inaugurated by its promoter, placing it next to the already present and majestic Monument of the Fallen of Cephalonia, as they are similar events.
During the inauguration ceremony, in the presence of Deputy Mayor Claudia Lolli, the story of the I.M.I. was explained in detail by Dr. Gustavo Ottolenghi and Amelia Narciso, representing the ANPI.
Since then, annual celebrations have been held at these two monuments.
The slab is made of black slate, measuring one meter by one meter, and bears carved in white the preface to the book «Se questo è un uomo» (If This is a Man) by Primo Levi, an Italian chemist and writer of Jewish origin, who suffered in the Auschwitz lager from February 20, 1944 until the liberation of the camp by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.
« You who live safely/ in your tepid homes...consider if this is a man/ working in the mud...dying for a yes or a no...ponder that this was/ I command you these words/ carve them in your heart...repeat them to your children ».
Under it the dedication to the I.M.I. from Sanremo deported to concentration camps after September 8, 1943.
(sources: testimony of Mrs Francesca Viale, granddaughter of the promoter of the slab;
History&Arts&Culture;
"Sanremo Guide to the artistic and monumental heritage of the city";
images from the web and private archives)