Obj. ID: 54545 “Meditate che questo è stato” monument in Rome, Italy, 2000
Name of Monument
“Meditate che questo è stato,” (Meditate that this was)
What/Who is commemorated?
More than a thousand Jews of Rome deported to Auschwitz and elsewhere from Stazione Tiburtina, Track 1
Description
A large, inscribed marble plaque is affixed to a wall facing Track #1 at the Roma Tiburtina train station. At the top are inscribed the shapes of two concentration camp badges – the six-pointed star for Jews, and the triangle with the letters “it” worn by Italian prisoners. Beneath is inscribed in large letters the dedicatory inscription that begins with a lines from Primo Levi’spoem Se questo e un uomo (also the name of his memoir about survival in Auschwitz).
Several other plaques commemorating anti-fascist railroad workers, some of whom helped Jews escape, are attached to the wall nearby.
Inscriptions
On the left plaque, In Italian:
"MEDITATE CHE QUESTO
È STATO,”
PRIMO LEVI
IL 16 OTTOBRE 1943
PIÙ DI MILLE EBREI ROMANI,
INTERE FAMIGLIE, UOMINI DONNE E BAMBINI,
VENNERO STRAPPATI ALL LORO CASE,
COLPEVOLI SOLO DI ESISTERE.
DA QUESTA STAZIONE RACCHIUSI IN CARRI
PIOMBATI
IL 18 OTTOBRE
VENNERO DAI NAZISTI DEPORTATI
NEI CAMPI DI STERMIΝΙΟ.
SEDICI UOMINI E SOLO UNA DONNA
FECERO RITORNO.
LA LORO MEMORIA
E QUELLA DI TUTTI I DEPORTATI ROMANI,
EBREI, POLITICI, MILITARI, LAVORATORI,
SIA MONITO PERENNE
PERCHÉ OVUNQUE SIMILI TRAGEDIE
NON DEBBANO ESSERE RIVISSUTE.
MAI PIU`
COMUNE DI ROMA
ANED
COMUNITÀ EBRAICA DI ROME
16 OTTOBRE 2000
Translation: "Meditate that this was” Primo Levi / On October 16, 1943, more than a thousand Roman Jews, entire families, men, women and children, were torn from their homes, guilty only of existing. From this station October 18, enclosed in locked wagons, they were deported by the Nazis to the extermination camps. Sixteen men and only one woman returned. Their memory and that of all the Roman deportees, Jews, politicians, military, workers, will be a perennial warning because similar tragedies everywhere they must not be relived. Never again. / Municipality of Rome and Jewish Community of Rome, 16 October 2000.
On the sign on the right, at the top in Italian:
MICHELE BOLGIA
VITTIMA INNOCENTE
DELLA FEROCIA NAZI FASCISTA
GLORIFICO COL MARTIRIO
ALLE FOSSE ARDEATINE
IL SUO NOME
CHE I COMPAGNI DI LAVORO DELLA STAZIONE TIBURTINA
HANNO VOLUTO CONSACRARE
IN QUESTO MARMO
8 SETTEMBRE 1946
On the plaque below, in Italian:
AI COMPAGNI OI LAVORO CADUTI IN
[List of names]
Translation:
On the middle plaque, in Italian:
AI FERROVIERI
ELIO BERNABEI (MOMONTEPULCIANO 29.10.1907)
MICHELE BOLGIA (ROMA 14.3.1894)
MEDAGLIA D'ORO AL MERITO CIVILE 16.7.2010
ARMANDO BUSSI (MODENA 17.12.1894)
MADAGLIA D'ORO AL VALORE MILITARE 1944
MARIO D'ANDREA (ROMA 22.1.1912)
RENZO PIASCO (ROMA 13.6.1925)
GOFFREDO ROMAGNOLI (ROMA 5.1.1925)
CHE VOLLERO OPPORSI
ALL' INVASORE NAZISTA IN OGNI MODO,
APRIRONO I CARRI PER FAR FUGGIRE I DEPORTATI,
SALVANDOLI DAI CAMOI DI STERMINIO,
SABOTARONO MEZZI E IMPIANTI,
SI ARRUOLARONO CON I PARTIGIANI.
MORIRONO IL MARZO 1944 ALLE FOSSE ADREATINE
PER AVERE COMBATTUTO IL FASCISMO,
IN NOME DI UN ITALIA LIBERA,
DEMOCRATICA E SOLIDALE.
16 OTTOBRE 2013 DOPOLAVORO FERROVIARIO DI ROMA
Translation:
Commissioned by
Municipality of Rome
ANED (Associazione Nazionale Ex Deportati nei Campi Nazisti
Jewish Community of Rome
8 image(s)
160 (?) cm high
The large plaque was installed in 2000 on the first platform at the Tiburtina train station, from where Roman Jews rounded up in on 18 October 1943 were deported to Auschwitz. Other memorial plaques commemorating anti-fascist railroad workers are also attached to the wall nearby.
The plaque was the result of combined effort of ANED, the Municipality of Rome and the Jewish Community of Rome and was unveiled in the presence of survivors and their family members, students, professors, and Francesco Rutelli, then mayor of Rome. Other dignitaries included Minister of Public Education, the Hon. Tullio De Mauro, and Elio Toaff, the Chief Rabbi of Rome. All the anti-fascist and Resistance associations participated in the solemn event, with speeches given by Mator Rutelli and the president of the Roman section of ANED. In both interventions we wanted to underline the broader significance of the placing of the plaque. Both speeches emphasized that the placing of the memorial plaque was not just about remembrance but was an act of political and cultural will in the face of growing intolerance and racism in Italy and elsewhere. The inauguration of the plaque was followed by a meeting with over six hundred Roman students, with their professors, who were presented with the CD-ROM "Destination Auschwitz" created by CDEC. Leone Paserman, president of the Jewish Community of Rome, and Minister De Mauro spoke, along with Shlomo Venezia, survivor of the SonderKommando of Birkenau, and Amos Luzzato, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.
In April 2024 a "totem" or video kiosk, for the Binario della Memoria (track of memory)was also installed on the platform allowing access to first-person testimonies by 16 transport survivors.
Pavia, Aldo “Il viaggio cominciò dalla Tiburtina Le rotaie dell'orrore,” Associazione Nazionale Ex Deportati Nei Campi Nazisti, 2001., https://deportati.it/static/pdf/TR/2001/marzo/18.pdf (accessed June 26, 2024)
“Stazione Tiburtina – Binario 1, LE ROTAIE DELL’ORRORE,” Bike4City., https://bike4city.it/pedalando-nella-memoria/stazione-tiburtina-binario-1/ (accessed June 26, 2024)