Padua

Unknown Prisoner National Museum at Padua

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The Unknown Prisoner National Museum was established by the National Association of Former Interned to remember Italian soldiers imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. Read More
Unknown Prisoner National Museum at Padua

The Unknown Prisoner National Museum at Padua was established by the National Association of Former Interned to remember Italian soldiers imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. The museum is divided into two main sections: the first one recreates the historical and social background, the second the setting of internment, the heinous event that led to the Shoah, and shows the terrible experience of interned people. This part of the museum stands as a sort of explanation of the choce made by 620.000 out of 700.000 Italian soldiers imprisoned and interned in German concentration camps after the signing of the Armistice on 8th September 1943: since their oath to serve the fatherland they refused to give their support to the Germans and to the new fascist state. A visit to the Temple of the Unknown Prisoner is a sort of spiritual journey: visiting the chapels of the pronao, the altars dedicated to San Massimiliano Kolbe, to Edith Stein and to motherly love, and the apse dominated by a tall Crucifix is like redeeming all the human evil with Christ’s salvation spirit. Along the entrance way visitors will meet the symbols of suffering and tragedy, two stones that lead to the core of the centre: the Garden of the Righteous of the World. The Garden commemorates the people who said ‘No’ to the power of violence, who did what they could to help and save people around them regardless of personal interest or consequences. Among them, father Giovanni Fortin condemned and interned because, as he said, he had only done his duty.

Info
Viale dell’Internato Ignoto 24, Padova
Tel +39 049 8033041
[email protected]
www.museodellinternamento.it