polish military cemetery monte cassino

MONTE CASSINO POLISH WAR CEMETERY
The Polish war cemetery at Monte Cassino holds the graves of 1,072 Poles who died storming the bombed-out Benedictine abbey atop the mountain in May 1944, during the Battle of Monte Cassino. The cemetery is maintained by the Council for the Protection of Memorial Sites of Struggle and Martyrdom.

The religious affiliations of the deceased are indicated by three types of headstone: Christian crosses for Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox and Jewish headstones bearing the Star of David.

The cemetery also holds the grave of General Władysław Anders, who had commanded the Polish forces that captured Monte Cassino. Anders died in London in 1970 and his ashes were interred in the cemetery.

The cemetery itself can be clearly viewed from the Abbey, which lies just a few hundred meters away.

The cemetery is the closest of all allied cemeteries, symbolizing the importance of the Polish fighters during the battle. It was the Poles that are credited with liberating the abbey from Axis forces. As such, their war dead were honored with being buried in such close proximity to the structure for which they died liberating.