A memorial to those deported from the Breda steelworks

The Monumento al Deportato is a sculpture located in Parco Nord Milano, in the territory of Sesto San Giovanni. It stands atop a hill composed of rubble from the Breda steelworks, specifically the IV Sezione Siderurgica. The site was designed by the studio of architect Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, a former deportee, and his son, architect Alberico Barbiano di Belgiojoso.

To reach the summit, visitors traverse a short cobbled path that evokes the route taken by deportees to reach the so-called death stair at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. This is followed by a very steep staircase with high steps, designed to evoke that same death stair leading to the Mauthausen quarry. The monument is dedicated to the citizens who worked in the industrial area of Sesto San Giovanni and were arrested and deported following the strikes of March 1944, as well as for anti-fascist activities, partisan actions, or during raids.

At the top, thirty-one porphyry blocks are arranged in a semicircle, inscribed with the 559 names of local workers who were deported, both those who died during deportation and those who survived. In the center stands a stele representing a stylized figure of a deportee, with lower limbs rooted in the stones and boulders in place of a head. At the base are two large containers holding stones from the quarries of Gusen and Mauthausen, and six display cases containing ashes and soil from Gusen, Mauthausen, Dachau, Auschwitz, Ebensee, Ravensbrück, and the Hartheim Castle.

The project dates back to 1978 when President Sandro Pertini donated a design to the city. The current monument was inaugurated on November 28, 1998. It was constructed using Cor-ten steel provided by industrialist Steno Marcegaglia and includes an inscription stating that the blood of the deportees washed over these stones from the quarries of Gusen and Mauthausen.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons