Milano Centrale:A Research Visit

A Monument To Pomp and Power

We’re in Milan on research for our forthcoming book, ‘Threads of Trauma’ and visited Milano Centrale, inaugurated in 1931 with bold Art Deco, Liberty, and Fascist-infused architecture, which was Mussolini’s showcase of national might. Yet during WWII, the station’s lavish arches also masked a darker role, as it became a gateway for deportations.

Platform 21: A Hidden Hell
Below the polished terminal lay Platform 21, an unassuming freight platform from which at least 23 trains departed between 1943 and 1945, deporting thousands of Jews and political prisoners to Auschwitz and other camps.
• The first convoy left on Dec 6, 1943 with 169 deportees and only 5 survived.
• A later train on Jan 30, 1944 carried 600 people, including children where upon arrival, 500 were murdered at Auschwitz.

Since 2013, the Memoriale della Shoah at Platform 21 stands as a solemn tribute to the victims. Though spared the brunt of heavy Allied bombing, Milan and the station endured repeated raids targeting rail yards and suburbs. Passengers, trains, and infrastructure suffered disruption and human tragedy, but Milano Centrale’s core architecture remarkably survived.

Now bustling with 320,000 daily passengers, Milano Centrale blends living history with modern transit. Hidden beneath its grandeur, Platform 21’s memorial invites reflection and contemplation.

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