Today, 8 November 2025, at 11.00, near Farmingdale, a town located in Long Island, in the State of New York, where the Pinelawn Shrine is located, was held the commemoration ceremony of the fallen of the Italian Navy, prisoners of war during the Second World War.
The shrine houses the tombs of 364,000 fallen, including 54 Italians, 36 of whom are unknown and buried in a common grave. The sailors were among the 1,800 prisoners on board the SS Benjamin Contee, a ship run by the British. On August 16, 1943, the ship was hit by a plane torpedo while it was off Bone, Algeria. Many prisoners locked up in the hold died, some because of the impact and others for drowning.
The first research failed to locate all the victims. Later, when the ship returned to the United States, the remains of 36 other Italian prisoners were recovered from the hold.
The celebration was organized by the National Marine Association of Italy in New York. They also participated in the event the Military Office of the Permanent Representation of Italy at the United Nations, staff of the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Fighting and Arma Associations (Arma dei Carabinieri e Corpo degli Alpini), which made the honors to the Italian fallen tumulated in the cemetery through the deposition of two crowns of flowers.
Monsignor Ellis Tommaseo, Chaplain of the Office of the Sheriff of the County of Suffolk, offered a brief religious ceremony at the end of which he gave the blessing.
During the ceremony the President of the National Association of Marinai d’Italia, Rocco Munna, and the Italian Military Councillor at the United Nations, General of Division of the Carabinieri Alfonso Manzo, underlined the importance and solemnity that the commemoration of the fallen bears with it.
L’articolo Long Island Ceremony for Italian Navy casualties during World War II proviene da IlNewyorkese.
