Yesterday at the Bancarella was a day dedicated to memorials, on the last day of the event organized by the Multimedia Documentation Center of Julian, Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian culture (CDM) in collaboration with the Provincial Committee of Trieste of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia. Over the course of four days, the event attracted hundreds of people to the marquee in Piazza Sant'Antonio, always within the limits of the number allowed by the restrictions related to Covid.

“From memories to history”, this was yesterday’s theme, during which the journey of the exiles was retraced once they had fled to the various refugee camps around Italy. Stories of hard work and success, like that of Aldo Pugliese, a refugee from Pola, now president of the Anvgd of Taranto and who in the years following the exodus became the union leader of the Uil in Puglia. Present with him was the historic national leader of the union, Giorgio Benvenuto, professors Ciro De Angelis, Vito Fumarola and Pietro Neglie. A look at the past, but also at the future. “There are important parallels – underlined Benvenuto who, despite his age, still has the grit of the past – between those years, following the Second World War, and today. This pandemic has also left important traces from both a social and economic point of view, and we will have to be good at managing the PNRR money that will arrive from Europe. For once we are forced to spend, and not save as happened following the economic crisis of 2008, we must think about doing it well. The future of future generations depends on it, in the same way in which at the end of the 40s it was essential to restart a nation that had come out destroyed by the war".

In the afternoon, at 15.30:XNUMX p.m., space for other stories of exiles, with the narration of how they lived in some refugee camps around Italy. The silo of Trieste, Laterina in Arezzo and Fossoli in the province of Modena: stories all different and all the same at the same time, made of people uprooted from their land and poured into places extremely different from their native lands. Stories of suffering, redemption and also of oblivion, brought back to the general public in recent years thanks, also, to the Day of Remembrance.

Immediately after, the topic of the foibe was addressed, with the latest discoveries made in the Slovenian hinterland, thanks also to the active collaboration of the government of Ljubljana. The reports made for Tg2 by the journalist from Gorizia Andrea Romoli, who recently descended into some of these karst cavities, were proposed. Matteo Carnieletto and Fausto Biloslavo, instead, spoke about Tito's concentration camp, Goli Otok, visited in recent months, with some parallels linked to current events in Afghanistan. Also present at the debate was the president of the National League, Paolo Sardos Albertini.

In the wake of the Centenary of Gabriele d'Annunzio's expedition to Fiume and the Carta del Carnaro, the volume “Quis contra nos” by Federico Lorenzo Ramaioli was presented, dedicated to the experience of the Italian Regency of Caranaro, one of whose mottos was precisely this evangelical quote. Alessandro Agrì (UniMoRe), Marino Micich (Historical Archive Museum of Fiume) and Giuseppe Parlato (President of the scientific committee of the CDM) spoke together with the author.

The final evening was also dedicated to cinema with the presentation, by Alessandro Cuk, of the box set on Alida Valli, consisting of a book with the biography of the actress born in Pola and the DVD with the documentary “Alida” by Mimmo Verdesca. The film narrates the life of the actress from Polesano through the unpublished words of her letters and diaries, enriched by photographs, private footage and other archive material.

«The balance of these four days of Stall – comments with satisfaction Renzo Codarin, President of the CDM – it is more than positive, but above all in the various meetings between prominent figures of Julian culture, historians and experts new ideas and new projects have been born»

The multimedia documentary “We exiles”, created in collaboration with the Trieste daily newspaper The small starting from the pages of his archive dedicated to the question of exiles in the immediate post-war period, it has been very successful: «This “longform” – continues Codarin enthusiastically – has also attracted the attention of other national media: the more the history of the eastern Italian border is known and spread, the more it becomes a vehicle for cultural growth which in turn will broaden our knowledge on the subject»

The Bancarella is therefore becoming a format that can be exported: «The showcase of Nova Gorica – Gorizia European Capital of Culture 2025 will be very important for us – explains the President of the CDM, an institute that brings together many associations from the world of the Adriatic diaspora – but we are also looking with interest at the Italian capitals of culture in the coming years. Foibe and Exodus are pages of national history, the community of exiles and their descendants (increasingly attentive and aware of their own history) is scattered throughout Italy and we are studying the formula to create days of study to be included in the calendar of events of this event. Lidia Bastianich, moreover, has said she is available to continue her collaboration with us, so we are thinking of an event to be held together with her in New York, in order to make the history of the Julian-Dalmatian component known overseas within the wider Italian-American community»