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Hot Chocolate for Two, Nunzia Gionfriddo's Book for Remembrance Day
On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, to not forget the massacres of the foibe and the Istrian exodus, “Cioccolata calda per due” by the Neapolitan author Nunzia Gionfriddo, published by Phoenix Publishing, arrives in bookstores. On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, celebrated every year on February 10, to not forget the massacres of the foibe and the Istrian exodus, “Cioccolata calda per due” by the Neapolitan author Nunzia Gionfriddo, published by Phoenix Publishing and winner of the Premio Milano International, arrives in bookstores in the new updated version. A complex novel, vaguely romantic, even if the title is misleading. The title in fact refers to a love story, in...
The “remaining” Julians, victims of history
“Bora” by Anna Maria Mori and Nelida Milani (Frassinelli, 1998, 240 p.) contains the testimony of two women, natives of Pola, whose young lives were affected by the tragic events of the Second World War with the exodus of the Italian population from Istria, Fiume, Dalmatia. This marked forever, for them as for many of us natives of those lands, the irreversible laceration between the “before” and the “after”. At the end of the book there is a chronology of the main historical events that concern us. It was written by Antonella Scarpa, who, we learn, “lives in Venice where she studies contemporary history, and works as a librarian. Daughter of an exile who has...
“The Little Girl with the Suitcase”, a story by Egea Haffner
"This is how a long, exciting and overwhelming journey began for Egea and me, which led us to get to know each other and become friends. It takes courage to tell a historical moment that is still the subject of fierce discussions. It takes trust to open the treasure chest of family memories and share them with young readers. It takes a careful look at the past, but firmly projected into the future. It takes meaning, energy, emotion. It takes Egea Haffner". The words of the writer Gigliola Alvisi, contained in the preface of La bambina con la valigia, in bookstores for a few days (Piemme), reveal the genesis of the project: to write and publish the first book for children and...
Those days of pain that we must never forget
Compare April 25 and February 10. Two dates that evoke Italian history: the first celebrates "the day of liberation", the second "the day of remembrance". The last world war is over, and those two dates seem to recall two different wars fought by Italy: the first won, the second lost. And even the demonstrations are opposite: April 25 is celebrated in a triumphal way, flags in the wind that, over the years, have become increasingly red, leaving aside the tricolor, rallies praising a new morality, a new Italian man. February 10 is a day of sadness; it was difficult to introduce it into the calendar of...
Exiles twice. From their homes, from their homeland
The borders drawn at the end of the Second World War in Europe and the resulting new political geography of the eastern Adriatic regions caused a resumption of economic emigration that was intertwined, sometimes inextricably, with the legal and clandestine expatriations of populations that felt threatened from an ideological and/or national point of view. The exodus of the Italian population from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia was the most direct reaction to the radical change in social and political regime imposed on their living conditions by Yugoslavian communism. There is no actual data available on all locations, but some surveys...
Mattarella: «Remembrance is a commitment to civilization»
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, released the following statement: "The Day of Remembrance calls the Republic to recollection and solidarity with the families and descendants of those who were cruelly killed and thrown into the foibe, of the Italians torn from their homes and forced to exodus, of all those who on the eastern border had to pay the highest human costs for the horrors of the Second World War and its prolongation in persecution, violent nationalism, oppressive totalitarianism. It is a civil commitment to preserve and renew the memory of the tragedy...
“Il Dalmata” of January 2022 is available on dalmatitaliani.org
The January 2022 issue of "Il Dalmata", a monthly magazine of the Association of Italian Dalmatians in the World - Free Municipality of Zadar in Exile, can be consulted online for free or downloaded in PDF format from the dalmatitaliani.org website: Il Dalmata - January 2022 In this issue, ample space is dedicated to the inauguration of the portal linked to the historic Zadar newspaper dalmatitaliani.org, which took place on January 14. We also highlight an in-depth study dedicated to the children of the Exodus by Professor Adriana Ivanov Danieli and a review of images related to the sailing and regatta environment in Zadar between the two wars...
The recital “That Italy Across the Sea”
“It is not true that I, and all three hundred and fifty thousand Istrian exiles, are, were, bourgeois and fascists. It is not true that all of Istria was Slavic and had to return to Yugoslavia. It is not true that all my people are only nostalgic and irredentist”. “And if you had stayed? If with cunning patience you had remained in Istria, in your home, your houses, your stables, your fields, your apartments, would not have been occupied. All the liberators would have left, one after the other” “It was not we who wanted to leave; the truth was and is that “they” did not want us on those lands, which they claimed to erase,...
“Witnesses of an Exodus” by Alberto Comuzzi and Donatella Salambat
Twelve first-hand testimonies collected by the grandchildren of Istrian exiles who in 1943 had to flee their land, leaving everything they had. Often, out of modesty or fear, they did not even talk about their tragedy, fearing they would not be believed. The grandchildren have been able to keep the memory of this tragic event alive by having them tell episodes and developments of both their journey and their arrival in the refugee camps and the not always cordial welcome they received. But there is always a force that pushes towards rebirth; in the volume there are also testimonies of how, even in the most difficult conditions, many of these people have been able to recreate relationships and...
“Three times love, three times violence”, a page of the exodus
VIII edition of "500 Words", a national literary competition organized by Spazi all'Arte Aps: Love is not violence: third place, Paola Gaspardis, daughter of exiles from Fiume. A national competition, that of 500 words, Ostia 2021, now in its VIII edition, which this year touched on a theme that could not be ignored: love is not violence. An important topic that I faced with courage, especially in telling a story that is very dear to me. I am Paola Gaspardis, proudly daughter of exiles from Fiume, born and raised in another seaside town Ostia, a municipality of Rome, which was able to welcome me and give me that Homeland that should have been elsewhere. Always...
