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 alive the memory of this tragic event by having them tell them episodes and events of their journey and of their arrival in the refugee camps and of 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 activities in order to integrate into the new territory.

Alberto Comuzzi – Donatella Salambat, Witnesses of an Exodus: The Troubled Human Story of Istrians, Julians, and Dalmatians from 1943 to 1954 , Mimep-Docete, Pessano con Bornago (MI) 2021, 192 pp.

Authors:

Alberto Comuzzi was born in Milan in 1949. A student of Professor Gianfranco Miglio, after graduating in Political Science and completing a two-year specialization course at the Catholic University's School of Social Communication, he became a journalist at the daily newspaper "Avvenire." In 1979, he joined Periodici San Paolo ( Famiglia Cristiana, Jezus, Il Giornalino, Telenova) and remained there for thirty years. Since 2010, he has directed Alpi Media Group (Resegoneonline, Valtellinanews, Comolive, Vareseinluce), a network of online newspapers founded with several colleagues. He is the author of several biographies of clergymen, including Saint John Leonardi (published by San Paolo); Don Giovanni Minzoni (published by Messaggero); Saint Arcangelo Tadini (published by Coedit 3); several Xaverian martyrs (published by Confortani); and a book on the delicate issue of the intertwining of information and advertising, "Come fratelli siamese" (published by Áncora).

Donatella Salambat, of Istrian origins (her family has been in Polesine for generations), was born in Milan, where she lives, in 1967. After graduating as a business expert, she joined Rusconi, where she collaborated for two years with the publications Gente, Gente Mese, and Scienza & Vita Nuova . In 1990, she left editorial work and entered the banking world, holding various roles until 2001, when she moved to the financial sector, where she remained until 2005. For five years, she then held a position in the General Management – ​​external relations line (with media and journalists) – of one of the most important institutions in the private healthcare sector in Lombardy. In 2014, she returned to active journalism, coordinating the publications of Alpi Media Group ; she is editor-in-chief of the online publication Monzaindiretta.

From the website of the Diocese of Trieste, we share the book's preface , written by Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi.

I read the book with interest and emotional involvement Witnesses of an exodus by Alberto Comuzzi and Donatella Salambat, where the testimonies of some children of parents who had to abandon their land, the social and cultural ties that gave them identity and their dearest family affections were collected.
The publication opens with the memory of Alcide De Gasperi, followed by twelve stories that concern events that preceded and followed each person and family who, although marked by pain and misfortune, began to get involved again even when far from their own social and religious environment and to integrate into the new civil fabric.
From many of the testimonies reported, it emerges that the majority of those who had to undertake the path of exodus communicated with a certain reticence to their children the tragedy they had experienced and the anguish they had endured in the refugee camps, while waiting to be able to resume a decent life, made up of work and family harmony.
Bringing to light and sharing the suffering endured by the populations of Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia is a meritorious act of this book and, at the same time, an act of justice in the face of a guilty oblivion with which for many, too many years, the causes of the drama of the exodus and the foibe have been hidden.
My predecessor, Archbishop Monsignor Antonio Santin, always made his courageous and prophetic voice heard in denouncing the silences on a terrible tragedy, placing himself and exposing himself, with loyalty and without half measures, always on the side of historical truth. Even on the day of the return of Trieste to Italy in 1954, before the President of the Republic Luigi Einaudi, he recalled the 'unjust tearing of Zone B from the Mother Country'.
So, let us welcome these memories that preserve and cultivate memory so that these tragedies never happen again.
I express the hope that this publication, which does justice to too many silences of the recent past, will have the right and deserved diffusion, especially among the younger generations.

✠ Giampaolo Crepaldi