engleski

Italians or ‘Foreigners’? The Multilayered Memories of Istrian Refugees in Italy

The aim of this article is to propose some critical reflections on the memories of those communities that left Istria in the period following the Second World War and moved to Italy. The events which represent the core of the collective memory of the Istrian refugees, and which regard above all the experience of the so- called exodus and foibe, did not find a place in the public memory in Italy for a long time. Things radically changed in 2004 when ‘Giorno del Ricordo’ was established as a national day of remembrance and those events and the collective memories of the Istrian refugees became one of the main pillars of the new national Italian identity. At the same time, the difficult process of integration and the painful experiences of the Istrians in the post-1945 Italian regions, which are an equally crucial part of their social memory, were pushed into the background.

Upper Adriatic, Istria, collective memory, exodus, refugees

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