Abstract

The article discusses intertwining between politics, history, and memory in relation to migrations from the Upper Adriatic after World War II. Already since the Nineties, but in particular after 2004 when the ‘Giorno del Ricordo’ was introduced as a National Day of Remembrance, the collective memories of the Istrian refugees (seen generally through two most emotional events: «exodus» and the «foibe» atrocities) became one of the main pillars of the new national Italian identity. At the same time, two processes were pushed into the background: the difficult integration of the Istrians into what they saw as their «homeland» (Italy) and the history of those who decided to remain in Yugoslavia (as the new «Italian minority»).