Presentation “Nella notte straniera – Gli ebrei di Saint Martin Vésubie”

Unfaithful to Themselves
Rewriting a Book 40 Years Later

Presentation of the new, updated edition of the book *Nella notte straniera*.
The author, Alberto Cavaglion, will be present to discuss the book with Paolo Veziano.
An aperitif will follow.

Between 1939 and 1943, a succession of tragic events in Europe caused a large number of Jews fleeing persecution to converge along the western Alpine arc. Italy’s racial laws, the outbreak of World War II, the subsequent Italian invasion of southern France, and the German capture of Paris created a kind of fatal gravitational pull, drawing in scores of families—women, the elderly, and children. They sought refuge first along the coast connecting the Italian Riviera (Riviera di Ponente) and the French Riviera (figures such as Walter Benjamin or Arthur Koestler come to mind), and later along the French slopes of the mountains rising from the Vésubie Valley up to Haute-Savoie. Most were “foreigners”—people who had arrived in Italy after 1933 or had fled Paris after its occupation by the SS—including Poles, Russians, Hungarians, and Austrians. Between Nice and Saint-Martin, they experienced a period of relative calm, a brief interlude before their flight across Alpine passes alongside a retreating army and into an uncertain future in Nazi-occupied Italy. For some, arrival in Italy meant first internment at the Borgo San Dalmazzo camp, followed by deportation to Auschwitz. For the survivors, the valleys of the Cuneo area served as a haven until the Liberation. It is a story of great emotional intensity, yet one that poses a complex challenge for historians. How, indeed, can one resolve the contradiction of a country like Italy—which had adopted ferocious racial legislation, yet abandoned such ferocity when faced with the extermination strategies of its ally and a regime like the collaborationist Vichy government?

The flyer is available