Vergarolla massacre a meeting with the Anvgd Committee of Milan – VareseInLuce.it

The Milan Provincial Committee of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia in collaboration with the Association of Italians from Pula and Istria – Free Municipality of Pula in Exile communicates that Thursday 18 April at 6pmlive on the Facebook page ANVGD of Milan. To make the history of Venezia Giulia known and passed on and deferred from the following day on the YouTube channel ANVGD Committee of Milan, the director Alessandro Quadretti will talk about: “The last resort. The story of Vergarolla told by a second generation exile director.” The documentary film “The last resort” retraces what happened on August 18, 1946 through the memories of the few survivors. That day, on Vergarolla beach, in Pula – the only part of Istria outside of Tito’s Yugoslav control, under Anglo-American administration – there were hundreds of people, including many children, ready to watch a renowned swimming competition . An event that also had the intention of maintaining a link with the rest of Italy. At 2.15pm the explosion of numerous mines, apparently defused – for a total of around nine tonnes of explosives – caused dozens of victims, 65 of whom were confirmed. The rescue efforts were complex and chaotic, many bodies were literally pulverized. The failure of the investigations and the failure to identify those responsible will end up crystallizing the belief among the citizens that Pola was a sort of bargaining chip in the game of the victorious powers of the war. Basically, the Italian population of Pula believed they were faced with a stark alternative: either to remain in their city at the mercy of a power that offered no guarantee in terms of personal safety and the defense of Italianness, or to take the path of exile. In the summer of 1946 the exodus was already a very real option. However, in the collective memory of the population the Vergarolla massacre was considered a turning point, in which even those who were uncertain became convinced that staying in the city, upon the departure of the Allies, would have been impossible. And although no trial has ever been held, the Vergarolla massacre is considered among the most serious attacks in the history of republican Italy: the death of over eighty Italians on a festive occasion still finds it difficult to find space in the books of history and national memory.