The episode is part of an initiative created by the Gambalunga Library and the Institute for the History of Resistance and the Contemporary Age
Patrizia Di Luca, head of the Permanent Study Center on Emigration of the University of San Marino, edited the second episode of the podcast series “Rimini inwar 1943 – 1945”, created by the Gambalunga Library and the Institute for the History of the Resistance and of the Contemporary Age to tell the stories of those who faced violence, hunger and fear in the capital of Romagna, but not only, during the Second World War.
Titled "The sea behind us - the displacement from Rimini", the study offers listeners the opportunity to retrace the main dynamics that affected the Riviera when many, due to the bombings, left their homes to reach the Titan, neutral territory: “It was a particularly traumatic experience,” says Di Luca in the approximately 30 minutes of the podcast. Valmarecchia and Valconca were also affected: "People were forced to leave their homes, to flee, leaving with little luggage."
Many, it is highlighted, moved on foot: "And the emergency also involved the bureaucracy, with the need to take a census of the San Marino territory", continues the academic. “It is important to underline, San Marino has never closed its borders”. And again: “There was direct management by the Titan authorities who invited the population, through legislative enactments, to set fair rents and fair rates for housing. The San Marino people and Italians who arrived due to the bombings thus shared the hardships and shortcomings of the war period".
Furthermore, some institutions moved to the republic: "For example, the Municipality of Rimini, which opened an office for displaced people from which it distributed ration cards, given that San Marino had made agreements to distribute food within the territory. Wheat, a little butter, very little sugar and oil. Fifty grams of bread per person per day." Banking institutions also moved: "Since July 1944, when the city of Rimini was empty, Italian public pensions and salaries were paid by the Bank of Italy at the Dogana railway station."
The full episode, presented at a public event on December 29th in the church of San Bernardino, in Rimini, is available on the Spotify platform.