Rituality, Ideology and Emotions. Practices of Commemoration of the Giorno del Ricordo in Trieste.

This article discusses the displacements and the violence against civilians during and after the Second World War in the Upper Adriatic area and their consequences in the political and cultural dynamics of Trieste form the Cold War to the process of European integration. The author analyzes how these topics interacted with personal and collective memory, with historiography and with debates shaped by the political competitions, by the ideological divisions of the Cold War and by the expectations and preoccupations connected to the process of European integration. Transnational cooperation and conflict among the population of the Northern Adriatic were and still are influenced by how each national public opinion have perceived and presented the events and memory of interethnic and ideological violence. This article will analyze, in particular, the new interest of Triestine and Italy public opinion for the commemoration of Italians as victims of mass killings (the foibe) and population transfer (the esodo), and will try to contextualize it in the framework of the politicization of historical discourses and public memories.