Unclaimed objects, reclaimed history

This article examines the interplay between cultural identity, objects and memory in the Istrian exile community in Trieste, Italy. The close of the second World War and the transfer of Istria from Italy to the newly established socialist state of Yugoslavia saw the migration of the majority of Italians to Trieste and abroad. This article focuses on the objects held in Magazzino 18, a warehouse at the old port of Trieste, which were left unclaimed after the Istrian exodus of 1943–56. It analyses 1) how the exile community relies on the tools of Holocaust memorialisation to carve out its own narrative through objects, 2) how the imposition of the Holocaust model undermines intercultural understanding by insisting on a frame of competition and singularity, and 3) how that process ultimately obscures the role and responsibility of Italian fascism in the borderland.