Between the 19th and the 20th century the port of Trieste was a fundamental hub in Europe and Italy for Jewish emigration to Palestine, especially for Jews coming from Eastern Europe, while after 1933 it became the main flight route for German and Austrian Jews heading to the Americas and Shanghai.
The essay analyses, on the basis of available historiography and on the study of oral and visual sources, the phases and the organisation of this migration flow through the Adriatic port, focusing on the role played by the Italian Committee for Assistance to Jewish Emigrants of Trieste until 1943, which thanks to its network of connections with the major Jewish agencies, the Italian authorities and the shipping companies made possible the departure of thousands of people towards safety.
The focus of the essay is on the spaces that were reserved for Jewish emigration to Trieste, the bureaucratic procedures necessary for departure and the individual experiences, which allow us to reconstruct, through ego-documents, the emotions, desires, fears and hopes of the refugees.
