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by Tiziano Thomas Dossena (Editor), Dominic Anthony Campanile (Illustrator), Maria Sara Forcellini (Translator)
Considered both a historical essay and a novel, "The Rose Avenue" is the fruit of eleven years of research, dozens of interviews, memories, and documents collected between San Marino and Milan, and investigations carried out across 12 countries, from Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to the Jewish Museum in Merano.
It reconstructs the stories of Jewish refugees in San Marino, drawing on evidence never analyzed before: the increase in the number of passports issued in San Marino in 1944. 800 permits marking identities which were never recorded because they were to remain undisclosed.
How could a small republic like San Marino, which then had just over 15,000 inhabitants and was ruled by a Fascist government, manage to help so many Jews fleeing from racial persecution? Did the inhabitants have the perception of the risk they were running by hosting them in a state which, of course, was neutral and sovereign, but still surrounded by Fascist Italy and the war?
"The Rose Avenue" is a historical journey through the recollections of those who survived, those who were only children or young adults at the time, and it surprises the world with the revelation of the deep humanity demonstrated by San Marino's citizens.
