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The refugees in Ticino

Chiasso, Stabio, Mendrisiotto

Key figures: Christian Schiefer

Further reading: The Second World War seen from Ticino (RSI, in Italian)

The flood (September 1943). After the armistice and the German occupation of northern Italy, thousands of people sought refuge in Switzerland. Despite the border guards, what poured onto the frontier was «a flood»: on 18 September there were already 14,000 refugees in Ticino, rising to 25,000 within a few days. They were mostly soldiers, but also civilians, Jews, women and children.

The welcome (1943–1945). In Chiasso the Comacini football ground became a refugee camp; throughout the canton schools, boarding schools, cinemas and factories were requisitioned, and the population donated food and clothes. Among the refugees were soldiers from all over the world: Serbs, Poles, Indians from the Commonwealth, even Senegalese. By the end of the war Ticino, with 160,000 inhabitants, had taken in 45,000 refugees.

The photographs of Christian Schiefer (1943). The photojournalist Christian Schiefer, enlisted in the army press service, documented the border crossings and life in the camps. Many of his pictures were censored so as not to alarm the population. Today they are kept at the State Archives of the Canton of Ticino and at the Swiss Federal Archives.
The Chiasso border crossing with the barrier, the customs booth and the canopy, and behind them the houses of Ponte Chiasso
The Chiasso customs post on the road to Como, the crossing through which thousands of refugees entered in September 1943

Photo: Berger, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

A street between buildings with cars queuing towards the customs canopy and road signs for Como
The Chiasso crossing seen from the Italian side, with the «Como» and «Confine di Stato» (State border) signs

Photo: giovanni zagaria, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Dense crowd of men and women in raincoats on a rain-soaked square, seen from above
The crowd of former Italian refugees in Lugano for the tenth anniversary of their flight to Switzerland, 1953

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Photographer: Hans Gerber / Com_M02-0370-0001 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Men in dark suits on a podium with microphones, a man in uniform with a cap and an embroidered banner in the background
Speakers on the podium of the commemoration in Lugano; on the right the banner of the Italian Motorcycling Federation, 1953

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Photographer: Hans Gerber / Com_M02-0370-0011 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Square packed with people in front of buildings with flowered balconies, a band on the left and a street lamp in the foreground
Lugano, 20 September 1953: ten years after fleeing to Switzerland, thousands of former Italian refugees return to Ticino and fill a square in the centre to thank those who had taken them in

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Photographer: Hans Gerber / Com_M02-0370-0009 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Elderly man in a light jacket speaking into a microphone, sheltered by a black umbrella held by someone behind him
A speech in the rain during the commemoration of the former Italian refugees in Lugano, 1953

ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Photographer: Hans Gerber / Com_M02-0370-0006 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Ticino in wartime (in Italian)
RSI Info