On Monday, May 18, the event “A Journey Through Memory for a Culture of Peace” took place at Palazzo Giordani, headquarters of the Province of Parma. The meeting marked the official presentation of the National Arandora Star Association and brought together institutional representatives, historians, and scholars with the aim of preserving the memory of one of the least-known tragedies of the Second World War.

At the center of the event was the story of the Arandora Star, the British passenger ship sunk on July 2, 1940, after being torpedoed by a German submarine while transporting Italian, German, and Austrian internees to Canada. Approximately 865 people lost their lives in the disaster, including 446 Italians living in the United Kingdom, many of them originally from the Emilia-Romagna region.

Among the speakers during the morning were the President of the Province of Parma Alessandro Fadda, Parma Mayor Michele Guerra, the Rector of the University of Parma Paolo Martelli, and the association’s president Giuseppe Conti, alongside historians and researchers committed to recovering the historical memory connected to Italian emigration.

Special attention was also dedicated to the five victims from Cremona — Carlo Bissolotti, Ettore Feraboli, Gaetano Fracassi, Battista Piloni, and Patrocco Ribaldi — symbols of a tragedy that remained largely forgotten in Italy’s collective memory for decades.

The initiative forms part of a broader institutional and cultural effort aimed at achieving national recognition for the memory of the Arandora Star tragedy, now increasingly considered a significant chapter in the history of Italian emigration and the impact of war on civilian communities.