Chapter 6 discusses the relationships of refugees from the front-line towns to the bombarded communities they left behind. It outlines the size of the refugee populations from the front-line towns, and maps their destinations within the French interior. It demonstrates that most refugees from the front-line towns experienced forced displacement alongside others from their home communities, and that this geography of displacement allowed refugees to remain socially, emotionally, and imaginatively involved in their bombarded home communities. In this way, refugees remained members of the front-line communities, even while displaced. To date, the refugee history of the First World War has focused on the attitudes of the state and host communities in the interior towards refugees. This chapter, in contrast, makes a significant contribution to the historiography by focusing on the attitudes and actions of refugees themselves. Using refugee newspapers, diaries, and a previously unknown collection of letters, it argues that refugees from the front-line towns were not merely the passive recipients of state and charitable aid, but could actively shape the conditions of their exile by remaining invested in their abandoned home towns and making appeals based on their French citizenship.
Nazione e Stato nella storia d'Italia