Born in 1941, Egea Haffner, originally from Pula, is "The little girl with the suitcase" portrayed by the photographer Giacomo Szentivànyi, when she was five years old.
That shot, donated to the Egea museum in Fertilia, later became the official poster of the Day of Remembrance, the symbol of the exodus of the Julian-Dalmatians. On the proposal of the mayor Mario Conoci in the last session of the municipal council, a unanimous vote was taken to confer honorary citizenship on the Istrian exile.
Among the reasons behind the Council's decision "the deep and sincere bond with our community, and in particular with Fertilia, which has now become inseparable, also testified by the precious concession to the Museum, which tells the story of Fertilia and the Julian Exodus- Dalmatian, to be able to use her name and from the donation to the Egea Museum of the precious photograph that portrays her with the suitcase and the sign "Esule Giuliana 30.001", symbol of all the exiles scattered around the world".
Egea Haffner - it is reported in the resolution - represents an important symbol of the Julian-Dalmatian exodus embodied by the image that portrays her as a child, taken by her grandmother and aunt Ilse on 6 July 1946 in memory of her departure, which still today represents a important document with an intense emotional and symbolic charge, recounting the anxieties and expectations of the exiles who lived the drama of detachment from their native land.
Those anxieties, that sacrifice, that desperation personified by Egea Haffner were the same ones that numerous Istrian families felt when they arrived in Alghero, inextricably linking themselves with our community and with that of Fertilia where the descendants of those Italians from Istria still live today land of their fathers. The public announcement, in the presence of the local authorities, will take place after the summer with the delivery of a certificate of recognition containing the reasons.
