With the present publication of a book as part of its series of events titled “Corfu remembers...”, the Albert Cohen Corfu Association participates in this year’s centennial commemoration of the 1922 Asia Minor refugee problem, with a general reference to that event, as well as to other refugee flows to Corfu throughout the centuries.
The reference to the tragic nature of such events falls specifically within our Association's purposes, because of the philosophy and the related humanitarian activities of Albert Cohen, in his effective career in that field with the United Nations.
We believe that the difference between the terms “refugee” and “immigrant” should be kept in mind, as it often happens that these two distinctive conditions appear to be confused. This critical distinction happens to be clarified in the introduction to Prof. S. Livas’ article about the Jewish community in Corfu. We would like to thank him, as well as all the other authors of the articles, for their invaluable contribution to the present edition’s contents.
We should note that every effort was made on our part to acquire additional data or articles about eventual, not specifically recognized cases of refugee flows to Corfu. Unfortunately, we were not able to find any, neither did we get a response to related personal requests. Other historians or persons that may be in possession of documented data on that subject could maybe fill that gap of information for all those interested in our island’s history, as a place that has been at the receiving end of refugee flows for centuries, due to its geographic position and historically changeable political situation.
As it always happens with our Association’s publications, despite the detailed and fully documented authors’ articles included in this book, it does not claim to be of a professional level. Our intention and wish remain to provide information and, hopefully, instigate further research by specialists on the subject, that would bring to light still unknown facts of Corfu’s history. Its purpose, as is characteristically given by the general title “Corfu remembers...”, is mainly the awakening of the readers’ memory – but also of their awareness about the, unfortunately, recurring refugee problems around the world.
* The articles’ content was obviously the choice of the authors themselves, and expresses their personal views, especially about the refugee status of the various human groups that came to Corfu)