The fearless Zurich woman Lilly Volkart saved the lives of countless “Bambini Emigrati” during the Second World War – Mattia Bertoldi has made a wonderful and gripping novel out of Lilly’s life. The event will be held in German.

At the end of the 1920s, Lilly Volkart founded a private children’s home above Lake Maggiore, where she mainly looked after children of wealthy families and children of artists. Barely twenty years later, as the National Socialist reign of terror rages in Europe, the holiday domicile in Mediterranean surroundings becomes a place of refuge for Bambini Emigrati, mostly Jewish children, who reach Switzerland under unimaginable hardships.

Presented by: Mattia Bertoldi, born 1986 in Lugano, studied Italian and English literature and linguistics in Zurich. He writes short stories, novels, newspaper articles and television series. In 2022, the historical novel Il coraggio di Lilly was published, which is now being translated into German as Mattia Bertoldi’s first work. The author lives in Lugano.