Regina Zimet's Escape Route Map

In 1939, the Zimet family escaped Germany to Italy in pursuit of Israel. They made it as far as Libya before being captured and sent to an Italian detention camp. When Germany began deporting Jewish people from Italy to Polish death camps, the family attempted to escape to  Switzerland. They made it as far as San Bello, where the Della Nave family hid them for a year and a half.  Regina, who was 10-years-old during the time, illustrated the perilous journey in her diary. The map includes details like the method of transportation for each leg of the journey, the name of the villages they found respite in, and the height of the mountains they passed through.

The contrast of the perils of this journey and the threat that the family faced if they were to fail with the childishness of Regina drawing it in red crayon is absolutely devastating and shows the potential for maps as means for not only depicting a space, but also for portraying a journey in an expressive way. Regina's drawing may not be a scientifically precise rendering of the path that the family took, but it shows us the journey from her perspective. We get to see what details of the escape were most important to her by what she notes and how, which are likely quite different from what her parents would have noted. Beyond just the journey, we get to understand Regina's experience through her own depiction of it.