August Pichler (1898-1963) was a lawyer in Bolzano. As an opponent of National Socialism, he belonged to the inner circle of those who stayed and strongly opposed the option. In 1943, Pichler had to flee to Switzerland to escape persecution by the SS. From 1945 to 1946, he was South Tyrol's only representative in the Roman Consulta Nazionale, where he advocated for the rights of the German and Ladin-speaking minority. Recently, the long-lost diary entries have surfaced. The diary, which began on March 31, 1944, emerged from the immediacy of exile life. The text is an emotional rollercoaster, shaped by the nerve-wracking strain of constant changes in location and camp, as well as the ongoing worry for the family left behind. "In its brevity," writes historian Hans Heiss in the foreword, "it exemplarily concentrates the experiential patterns of a late Alt-Tyrolean who preserved and strengthened his conservative values and sense of homeland against the pressures of National Socialism, totalitarian Italy, and despite social exclusion by many fellow countrymen.".