Until September 1943, the customs post of Brissago Madonna di Ponte remained relatively quiet in terms of activity. The war was certainly perceived as something terrible and serious, but distant. At the beginning of the conflict, the presence along the Brissago border was ensured by the Border Guards of the IV District, under the command of Major Angelo Gianola. Despite the overthrow and imprisonment of Mussolini on July 25, 1943, just a few of the fascists attempted to cross this border during the summer of the same year. However, everything changed with the announcement of the armistice on September 8, 1943.
Through this crossing, and even more so through the rare passages along the border, especially along Val Mara, several thousand Italian soldiers, former Allied prisoners, civilians, and above all Jews, transited. This crossing proved difficult, made even more extreme by the Swiss reception policy towards these individuals. Despite it being clear that if they were captured by the Germans and fascists, refugees would risk imprisonment and often deportation, due to the German occupation of nearby Italy, there was such a high influx that the Federal authorities closed the borders, which were later reopened due to pressure from the Ticino authorities. The second tightening came after the Decree of the Social Republic in November '43, which ordered the arrest of all Jews. The new wave led to the complete closure of the borders by Bern.
The reception policy towards Jews changed only in the autumn of 1944 when it became evident that the Third Reich was nearing its end.
Testimonies of rejections are scarce, as most of those who had the misfortune of being turned away later perished in extermination camps, especially in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The route of rejection usually followed this pattern: the family or individual Jew was captured by the Nazi fascists near the border. After undergoing grueling interrogations to extract the names of smugglers or those who had helped them, the individuals were initially taken to the San Vittore prison in Milan. Later on, towards the end of January 1944, there was a main convoy, called number 6, which departed from Milan Central Station, specifically from platform 21, that is now an important museum on the Holocaust in Northern Italy. Convoy number 6, which left Milan on January 30, 1944, arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 7 days. Of the 600 Jewish people who were part of this convoy, at least 150 had been captured near the border while attempting to escape to Switzerland or, in fewer cases, even rejected by Swiss authorities. Of these individuals, only around thirty survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp and were able to return to Italy. Among the survivors, the most well-known is Senator Liliana Segre, who was deported at the age of 13.