L’emigrazione intellettuale dall’Italia fascista : Studenti e studiosi ebrei dell’Università di Firenze in fuga all’estero

Abstract

What happened to the university teachers who were expelled after the racial laws of 1938? And what about the more numerous and less known unstructured scholars who were suspended from service? What did the students who were denied university enrolment or the new graduates with no prospects for their future do? The university archives tell us nothing about this; the general aim was for scholars and students who were declared of "Jewish race" to be cancelled and forgotten. It was not a small number of them who decided to leave Italy. What were their paths and help networks? How were they treated abroad? How much did Italian culture suffer from those losses? After the war, did universities try to restore them? The expatriates who returned could have brought new knowledge and ideas, but many never returned. Why? By focusing on the relevant case of Florence, the volume investigates the minimized phenomenon of intellectual emigration for political and racial reasons. A recent past in need of consideration and reflection.