Gioenian academicians between the two World Wars: science and the fasces in the Palace

Abstract

This contribution proposes the results of an exploration of documents present in the historical archive of the Gioenian Academy of Catania (Italy), concerning active members of the association during the period 1923-1945. Research shows that during events such as fascism, anti-Jewish persecution and anti-fascist purge, in the vicissitudes of academic associates, mostly naturalists and mathematicians, there is a common plot that makes them indistinguishable or in communion with the experiences of colleagues of humanistic or economic disciplines active and/or processed in the same period. The Gioenian academicians have lived, suffered and repeated gestures of surveillance, accusation and defense that go beyond their specialist knowledge. They fit perfectly into a conceptual framework aimed at outlining the anti-Jewish purge first and anti-fascist after as events of transition towards a country that has returned to democracy after World War II.