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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

A tribute to Italian physiologists of Jewish descent evicted during the persecution ordered by the Fascist Regime in 1938

Institute of Human Physiology, School of Medicine, Catholic University, Rome, Italy

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: D. Troiani, Institute of Physiology UCSC, Largo F. Vito 1, Rome 00168, Italy (e-mail: d.troiani{at}rm.unicatt.it)

Abstract

The present report commemorates the persecution of five renown Italian physiologists of Jewish descent that lost their chairs in medical schools because of the anti-semitic policies of the fascist regime. In 1938, Mussolini promulgated the Racial Laws, officially with the aim of safeguarding the purity of the Italian race in conquered African colonies. However, their true intent was to persecute the Italian Jewish community in agreement with the policy of Nazi Germany. In accordance with the Racial Laws, all non-Aryans were banished from professional activities and were evicted from public, social, and academic life. As a result, 98 full professors in Italian universities were removed from their academic positions. In medical schools, physiology, more than other discipline, lost the most prominent faculty members. Of the 17 full Professors of Human Physiology, five were of Jewish descent, and all were evicted: they were Camillo Artom from Palermo, Mario Camis from Bologna, Carlo Foà from Milan, Amedeo Herlitzka from Turin, and Ugo Lombroso from Genoa. All were talented and famous scientists who were forced to leave Italy and take refuge in foreign countries. At the end of World War II, Camis, Foà, Herlitzka, and Lombroso returned to Italy and resumed their previous academic positions, whereas Artom remained in the United States. Unfortunately, Camis died later that year. During the postwar period, some of the fascists responsible for the Jewish persecution were killed or committed suicide while the survivors were imprisoned and prosecuted. However, all were soon released and resumed their former positions.

Key words: history of physiology; laws in defense of the race; anti-semitism