Perugia and its University. Persecutions of Jews in 1938

Abstract

In 1938 the University of Perugia, led by the anti-Semitic rector Paolo Orano, implemented rapidly the racist laws passed by the Fascist regime. Three professors were expelled: Cesare Finzi, ordinario of Chimica farmaceutica, Gino De Rossi, ordinario of Microbiologia agraria, and Giorgio Todesco, straordinario of Fisica. Bernardo Dessau, a well-known physicist retired and professore emerito in 1938, was cancelled from the yearbooks of the University and excluded from the academic life. Two assistenti were initially expelled and then reinstated: Quinto Micheletti, who taught Patologia speciale chirurgica, and Leonardo Viviani, assistente at the Faculty of Scienze politiche.