Volterra, fascism, and France (Q2795316)

The paper in issue focuses on the relationship between Vito Volterra and the fascist regime from 1922 to 1940. The author publishes excerpts of letters by Pérès, Picard and Labérenne after Volterra's refusal to take oath to the regime in 1931. These French mathematicians bore witness to the high esteem in which Volterra was held in France. Four other excerpts from letters are printed, after Volterra's exclusion from any Italian scientific society for racist reasons. As a matter of fact, Volterra was Jew and the laws of 1938 introduced in Italy a racial discrimination towards Jewish people. These excerpts are taken from letters of Brelot, Picard, Régnier and Jacques and Louise Hadamard. Once more, France was reliable for Volterra and worried about his uncertain destiny. In fact, Borel tried to find an appointment for Volterra in France similar to an academical position in 1938.NEWLINENEWLINETo Volterra was spared the fate of other Jewish people, being a senator of the Kingdom of Italy from 1905. This way, he could hold his estate. 1940 he died almost isolated from the Italian scientific community in Rome. After the racial laws of 1938, Volterra was expelled from any Italian scientific community, but not from the Pontifical Academy of Science; in fact, his last works were published in the Acta Pontifica Academia Scientiarum. It was Pope Pius IX himself to nominate Volterra as a member of the Pontifical Academy in 1936.NEWLINENEWLINEVolterra's attitude to fascism was a little ambiguous, since he was faithful till the end to the king, who kept him apart from Mussolini's regime. For this reason, he did not flee to France and was always proud of being a senator of the Italian Kingdom. Volterra's political views were liberal. What he did not understand was that with takeover of Mussolini in 1922 the liberal state was dead. The highest political authority was the king, also during the fascist regime; therefore, the King could in any moment blame Mussolini or imprison him (as what happened on the 8th of September 1943), but he did not so. The alleged coup d'état by Mussolini was a farce, a fake takeover, because the king was not opposed to it or to Mussolini's regime, and in the parliament Mussolini was flanked by the Liberal Party too. The king was silent also after Matteotti's murdering (1924).