Eugenio Curiel (11 December 1912 – 24 February 1945) was an Italian-Jewish
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
, a prominent figure of the
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...
. He was awarded a gold medal (posthumously) for military valour.
Life
Eugenio Curiel was the first of four children of a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family of comfortable circumstances. His father, Giulio Curiel, was an
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
in the San Marco workshops of Trieste, and his mother, Lucia (née Limentani), was the sister of the Florentine
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, Ludovico "Ludo" Limentani.
After graduation from high school in 1929, he studied engineering for two years at the
University of Florence
The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled.
History
The first universi ...
. In 1931, he enrolled at the Politecnico di Milano University, but after a few months he returned to Florence, where he took up theoretical physics and lodged with his uncle, Ludovico, who taught moral philosophy at that university. Careful to maintain his independence, he taught privately and obtained a diploma in December 1932 to teach in primary schools. In 1933, a friend,
Bruno Rossi
Bruno Benedetto Rossi (; ; 13 April 1905 – 21 November 1993) was an Italian experimental physicist. He made major contributions to particle physics and the study of cosmic rays. A 1927 graduate of the University of Bologna, he became in ...
, who had obtained a chair in physics at
University of Padua
The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from B ...
, invited him to finish his studies there, which he managed to do, taking his degree
magna cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
.
Curiel was, however, subject to
neurasthenia
Neurasthenia (from the Ancient Greek νεῦρον ''neuron'' "nerve" and ἀσθενής ''asthenés'' "weak") is a term that was first used at least as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves and became a major diagnosis in North A ...
, and for some time was attracted to the
anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...
of
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...
, whose system of thought and practical life appeared to offer, as he confided to Rossi in a letter, a stimulus towards self-discipline that might allow him to adjust his physical and psychological outlook to the intellectual and moral rigour he already displayed. His interests in this area drew him away from the scientific career which seemed to be the natural direction for him after his degree. In November 1933, he accepted a position as reserve teacher of literature at the gymnasium school of
Montepulciano
Montepulciano () is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and ''comune'' in the Italian province of Siena in southern Tuscany. It sits high on a limestone ridge, east of Pienza, southeast of Siena, southeast of Florence, and north of Rome b ...
but returned to Padua in February 1934, where Bruno Rossi had obtained for him a position as university assistant in rational mechanics. In 1935, he joined a small clandestine communist cell at the university.
Joining the Communist Party
Curiel's fascination with Steiner's philosophy diminished with time, as he gradually developed an interest in the dominant currents of
idealist philosophy
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ide ...
, in particular
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...
,
Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...
,
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
,
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...
and
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile (; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian neo-Hegelian idealist philosopher, educator, and fascist politician. The self-styled "philosopher of Fascism", he was influential in providing an intellectual foundation for I ...
. At the same time, he was drawn into the study of more practical philosophical issues through a reading of the works of
Georges Sorel
Georges Eugène Sorel (; ; 2 November 1847 – 29 August 1922) was a French social thinker, political theorist, historian, and later journalist. He has inspired theories and movements grouped under the name of Sorelianism. His social and p ...
and anarchic syndicalism. He pursued these studies at the Institute of the Philosophy of Law, where he became friends with Ettore Luccini and Enrico Opocher. But, during his sojourn in Padua at this period, a decisive event was his renewal of acquaintance with his childhood friend, Atto Braun, with whom he shared lodgings. Braun was a clandestine member of the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and through his influence, Curiel read
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 p ...
Communist Manifesto
''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
's ''What to do?''. In 1935, Curiel became a member of the small communist cell at Padua University, which was led by Braun, Guido Goldschmied and Renato Mieli. He contributed articles on union issues from 1937 onwards for the magazine ''Il Bò'', the university newspaper. It was edited both by young fascists who had begun to feel disaffected by the orthodoxy of the regime and by antifascists such as Braun.
The Communist party tried to infiltrate union and student organisations run by the fascists in order to subtly reorient them towards an attitude critical of Fascism. This was one reason behind Curiel's trip to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, the site of the party's foreign offices, in March 1937. He formed contacts with
Emilio Sereni
Emilio Sereni (13 August 1907, Rome – 20 March 1977, Rome) was an Italian writer, politician and historian.
Biography
Born into a Jewish family of anti-fascist intellectuals, Sereni graduated from the Liceo Terenzio Mamiani in Rome. Broth ...
, Ambrogio Donini and Ruggiero Grieco. To this period may be dated an article he wrote under the pseudonym of Giorgio Intelvi, entitled ''Our economic and union work with the masses and the struggle for democracy'', which appeared in the review ''The Workers' State''. Curiel maintained that it was necessary to pressure students, by means of university publications, to get them to abandon the still residually corporative ideology of 'left-wing fascism', and have them recognize the 'class struggle'. Persuasion of the elected representatives of factory workers was also important, in order to build among them 'clandestine groups' that would then be able to exercise a political influence on the shop floor workers. The article was subject to some criticism – Egidio Gennari took exception to its abstract character and economism – but Curiel won Gennari's confidence nonetheless, for his intelligence, culture and willpower. Encouraged, he returned to Padua to continue his work there, while maintaining his contacts in Paris.
In early 1938, Curiel was ordered by the president of the Confederation of Italian Unions, Tullio Cianetti to present himself there. Cianetti had no idea of Curiel's real political sympathies, but invited him to be more prudent, given that his articles were being cited in the antifascist press abroad. He was asked to pay attention to attempts by 'subversives' to infiltrate fascist organisations.
Antisemitic legislation
Curiel's last article appeared in the August 20 edition of Il Bò. It was entitled, ''The union's reprisal'', where he wrote that the union must 'examine closely the way collective contracts are applied' and must take into account the will of workers as that is expressed in union assemblies. To support the idea that in a corporative regime the interests of both employers and workers overlap is proof only of shows 'blindness'. In the same review, however, there was another article listing the names of Jewish teachers in Italian universities. Curiel's name naturally figured among them. The period was one that declared a turnaround in the regime's politics, which now embraced a naziphile position, In November of the same year laws for 'the defence of the (Italian) race were decreed, and, in consequence, Curiel, like so many others, was deprived of his rights to teach.
His expulsion from the university not only made earning one's way more difficult; it also made him automatically a suspect as a possible antifascist and rendered his illegal political activities more arduous. Curiel traveled to
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, where, with the help of Sergio De Benedetti, he managed to make his way to the Parisian foreign office of the Communist party. There he encountered a climate of suspicion, and strong temptations to purge the group, since the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
had already denounced the presence of Italian
agent provocateur
An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...
s in the Italian branch. Eugenio Albo, who oversaw the newspaper 'The Voice of Italians' (''La Voce degli Italiani'') in fact would later be exposed as a spy of the
OVRA
The OVRA, whose most probable name was Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism ( it, Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo), was the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy, founded in 1927 under the ...
. Even though no specific charges were laid against him – indeed, he was even considered as a potential editor for a newspaper that was to be published in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
(the idea did not bear fruit) – Curiel passed months of great bitterness in Paris, an experience that led him, in January 1939, to take up contacts with other exponents of antifascism abroad, both socialists and members of the ''Justice and Liberty'' (
Giustizia e Libertà
Giustizia e Libertà (; en, Justice and Freedom) was an Italian anti-fascist resistance movement, active from 1929 to 1945.James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224. The mov ...
) movement. In the homonymous newspaper of this group he wrote an article entitled ''Discussion of unionism'' and passed on to the socialist Giuseppe Faravelli a short essay he had written, ''The working masses and the fascist unions'' (''Masse operaie e sindacato fascista'') where he reaffirmed the necessity of using the fascist unions to undertake antifascist political work with union workers. Curiel's intention was to set up a unified front of action uniting communists, socialists, and activists of the ''Justice and Liberty'' movement, though the activists were decidedly opposed to the proposition. The socialists were divided over this prospect.
In February 1939, Curiel returned to
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, where he lodged with his sister Grazia. In April he returned once more to Switzerland, where he discussed matters with
Pietro Nenni
Pietro Sandro Nenni (; 9 February 1891 – 1 January 1980) was an Italian socialist politician, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and senator for life since 1970. He was a recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1951. He w ...
, who was well-disposed to the idea of an accord with communists, and the possibility of organizing groups in Milan to pursue concerted action. He then attempted to enter France illegally but was stopped at the border and consigned to the Swiss police, who accompanied him back to the frontier with Italy. In Italy, in articles and letters, he continued to press for the necessity of establishing 'bonds' (with the communists' that would 'enlarge our contacts with the masses and exercise some influence on the bureaucratic tendencies of the
PCI
PCI may refer to:
Business and economics
* Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards
** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors
* Pro ...
and its blind, passive discipline'. Curiel was in
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
on the 24 June, 1939 when the police identified and arrested him.
Internment
Transferred to the Milanese prison of San Vittore, he revealed nothing that his interrogators did not already know. On January the 13th. 1940 a penal commission condemned him to a period of five years of internment on the island of
Ventotene
Ventotene (; locally ; la, Pandataria or , from grc, Πανδατερία, Pandatería, or ) is one of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Gaeta right at the border between Lazio and Campania, Italy. The municipality of ...
, where Curiel arrived on January the 26th.
Internment was less harsh than imprisonment, but those who had been interned were obliged to survive on the upkeep provided by monies their families sent them. In the difficult conditions of those years – soon after Italy entered into the war – one was often reduced to starvation rations. Several hundred detainees, mostly communists, were expedited to the island, among them
Luigi Longo
Luigi Longo (15 March 1900 – 16 October 1980), also known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972. He was also the first foreigner to be awarded an Order of Lenin.
Early l ...
Walter Audisio
Walter Audisio (; 28 June 1909 – 11 October 1973) was an Italian partisan and Communist politician, also known by his '' nom de guerre'' Colonel Valerio.
A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, Audisio was involved ...
,
Pietro Secchia
Pietro Secchia (19 December 1903 – 7 July 1971) was an Italian politician, anti-fascist partisan leader and a prominent leader of the Italian Communist Party.
Biography
Early life
Secchia was born into a working-class family. His father wa ...
,
Umberto Terracini
Umberto Elia Terracini (Genoa, 27 July 1895 – Rome, 6 December 1983) was an Italian politician.
Biography Early years
Terracini was born in Genoa on 27 July 1895 to a Jewish family originally from Piedmont. After completing his elementa ...
,
Camilla Ravera
Camilla Ravera (18 June 1889 – 14 April 1988) was an Italian politician and the first female lifetime senator. She was also among the driving forces behind Italian feminism.
Ravera participated in the founding of the Italian Communist Party in ...
, and
Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio (Cerignola, 11 August 1892 – Lecco, 3 November 1957), also known as Nicoletti, was an Italian trade union leader and Communist politician. He was one of the most influential trade union leaders of the labour movement after ...
. Among the socialists and the actionist militants are to be counted figures like
Sandro Pertini
Alessandro "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician who served as the president of Italy from 1978 to 1985.
Early life
Born in Stella (Province of Savona) as the son of a wealthy landown ...
,
Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli (31 August 1907 – 23 May 1986) was an Italian politician, political theorist and European federalist, referred to as one of the founding fathers of the European Union.
A communist and militant anti-fascist in his youth, he spe ...
,
Ernesto Rossi Ernesto Rossi may refer to:
* Ernesto Rossi (actor) (1827–1896), Italian actor
* Ernesto Rossi (politician) (1897–1967), Italian politician and anti-fascist activist
* Ernesto Rossi (gangster) (1903–1931), Italian-American gangster
{{hndis, ...
,
Riccardo Bauer
Riccardo Bauer (1896–1982) was an Italian anti-fascist journalist and political figure. He was one of the early Italians who fought against Benito Mussolini's rule. Due to his activities Bauer was imprisoned for a long time and was freed only a ...
and Curiel's friend
Eugenio Colorni Eugenio Colorni (22 April 1909 - 30 May 1944) was an Italian philosopher and anti-fascist activist.
Life
Born in Milan, Colorni taught philosophy at the University of Trieste, and was active in the anti-fascist Giustizia e Libertà movement. He mar ...
, who had been arrested in September, 1938.
On 21 August 1943, following the collapse of the fascist regime, Curiel left the island to join the resistance in Milan. There he directed the daily underground newspapers
L'Unità
''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the ...
and
Our Struggle
"Our Struggle" was a pamphlet written late October 1945 by Indonesian independence leader Soetan Sjahrir. It was pivotal in redirecting the Indonesian national revolution.
In his pamphlet Sjahrir addressed all crucial spearheads of the still ong ...
(''La nostra lotta''), and he worked to promote the establishment of a unitary organization, the ''Youth Front for National Independence and Liberty'' (Fronte della gioventù per l'indipendenza nazionale e per la libertà) involving antifascist youths of all political orientations. It was during this phase that he sketched out his theory on 'progressive democracy', which is considered to be his most important theoretical contribution to antifascism.
On the 24 February 1945 he was recognized in the street by an informer and promptly assassinated by a squad of
Black Brigades
The ''Corpo Ausiliario delle Squadre d'azione di Camicie Nere'' (Italian: Auxiliary Corps of the Black Shirts' Action Squads), most widely known as the Black Brigades ( it, Brigate Nere), was one of the Fascist paramilitary groups, organized ...
members, loyal to the
Republic of Salò
The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...
. In the document accompanying the posthumous award accorded to him, a Gold Medal for valour, he is described as an 'Ideal leader and splendid example for the youth of Italy'.
He was the cousin of
Henri Curiel
Henri Curiel (13 September 1914 – 4 May 1978) was a left-wing political activist in Egypt and France. Born in Egypt, Curiel led the communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation until he was expelled from the country in 1950.
Settling in ...
, a political activist in Egypt and France, and the KGB spy
George Blake
George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the MGB while a pris ...
.
Bibliography
*N. Briamonte, ''La vita e l'opera di Eugenio Curiel'', Milano 1979
*P. de Lazzari, ''Eugenio Curiel, al confino e nella lotta di liberazione'', Milano 1981
*
Eugenio Garin
Eugenio Garin (May 9, 1909 – December 29, 2004) was an Italian philosopher and Renaissance historian. He was recognised as an authority on the cultural history of the Renaissance. Born at Rieti, Garin studied philosophy at the University of Flore ...
, ''Intellettuali italiani del XX secolo'', Roma 1996