Eugenio Curiel
Encyclopedia
Eugenio Curiel was an Italian physicist
and a prominent figure of the Italian resistance movement
. He was awarded a gold medal (posthumously) for military valour.
philosopher, Ludovico Limentani.
After graduation from high school in 1929, he studied engineering for two years in Florence. In 1931 he enrolled at the Politecnico di Milano University, but after a few months he returned to Florence University 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, who had obtained a chair in physics at Padova University, invited him to finish his studies there, which he managed to do, taking his degree magna cum laude.
Curiel was, however, subject to neurasthenia
, and for some time was attracted to the anthroposophy
of Rudolf Steiner
, 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
but returned to Padova 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.
, in particular Kant
, Fichte, Hegel, Benedetto Croce
and Giovanni Gentile
. At the same time, he was drawn into the study of more practical philosophical issues through a reading of the works of Georges Sorel
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 Padova 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
and through his influence, Curiel read Marx and Engels
's Communist Manifesto, the Antidühring, and Lenin's What to do?. In 1935 Curiel became a member of the small communist cell at Padova 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
, the site of the party's foreign offices, in March, 1937. He formed contacts with Emilio Sereni, 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 Padova to continue his work there, while keeping up 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 Curciel'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.
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
, 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 had already denounced the presence of Italian agent provocateur
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
. 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
(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
) 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 Milano, where he lodged with his sister Grazia. In April he returned once more to Switzerland, where he discussed matters with Pietro Nenni
, 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
and its blind, passive discipline'. Curiel was in Trieste
, on the 24 giugno 1939, when the police identified and arrested him. .
, he revealad 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
, 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
, Giovanni Roveda, Walter Audisio
, Pietro Secchia, Umberto Terracini, Camilla Ravera
, and Giuseppe Di Vittorio
. Among the socialists and the actionist militants are to be counted figures like Sandro Pertini, Altiero Spinelli
, Ernesto Rossi, Riccardo Bauer and Curiel's friend Eugenio Colorni, 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
and Our Struggle (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 soldiers belonging to 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
, a political activist in Egypt and France.
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and a prominent figure of the Italian resistance movement
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
. He was awarded a gold medal (posthumously) for military valour.
Life
Eugenio Curiel was the first of four children of a Jewish family of comfortable circumstances. His father, Giulio, was an engineer in the San Marco workshops of Trieste, and his mother, Lucia Limentani, was the sister of the FlorentineFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
philosopher, Ludovico Limentani.
After graduation from high school in 1929, he studied engineering for two years in Florence. In 1931 he enrolled at the Politecnico di Milano University, but after a few months he returned to Florence University 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, who had obtained a chair in physics at Padova University, invited him to finish his studies there, which he managed to do, taking his degree magna cum laude.
Curiel was, however, subject to neurasthenia
Neurasthenia
Neurasthenia is a psycho-pathological term first used by George Miller Beard in 1869 to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia and depressed mood...
, and for some time was attracted to the anthroposophy
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
of Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
, 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
Montepulciano is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and comune in the province of Siena in southern Tuscany, in Italy. Montepulciano, with an elevation of 605 m, sits on a high limestone ridge. By car it is 13 km E of Pienza; 70 km SE of Siena, 124 km SE of Florence, and...
but returned to Padova 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 philosophyIdealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
, in particular Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
, Fichte, Hegel, Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce was an Italian idealist philosopher, and occasionally also politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodology of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...
and Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile was an Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a peer of Benedetto Croce. He described himself as 'the philosopher of Fascism', and ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism for Benito Mussolini. He also devised his own system of philosophy, Actual Idealism.- Life and thought :Giovanni...
. 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 Sorel
Georges Eugène Sorel was a French philosopher and theorist of revolutionary syndicalism. His notion of the power of myth in people's lives inspired Marxists and Fascists. It is, together with his defense of violence, the contribution for which he is most often remembered. Oron J...
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 Padova 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
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
and through his influence, Curiel read Marx and Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
's Communist Manifesto, the Antidühring, and Lenin's What to do?. In 1935 Curiel became a member of the small communist cell at Padova 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
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the site of the party's foreign offices, in March, 1937. He formed contacts with Emilio Sereni, 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 Padova to continue his work there, while keeping up his contacts in Paris.
In early 1938 Curiel was ordered by the president of the Confederation of Italian Unions, Tullio Cianetti
Tullio Cianetti
Tullio Cianetti was an Italian fascist politician who was well known for his work with the syndicates....
to present himself there. Cianetti had no idea of Curciel'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
Curciel'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
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, 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 had already denounced the presence of Italian agent provocateur
Agent provocateur
Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...
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
OVRA
The Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo was the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy, founded in 1927 under the regime of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and during the reign of King Victor Emmanuel III. The German Gestapo were the equivalent of the OVRA...
. 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
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
(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
Giustizia e Libertà was an Italian anti-fascist organization, active from 1929 to 1945.- Italian anti-fascist organization :The anti-fascist organization Giustizia e Libertà was founded in Paris in 1929 by the Italian refugees Carlo Rosselli, Emilio Lussu, Alberto Tarchiani, and Ernesto Rossi...
) 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 Milano, where he lodged with his sister Grazia. In April he returned once more to Switzerland, where he discussed matters with Pietro Nenni
Pietro Nenni
Pietro Sandro Nenni was an Italian socialist politician, the national secretary of the Italian Socialist Party and lifetime Senator since 1970. He was a recipient of the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951...
, 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
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
and its blind, passive discipline'. Curiel was in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, on the 24 giugno 1939, when the police identified and arrested him. .
Internment
Transferred to the Milanese prison of San VittoreSan Vittore
San Vittore may refer to:* San Vittore, Switzerland, a municipality in Graubünden, Switzerland* San Vittore del Lazio, a comune in Lazio, Italy* San Vittore Olona, a comune in Lombardy, Italy...
, he revealad 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
Ventotene, in Roman times known as Pandataria or Pandateria from the Greek Pandoteira, is one of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Gaeta right at the border between Lazio and Campania, Italy...
, 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
thumb|right|Luigi Longo portrayed on a 1981 [[USSR]] postage stamp.Luigi Longo , also known as Gallo, was an Italian communist politician and secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1964 to 1972.-Early life:...
, Giovanni Roveda, Walter Audisio
Walter Audisio
Walter Audisio was an Italian partisan and communist politician. He was responsible for the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.- Biography :...
, Pietro Secchia, Umberto Terracini, Camilla Ravera
Camilla Ravera
Camilla Ravera was an Italian politician and the first female lifetime senator. Ravera participated in the founding of the Italian Communist Party in 1921....
, and Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio, also known under the pseudonym Nicoletti , was an Italian syndicalist trade unionist and communist politician, one of the most influential leaders of the labor movement after World War I....
. Among the socialists and the actionist militants are to be counted figures like Sandro Pertini, Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli
Altiero Spinelli was an Italian political theorist and a European federalist. Spinelli is referred to as one of the "Founding Fathers of the European Union" due to his co-authorship of the Ventotene Manifesto, his founding role in the European federalist movement, his strong influence on the first...
, Ernesto Rossi, Riccardo Bauer and Curiel's friend Eugenio Colorni, 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
l'Unità is an Italian left-wing newspaper, originally founded as official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party.-History:L'Unità was founded by Antonio Gramsci on 12 February 1924, as the newspaper of workers and peasants, the official newspaper of Italian Communist Party : it was printed in...
and Our Struggle (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 soldiers belonging to 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
Henri Curiel was a left-wing political activist. Born in Egypt, Curiel led the communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation until he was expelled from the country in 1950. Settling in France, Curiel aided the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale and other national liberation causes...
, a political activist in Egypt and France.