In mid-July, the most recent book by journalist Pierluigi Battista was awarded the 2026 Viareggio-Rèpaci Prize in the nonfiction category. The prestigious Italian literary prize was first awarded in 1930. In congratulating the author, we present our book review.
This is a cruel and unjust story with a tragic ending. It is filled with episodes of human pettiness and abuse of power. These range from the fear of hosting a Jew at a holiday resort to the ambition to take over his university chair, a goal that was handsomely rewarded. All of this makes it a quintessentially Italian story. Pierluigi Battista recounts these events in his book, Il professore ebreo perseguitato due volte (The Jewish Professor Persecuted Twice), published by La nave di Teseo in 2025. Not coincidentally, the subtitle is “Tullio Terni and Italian Hypocrisy.”
Terni was a neuroanatomy pioneer at the University of Padua. In 1938, like all Italian Jews, he was expelled from Italian schools and universities. Students and teachers, from elementary school to university, suddenly found themselves defined only by their Jewishness. They were considered second-class citizens compared to their Italian colleagues, who were now considered “Aryan.”
Terni was devastated. He appealed to the regime, reminding them of his impeccable record as an Italian citizen. He had “served in the war for the fatherland from 1915 as a medical captain in the Fifth Cavalry Division” receiving a War Merit Cross for “courage and contempt for danger.” He had also been an “Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy” since 1935. He claimed to be both Italian and Aryan. Like many other Jews, he tried to claim nonexistent non-Jewish ancestry. He also insisted that he was a Fascist, like millions of other Italians, and that he had been a member of the party since 1928. Finally, he was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, having taken the required oath.
Battista notes that the goal of these “not so disreputable” claims was to “avoid the harshest consequences of racist discrimination.” However, none of it worked. Terni and his family had no choice but to hide, pay for survival, and adopt new identities. Tullio Terni became Taddeo Tadini. Many of his colleagues, friends, and relatives were arrested and killed.
The Ternis survived and, after the war ended, they regained their birth name. Perhaps the ending was more dramatic than the beginning, though. After the war, the Accademia dei Lincei refused to reinstate Terni, citing “cowardly conduct for requesting Aryan status and retaining his Fascist membership card.” Several professors contributed to the decision to deem him “unworthy.” Many of them had been complicit with fascism, taking advantage of antisemitic laws in 1938 to obtain university positions vacated by the expulsion of Jewish professors. Ultimately, Terni took his own life with the vial of cyanide he had kept in case he fell into Nazi hands.
This book tells a story from the past that nonetheless invites us to reflect on the enduring habits and feelings of superiority among some of Italy’s ruling class. In a very different context, the same tendency is at risk of resurfacing today as it did then: prioritizing active politics and moral judgment over the pursuit of research and scientific merit.
dan.mos.
Translated by Alessia Tivan and revised by Matilde Bortolussi, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainees in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.