The library during the Second World War

The racial laws, the war and their impact on the National Library

The period of time from the inauguration of the new premises in Piazza Cavalleggeri until after the war saw a series of events that affected the staff of the library, its users and even the books and catalogues. The Fascists had taken power and as early as 1933, enrolment in the National Fascist Party was one of the requirements for admission to public sector service, with even the most reluctant directors forced to comply. Between 1936 and 1947, the library saw four different directors, some on the wishes of the regime and others for unusual circumstances. Despite the diligent and meticulous move of library materials from the Uffizi to Piazza Cavalleggeri, the prefect Domenico Fava was involved in an unfortunate episode on the day of inauguration and was consequently “relegated” to director of the University Library of Bologna. News outlets reported that due to an oversight in protocol caused by the evidently poor organisation of the event, Vittorio Emanuele III entered the building from a side door, resulting in the authorities, who were waiting for him on the stairs facing the Arno, finding themselves in an embarrassing position. Furthermore, a Fascist official complained that the marble floor, which had been washed but not perfectly dried, was slippery.

In June 1936, Fava was replaced by Anita Mondolfo, Jewish, and a relative of Rodolfo Mondolfo, a socialist intellectual unpopular with the Fascist movement; the Political Police almost immediately compiled a dossier on her, sifting through her mail and her correspondence with Benedetto Croce, Gaetano Salvemini, Edmondo Cioni and Gaetano Pieraccini. In reality, most of this concerned library business, but the obtuse views of Fascist informants labelled Mondolfo as an “opposer of the regime” and had her transferred to the University Library of Padua. However, Anita Mondolfo was a tenacious woman with a strong personality, and she fought the decision, drawing on the influential friendship of the senator Giovanni Gentile, with whom she collaborated on the Enciclopedia Italiana.

Unfortunately, a more serious blow was dealt to the director with the dispositions of Royal Decree Law 1728 of 17 November 1938 (converted into Law no. 274 of 05.01.1939), which led to her dismissal: art. 13 of the law saw severe reductions in all State civil and military administrations, since they were not allowed to “employ persons of the Jewish race”. The list of those expelled from Italian libraries is tragically long, and in many cases Jewish authors, publishers, scholars and students were also involved in dramatic episodes, having been banned from using public libraries in accordance with measures issued by the Minister for National Education Giuseppe Bottai by means of a memorandum dated 15 March 1942, which not only excluded Jews from the reading rooms but also banned them from accessing the catalogues or taking out books. Along with the staff and readers, books were also purged: a memorandum issued by the Ministry of National Education dated 7 May 1942 contained an initial list of “undesirable” works that at the National Library, as for all the other institutes, were to be excluded from reading or loan and marked in the catalogue with “Lib.sg.” (libro sgradito – undesirable book) (DI BENEDETTO 1994).

Laura Luzzatto Coen, the wife of the musician Luigi Dallapiccola and official at the BncF, was removed from the library and later forced into hiding in the apartment of a friend in Fiesole. Anita Mondolfo was even imprisoned, as she was considered an “anti-Fascist Jew” and “capable of disturbing public order”. Gentile once again stepped in to transform her imprisonment into confinement in Montemurro, in the province of Potenza, and later managed to obtain a form of house arrest for his apprentice in Senigallia, Mondolfo’s birthplace.

Even before the racial laws came into effect, in August 1937 Count Antonio Boselli was invited to direct the library, and in1940 was ordered to safeguard the rare and precious library materials in the light of fears from the Ministry of air raids in the area. The so-called “protection plans” had already proved their worth during the Great War and, ever since the period of war in Africa, the Government had decided, through the issuing of a series of memorandums, to focus on protecting library collections. The task of coordination was assigned to regional superintendents and, at the time, in Tuscany, the director of the BncF was also appointed regional superintendent. With Italy joining the war in June 1940, orders regarding the sheltering and protection of written heritage increased, and in the summer of the same year, 1,173 cases containing the treasures of the National Library as well as other Florentine libraries, the “Governmental” library of Lucca and that of the University of Pisa were sent off on the Valdelsa road to the spacious halls of the Badia di Passignano, approximately 30 km from Florence. In August of 1942, Antonio Boselli was put on leave due to poor health, but since May of 1941, the Institute had been placed in the hands of the highest official at the BncF, the “acting director” Anna Saitta Revignas.

1943-1944 was an eventful period for the library. The German occupation of the city, following the landing of allies in Sicily and after the events of 25 July, had led to panic and to the announcement of the armistice. At this point, the war had spread throughout Italian territory, but the German Command appeared to have decided to grant Florence the legal status of “open city”. Consequently, the basement of the building in Piazza Cavalleggeri appeared safer than the refuge in Passignano, and Saitta Revignas thus decided to have the material brought back to Florence. However, in the wake of episodes of resistance and boycott, as well as in light of news of collaboration and aid between the American forces and representatives of the Florentine Resistance, the German authorities reconsidered and decided to mine all the bridges except for Ponte Vecchio, which was instead surrounded by rubble, to stop crossings and gain more time to deploy the troops along the famous Gothic Line. In order to implement this plan, the Wehrmacht aimed to also bring down the circular tower that housed the Galilean and Dantesque galleries, together with part of the surrounding library. It was the resolve of Saitta Revignas, who was fluent in German, and her impassioned defence of the institution that avoided this catastrophe. Thus, during the night between 4 and 5 August 1944, German mines effectively destroyed the bridges over the Arno, and the German Command, which was preparing for the “Battle of Florence”, ordered all the inhabitants of the Santa Croce district to leave their homes. The order was also made to the director, but she stayed at her post in order to keep a direct eye on the collections. On the morning of 7 August, the Germans burst into the library and were amazed to find the director still there, together with a custodian, rushing to repair the damage caused by the blasts of air coming from exploding bombs. Anna Saitta Revignas was subjected to fierce interrogation, severely reprimanded, and threatened with consequences for her behaviour, eventually being forcibly removed from the library. However, she did not go very far. She asked for refuge from the Franciscan monks in the nearby convent of Santa Croce and remained there to await further developments. Her report to the Ministry revealed that the Germans had used the large windows in the Consultation halls and the niches in the statues of Dante and Galilei as machine-gun nests, and the clock in the reading room for target practice, and had grilled sausages in the Galilean hall. As soon as the German troops were forced to leave the historic centre of Florence, on the morning of 11 August, Anna Saitta Revignas returned to the library to inspect and check the most remote corners of the building, and in the basement she discovered that two cases had been overturned and opened, with papers scattered on the floor. She quickly realised that nothing was missing, and praised the ignorance of the soldier who had failed to recognise the writings of Foscolo that the cases held.

As the front gradually moved away from the city, the staff returned, and 1 September saw the restoration of some services in the morning, while the Marucelliana opened its halls in the afternoon. With the allied government established and with the help of the Psychological Warfare Branch, normality was gradually restored, and those who had been expelled from ministerial roles due to the racial laws were reinstated. This posed the dilemma of whether to once again appoint Anita Mondolfo as director, or to reward the self-sacrifice and commitment of Anna Saitta Revignas. With some embarrassment, the Ministry chose Mondolfo, who thus regained her position after eight years of absence, and relegated Saitta Revignas to secondary duties, which she fulfilled with diligence and distinction until 1970.

On 1 May 1953, Anita Mondolfo was due to retire, but she did not leave her post because, in the meantime, she had appealed for an extension to compensate for the period in which she had been excluded from her position; however, the Ministry had already assigned the role to Irma Merolle Tondi, and for a short period of time the National Library had two directors, until Mondolfo was assigned the position of general library inspector, with the concession that she could work from Florence.

The BncF never forgot the passion and the sacrifice of Anna Saitta Revignas, and put up a bronze plaque with the following inscription: “In 1944/Anna Saitta Revignas/Director of this library/and Superintendent for Tuscany/saved from the destruction of war/risking her life/the collections of the National Library/and other Libraries in the Region/that were stored here”.

Bibliography

• Di Benedetto 1994
  Claudio Di Benedetto, Cataloghi di razza, in Il linguaggio della biblioteca. Scritti in onore di Diego Maltese, raccolti da Mauro Guerrini, Firenze, Regione Toscana, Giunta regionale, 1994.