A story of science and rescue: Colonnetti and the University Camps in Switzerland

Outstanding scholar, renowned for his contributions to engineering, statics and the mathematical theory of elasticity, Gustavo Colonnetti was relieved of his duties as the rector of the Turin Polytechnic in 1925, because he was openly anti-fascist. For his refusal to compromise with the regime, he was forced to leave Turin and to take refuge in Switzerland in the autumn of 1943. Here he created six university camps for interned military students in Fribourg, Geneva, Huttwil, Lausanne, Mürren and Neuchâtel. This paper will illustrate the little-known history of the “Italian University in exile,” with particular reference to the Great Italian University Camp in Lausanne, through the exam of unpublished sources preserved in various Italian and Swiss archives: a beautiful story of solidarity and hope, a cultural and human experience of extraordinary intensity, aimed at re-educating thousands of young people to study and free thinking.