The life and times of two anti-fascists : Giuseppe Donati and Umberto Calosso

Abstract

The history of the Maltese islands is opulent with episodes of people landing on its shores mostly by accident of history rather than design and with the intention of returning to their motherland as soon as circumstances permitted. Noteworthy examples from Italy include Francesco Crispi (1853-1854) during the Risorgimento as well as anarchist Errico Maltesta and his Sicilian colleague Francesco Saverio Merlino (1899) after the Italian unification. With the dawn of fascism in the twentieth century, Malta also hosted two prominent Italian anti-fascists, Giuseppe Donati (1930-31) and Umberto Calosso (1931-1940), both of whom were among those who resisted the completion of Risorgimento as envisaged by fascism. They settled in Malta as teachers of Italian language and literature at one of the newest temples in the British Empire for the propagation of English culture, St. Edward's College. The years preceding World War II were marked in Malta by a deep cultural cleavage pitting the pro-British against those who embraced italianita and possibly Italian fascism. Donati and Calosso contributed very little to the enlightenment of the perceived Maltese intelligentsia at this time. However, the attention paid by the administration of St. Edward's College to the teaching of the Italian language to its students, most of whom went on to serve as British military men, was later to prove an asset to the Allied forces occupying Italy after its surrender. The history of the Italian resistance movement is crammed with characters who fought against fascism. Though almost a footnote in the history of Italian resistance, these two intellectuals are primarily responsible for putting Malta on the map of the anti-fascist struggle. Calosso wandered in Europe and North Africa, succeeded in participating not only in the final struggle which overthrew the fascist dictatorship but also in the foundation of democratic basis of the Italian republic. Donati, who was in the front line in this struggle wandered around Europe too but did not live to see their common goal realized.