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Bruno Rossi and the Racial Laws of Fascist Italy

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Abstract

Bruno Rossi (1905–1993), one of the giants of 20th-century physics, was a pioneer in cosmic-ray physics and virtually every other aspect of high-energy astrophysics. His scientific career began at the University of Florence in 1928 and continued at the University of Padua until 1938, when the Fascist anti-Semitic racial laws were passed in Italy. He was dismissed from his professorship and was forced to emigrate, as described in unpublished letters and documents that display the international character of physics and physicists. His young bride Nora Lombroso, his love of physics, and the solidarity of the physics community gave him the courage to begin a new life in Copenhagen, Manchester, and in the New World at the University of Chicago, Cornell University, Los Alamos, and after the Second World War at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he became the center of a worldwide research network.

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Notes

  1. Bothe later shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1954 “for the coincidence method and his discoveries made therewith”; see The Nobel Foundation, Nobel Lectures. Physics 1942–1962 (Amsterdam, London, New York: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1964), p. 251.

  2. Duce Benito Mussolini opened the conference and inaugural lectures were delivered by its Honorary President, Senator Guglielmo Marconi, and its Effective President, Senator Orso Mario Corbino.

  3. Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums.

  4. Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre and Reichsbürgergesetz.

  5. When Bruno Rossi was invited to the celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Physical Institute of the University of Padua, he still was deeply aggrieved over what he had suffered five decades earlier, and agreed to participate in a ceremony that took place in the Rectorate Great Hall, but refused to enter the Physics Institute. His wife Nora agreed with and deeply respected his decision, even after his death. Thus, in 2005, at the celebrations in Padua of the centenary of her husband’s birth, she too did not want to enter the Physics Institute and only agreed to do so following the gentle insistence of Massimilla Baldo Ceolin, who showed her the interior of the Physics Institute and her husband's old chair in Ceolin’s room, in which their youngest daughter Linda, full of emotion, sat for some time.

  6. Rossi wrote to Giancarlo Vallauri, who had succeeded Guglielmo Marconi as President of the Royal Academy of Italy, and on September 1 Rossi received a letter from the Chancellor of the Academy declaring that the Volta Foundation had granted him the fellowship to be used for a “mission” at Bohr's Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. On October 25 Rossi received a second letter declaring that he would receive its second part of 1,000 lire after the Foundation had received a report on his activity. Rossi used the first part, of 1,840 lire, to leave Italy.

  7. The Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua contains a fresco cycle that Giotto (ca. 1276–1337) completed around 1305. It is one of the most important and moving masterpieces of Western art. Today, to preserve it, the Cappella is carefully climate-controlled and tourists can enter it only in small groups and stay only for around fifteen minutes.

  8. Rossi had met Blackett for the first time in Berlin in 1930, and since Blackett’s wife was Italian, they “easily became quite friendly”; see P.M.S. Blackett interview by John L. Heilbron, December 7, 1962, Niels Bohr Library and Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, website <www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4508.html>, Section IV.C.3.

  9. The Academic Assistance Council was founded in London in 1933 and changed its name to the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning in 1936, continuing its mission of assisting refugee scholars with short-term grants and helping them find long-term employment.

  10. Compton also sent a copy of his letter to Niels Bohr.

  11. Rossi recalled that the name of the French liner was the SS Liberté, but in 1939 this actually was the Norddeutsche Lloyd liner Europa, which in 1946 was ceded to France as a war reparation, was renamed the SS Liberté, and was operated by the Companie Générale Transatlantique. Moreover, in 1939 the Europa sailed from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York, thus making it unlikely that the Rossis crossed the Atlantic on this ship. Much more likely is that they boarded the French liner Normandie, which in 1939 sailed from Southampton, England, to New York. See Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Letters and Documents 1938–1939,” MIT Archives.

  12. Bothe was disturbed that Rossi would not speak German with him, but Rossi claimed that this was not a sign of his hostility to Germany but only because his effort in learning English had erased the German language from his memory; see Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 46.

  13. On an official list, Mount Evans, at a height of 4,334 meters (14,222 feet), is given as the forty-second highest mountain in the United States and the sixteenth highest mountain in Colorado. It does, however, have the highest paved road in the United States, which was constructed from 1917–1927.

  14. Riccardo Giacconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2002 “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources”; see website <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2002/>. His mentor, Bruno Rossi, was also deserving of that Nobel Prize but had died ten years earlier.

References

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  3. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 6. For a short autobiographical note, see Bruno B. Rossi, “Bruno Benedetto Rossi,” in Scienziati e Tecnologi contemporanei. Vol. II (Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore 1974), pp. 436-438. For a biographical account, see George W. Clark, “Bruno Benedetto Rossi 13 April 1905-21 November 1993,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 144 (2000), 329-341. For pertinent historical works, see Salvo D‘Agostino, “Alcune considerazioni sull‘opera di Bruno Rossi e della scuola fiorentina di fisica nelle ricerche sui raggi cosmici,” Annali dell’Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze 9, No. 2 (1984), 69-83; M. De Maria, G. Malizia, and A. Russo, “La nascita della fisica dei raggi cosmici in Italia e la scoperta dell‘effetto Est–Ovest,” Giornale di Fisica 33 (1992), 207-228; Martha Cecilia Bustamante, “Bruno Rossi au début des annèes trente: une étape décisive dans la physique des rayons cosmiques,” Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences 44 (1994), 92-115; Arturo Russo, “Bruno Rossi e la scuola di Firenze,” in Antonio Casella, Alessandra Ferraresi, Giuseppe Giuliani, and Elisa Signori, ed., Una difficile modernità: Tradizioni di ricerca e comunità scientifiche in Italia 1880-1940 (Pavia: La Goliardica Pavese srl, 2000), 287-298; Matteo Leone, Angelo Mastroianni, and Nadia Robotti, “Bruno Rossi and the Introduction of the Geiger-Müller Counter in Italian Physics: 1929–1934,” Physis 42 (2005), 453-480.

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  19. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 15.

  20. Bruno Rossi, “Early days in cosmic rays,” Physics Today 34 (October 1981) 34–41, on 41. The paper in question no doubt was Rossi, “Nachweis einer Sekundärstrahlung” (ref. 15).

  21. Reale Accademia d’Italia Fondazione Alessandro Volta, Atti dei Convegno di Fisica Nucleare Ottobre 1931-IX (Roma: Reale Accademia d’Italia, 1932-X).

  22. Kevles, The Physicists (ref. 6), pp. 179-180.

  23. Bruno Rossi, “Il problema della radiazione penetrante,” in Reale Accademia d’Italia, Atti dei Convegno (ref. 21), pp. 51-64, especially pp. 53-60.

  24. W, Bothe, “Bemerkungen über die Ultra-Korpuskularstrahlung,” in ibid., pp. 153-154.

  25. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 18.

  26. Ibid.

  27. E. Fermi and B. Rossi, “Azione sul campo magnetico terrestre sulla radiazione penetrante,” Atti della Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti 17 (1933), 346–350; reprinted in Enrico Fermi, Collected Papers (Note e Memorie). Vol. I. Italy 1921-1938, ed. E. Amaldi, H.L. Anderson, E. Persico, F. Rasetti, C.S. Smith, A. Wattenberg, and E. Segrè (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press and Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1962), pp. 509-513.

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  35. J. F. Carlson and J. R. Oppenheimer, “On Multiplicative Showers,” Phys. Rev. 51 (1937), 220–231; H. J. Bhabha and W. Heitler, “The Passage of Fast Electrons and the Theory of Cosmic Showers,” Proc. Roy. Soc. Lon. [A] 159 (1937), 432–458.

  36. Rossi, “Absorptionsmessungen” (ref. 16), p. 65.

  37. Carlson and Oppenheimer, “Multiplicative Showers” (ref. 35), p. 220.

  38. Seth H. Neddermeyer and Carl D. Anderson, “Note on the Nature of Cosmic-Ray Particles,” Phys. Rev. 51 (1937), 884–886, on 886.

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  40. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), pp. 38-39.

  41. Ibid., p. 39.

  42. Ibid., p. 34.

  43. Ibid. For a description of the instruments in the Padua Institute, see Giulio Peruzzi and Sofia Talas, “Bruno Benedetto Rossi, the Italian Years, 1928-1938,” in Alessandro Pascolini, ed., The Scientific Legacy of Bruno Rossi: A Scientific Colloquium in Honour of Bruno Rossi on the 100th Anniversary of his Birth, Padova-Venezia, September 16-17, 2005 (Padova: Università degli Studi di Padova, 2006), pp. 89-109, especially 94-104.

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  48. Author interview with Nora Rossi, July 26, 2007, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  49. Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1954); reprinted (New York: American Institute of Physics and Tomash Publishers, 1987), pp. 119-120.

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  51. Edoardo Amaldi, “The Case of Physics,” in Giovanni Battimelli and Giovanni Paoloni, ed., 20th Century Physics: A Selection of Historical Writings by Edoardo Amaldi (Singapore, New Jersey, London, Hong Kong: World Scientific, 1998), pp. 168-190, on p. 178.

  52. Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” Institute Archives and Special Collections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries, Cambridge, Massachusetts (hereafter MIT Archives).

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  54. “Al Ch. mo Prof. Bruno Rossi; Oggetto: Difesa della razza nella Scuola fascista; Compio il dovere di avvertirVi che, in applicazione dell’art. 3 del Regio Decreto Legge 5 settembre 1938 XVI, n. 1390, recante provvedimenti per la difesa della razza nella scuola fascista, a datare dal 16 ottobre corrente siete sospeso dal servizio. Il Rettore (F. to [Carlo] Anti).” Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  55. Nora Lombroso, “As for me…,” in Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), pp. 159-175, on p. 162.

  56. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 40.

  57. Ibid.,p. 40

  58. Rossi to Bohr, April 1955, Rossi Papers, Box 23, Folder “Back Correspondence,” July 1955-June 1960, MIT Archives.

  59. Bruno B. Rossi, “The decay of ‘mesotrons’ (1939–1943): experimental particle physics in the age of innocence,” in Laurie M. Brown and Lillian Hoddeson, ed., The birth of particle physics (Cambridge, London, New York, New Rochelle, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 183-205, on p. 184.

  60. Weizman to Rossi, October 27, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

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  62. Rossi to Weizman, November 2, 1938, Weizman Archive, Rehovot, Israel. I thank Professor Nissan Zeldes, Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for kindly sending me a copy of this letter.

  63. Blackett to Rossi, October 10, 1938. Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Correspondence, documents 1938,” MIT Archives.

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  65. Vallarta to Rossi, November 1, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Correspondence, documents 193,” MIT Archives.

  66. Vallarta to Rossi, January 17, 1939. Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Correspondence, documents 1938,” MIT Archives.

  67. Compton to Rossi, November 12, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  68. Compton to Rossi, December 2, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  69. Rossi to Compton, undated, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Letters and Documents 1938-1939,” MIT Archives.

  70. Blackett to Rossi, November 17, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials, MIT Archives.

  71. Blackett to Rossi, November 24, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  72. Thomson to Rossi, December 22, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Letters and Documents 1938-1939,” MIT Archives.

  73. Bloch to Rossi, November 29, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  74. Capodilista to Rossi, December 3, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Letters and Documents 1938-1939,” MIT Archives.

  75. Bethe to Rossi, undated, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  76. National Fascist Party to Rossi, December 7, 1938, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Correspondence, documents 1938,” MIT Archives.

  77. Document released on January 14, 1939, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  78. Bruno Rossi, “Further Evidence for the Radioactive Decay of Mesotrons,” Nature 142 (December 3, 1938), 993. This Letter is dated November 4, and Rossi gave his address as Universitetets Institut for teoretisk Fysik, København. Rossi’s Letter was preceeded by one by P.M.S. Blackett of the same title and dated November 7 at The University, Manchester; see ibid., p. 992.

  79. Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family (ref. 49), p. 115.

  80. The Nobel Foundation, Nobel Lectures including Presentation Speeches and Laureates’ Biographies. Physics 1922-1941 (Amsterdam, London, New York: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1965), p. 251.

  81. Laura Fermi, Atoms in the Family (ref. 49), p. 139.

  82. Rossi, “The decay of ‘mesotrons’” (ref. 59), p. 184.

  83. Rossi to Simpson, March 22, 1939, Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  84. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 45.

  85. Ibid.

  86. Their talks are summarized in P.M.S. Blackett and B. Rossi, “Some Recent Experiments on Cosmic Rays,” Reviews of Modern Physics 11 (1939), 277-281.

  87. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 46.

  88. Rossi, “Further Evidence” (ref. 78), p. 993; Blackett, ibid., p. 992.

  89. Bruno Rossi, “The Disintegration of Mesotrons,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 11 (1939), 296-303, on 296.

  90. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 47.

  91. Blackett to Rossi, July 18, 1939. Rossi Papers, Box 28, Folder “Documents, Immigration and Naturalization Materials,” MIT Archives.

  92. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 49.

  93. Rossi, “The decay of ‘mesotrons’” (ref. 59), p. 57.

  94. Roger H. Stuewer, “Nuclear Physicists in a New World: The Émigrés of the 1930s in America,” Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 7 (1984), 23–40, on 23.

  95. Author interview of Nora Rossi, July 26, 2007 (ref. 48).

  96. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 49.

  97. Bruno Rossi, H. Van Norman Hilberry, and J. Barton Hoag, “The Disintegration of Mesotrons,” Phys. Rev. 56 (1939), 837-838, on 838.

  98. Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 66.

  99. Ibid., p. 68.

  100. Ibid., p. 99.

  101. Author interview of Nora Rossi, September 23, 2006, Rome, Italy; Rossi, Moments (ref. 1), p. 100.

  102. Fermi to Amaldi, January 24, 1946, Amaldi Archive, Physics Department, Rome University Sapienza, Box 1, Folder 1, Subfolder 5.

  103. H.S. Bridge, C. Dilworth, B. Rossi, F. Scherb, and E.F. Lyon, “An Instrument for the Investigation of Interplanetary Plasma,” Journal of Geophysical Research 65 (1960), 3053–3055; H.S. Bridge, C. Dilworth, A.J. Lazarus, E.F. Lyon, B. Rossi, and F. Scherb, “Direct Observations of the Interplanetary Plasma, Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 17 Supplement A-II (1962), 553–559; A. Bonetti, H.S. Bridge, A.J. Lazarus, E.F. Lyon, B. Rossi, and F. Scherb, “Explorer X Plasma Measurements, Space Research 3 (1963), 540–552.

  104. Riccardo Giacconi and Bruno Rossi, "A ‘Telescope’ for Soft X-Ray Astronomy," J. Geophys. Res. 65 (1960), 773-775; Riccardo Giacconi, Herbert Gursky, Frank R. Paolini, and Bruno B. Rossi, “Evidence for X Rays From Sources Outside the Solar System,” Physical Review Letter 9 (1962), 439-443; R. Giacconi, H. Gursky, J.R. Waters, G. Clark, and B. Rossi, “Two Sources of Cosmic X-Rays in Scorpius and Sagittarius,” Nature 204 (1964), 981–982.

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Acknowledgments

I dedicate my paper to the memory of Nora Lombroso Rossi, who always generously shared her personal views and recollections of past times with me, giving me invaluable insights into many episodes of her life with her husband Bruno Rossi. I thank Massimilla Baldo Ceolin and Daniele Amati for informative discussions on the effects of the racial laws in Italy. I am especially grateful to Linda Rossi for reading and commenting on a draft of my paper, and I am indebted to George W. Clark and Giuseppe Giuliani for valuable remarks on it. I thank Giovanna Blackett Bloor and John J. Compton for granting me permission to publish their fathers’ letters. I also am grateful to the staff of the MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections for their cordial and professional assistance and for granting me permission to publish portions of Bruno Rossi’s correspondence. Quotations from Carl D. Anderson’s and Patrick M.S. Blackett’s oral history interviews have been used by courtesy of the California Institute of Technology Archives and the American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library and Archives. My research was partially funded by the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. Finally, I thank John S. Rigden for informative and valuable correspondence on various topics, and Roger H. Stuewer for his knowledgeable and helpful editorial work on my paper.

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    Luisa Bonolis

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Luisa Bonolis received her Ph.D. degree at the University of Bari in 2009. Her research is on the history of 20th-century physics, in which she has published books and articles and edited collections of oral-history interviews.

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Bonolis, L. Bruno Rossi and the Racial Laws of Fascist Italy. Phys. Perspect. 13, 58–90 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-010-0035-4

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