With the advent of the fascist dictatorship, the great Latinist Concetto Marchesi decided to dedicate himself exclusively to studies. In the spring of 1943 he re-established relations with the Communist Party and was among the founders of the National Liberation Committee (CNL). Appointed rector of the University of Padua by the Badoglio government, after the establishment of the Italian Social Republic (RSI) his resignation was rejected by the republican minister Carlo Alberto Biggini. On December 1st he addressed this heartfelt appeal to the students of the University of Padua.
«I remained at the head of your University as long as I hoped to keep it immune from the fascist offense and the German threat; until I hoped to defend you from political and military servitude and to protect with my publicly professed faith your faith forced into silence and secrecy. This resolution made me resist, against the uneasiness that increasingly invaded me in remaining in a place that to distant people and strangers might appear to be one of peaceful coexistence while it was a place of uninterrupted combat.
Today duty calls me elsewhere. Today it is no longer possible to hope that the University will remain an undisturbed asylum for free industrious consciences, while the foreigner presses at the doors of our institutes and the order of a government which – due to the defection of an old accomplice – dares to call itself republican would like to convert the university youth in a militia of mercenaries and massacring thugs.
On the inaugural day of the academic year you saw a handful of these wretches, violators of the Aula Magna, overwhelmed under the immense wave of your unstoppable indignation. And I, O young students, have awaited this day when you would reconsecrate your temple which had been profaned for more than twenty years; and I bless the destiny of having given me the joy of such a solemn communion with your soul.
(…) Students: I cannot leave the Rector’s office of the University of Padua without making a final appeal to you. A generation of men has destroyed your youth and your homeland. Betrayed by fraud, by violence, by sloth, by criminal servility, you, together with the worker and peasant youth, must redo the history of Italy and constitute the Italian people.
Do not search the memories or hiding places of the past which are the only ones responsible for criminal episodes; behind the hitmen there is a whole multitude who wanted those crimes and covered them up with silence and cowardly resignation; there is the entire Italian ruling class driven by ineptitude and guilt towards its total ruin.
Students: I move away from you with the hope of returning to you as teacher and companion, after the brotherhood of a fight fought together. By the faith that enlightens you, by the indignation that ignites you, do not let the oppressor control your life, resurrect your battalions, free Italy from slavery and ignominy, add glory to the banner of your University of a new greatest decoration in this supreme battle for justice and peace in the world.”
Marchesi concept, Appeal to students, 1 December 1943.
