Abstract

In the aftermath of Italy’s liberation, also the University of Parma put in place procedures to purge professors who had had ties with fascism. Starting from the seven professors involved, this paper analyses the modality and evolution of a situation that, in many respects, is a confirmation of a «failed purge». At the same time, however, the paper evidences how these years had a concrete impact at an individual level, and on attitudes of the academic community as a whole, many of whose members wished to maintain a certain continuity of the system, over which loomed the challenge of profound change.