Sonderaktion Krakau refers to the Nazi operation carried out on 6 November 1939, when the German authorities arrested 183 professors and academic staff from the Jagiellonian University and other Kraków institutions. The scholars were deported to concentration camps, mainly Sachsenhausen and Dachau, where several of them died.
In 1938, the Fascist regime adopted state antisemitism through the so called “racial laws”, which imposed numerous discriminations, including prohibiting Jews from teaching at universities or enrolling as students. The university's direct involvement in implementing these measures is evident in the letter dated December 7, 1938, from the rectorate to Professor Gustavo Del Vecchio, who held the chair of Corporative Economy, informing him of his forced resignation for racial reasons. The University of Bologna was among the Italian institutions most severely affected by the antisemitic laws, with 49 academic staff members forced to resign.
