Mackenzie
Wessel
Modern
Argentina
LAH
4512
The history of Argentina is a
history unlike any other country in South America. While other nations in the
region are gripped by the existential struggle between native and European,
Argentina has its own issue. The struggle of Argentina is one of European vs.
European in a new world. Venezuelans and
Colombians refer to Argentineans as the Europeans, or comment on their European
mindset. With the Conquest of the Desert, a sanitary euphemism for the genocide
of their native peoples, European immigrants solidified their hold on the
nation. For Jewish immigrants, desperate to escape the age old anti-Semitism of
their homelands, Argentina was sold as a new Zion. A promised land where they
could be free and independent. Jewish settlers at first helped push the
frontier of the country physically, forming companies to settle land in the
European style. However, many Jews flocked to Buenos Aires after a time. It was
there that they would help push the political frontiers of the nation, joining
with the socialists and anarchists who were battling for a new Argentina. Juan
Peron would pull much of his support from these labor unions. The lands that would
come to be Germany and Austria would also send many of their own to South
America. The Deutschargentiniers, as they are called, have left an indelible mark
on Argentina. German beer halls can be found in areas that one could be forgiven
for mistaking for Tyrol. Nordic features are common on the streets. This came
about due to the industrialization of the Reich in the late 1800’s. Land was
expensive and German farmers had to look across the sea for a future. German
immigration would wane with the economic upswing of the Reich in the eighteen
eighties, but its ultra conservative policies would see many immigrants looking
for a change. Jewish immigration would expand again during Hitler’s Reich, with
many fleeing for their lives to Argentina. A more sinister group would make its
way to the country in the aftermath of World War Two. Argentina threw open its
metaphorical doors for nazi war criminals and refugees of justice. The military
relationship between Argentina and Germany had been strong for many years and
it would serve these monsters well. Like Britain and America, Argentina would
take any nazi who might help their military industries, but they also shielded
criminals from justice. Juan Peron would oversee this protection. His
connections with the nazis was firmly established and he longed for their help
in his government. But Peron had been put in power by the labor unions and
enemies of the third reich. This contradictory nature makes the true purpose of
Juan Peron a mysterious one. Like its most famous leader, Argentina is also a
contradiction. The historical influence of German and Jewish immigration in
Argentina led to the duality of purpose that saw both the salvation of Jewish
refugees and the cheerful acceptance of Nazi war criminals.
Juan Batista Alberdi once wrote that “our soil adopts men, it attracts and assimilates them and makes our land theirs. The emigrant is a colonist; he leaves the mother country for the country of his adoption. It was two thousand years ago that the words that form the motto of this century were first spoken ‘Ubi patria, ubi bene…[1]” Where it is good, it is home. Baron Maurice de Hirsch would have agreed with that line, even if Alberdi had been referring to Anglo-Saxon immigration. It was the Baron’s goal to have the Argentinean soil adopt his people and make them of the land once more. Anti-Semitism was a popular past time in Eastern Europe, but the leaders of that region had pushed its limits. Jewish residents, they were not allowed to be citizens and were considered aliens in Lithuania, of that region lived in urban ghettoes and had no land to themselves. Baron de Hirsch imagined Argentina as a place where the Jews could be free of restrictions. Where they could carve out new homes and new identities from the land, the Jews would no longer have to be people of the city. With hard work and freedom, the Baron believed that the Jews could become a prosperous middle class in Argentina. Unlike in the United States, territorial expansion was not handled by individuals. Companies were formed to purchase land and then lease it to settlers. By the year 1890, Argentina had hit a slump and many settlers were leaving. The settlers had no long term use of the land and thus had no interest in its long term viability. They grew one sort of crop and did not rotate the soil. This left them susceptible to ruin with fluctuations of the market for that singular crop. Baron de Hirsch came in at that time, and the government needed his money. They were at first wary of hordes of Eastern European Jews flooding their country, but the money won the issue. The Jewish Colonization Association (ICA/JCA) bought massive tracts of land. To begin with, the colonists were supposed to be Jews with agricultural backgrounds. However, applicants flooded in and many were accepted with no experience. The assassination of Czar Alexander had set off intense pogroms in Russia. Laws were enacted that increased the population of the ghettoes from five thousand to twenty thousand. These people were desperate for escape.[2] Shoe makers, tailors, and any manner of small industry worker were brought to Argentina. Disastrous results would follow. Baron de Hirsch believed that he could give these families land and implements, and they would thrive by themselves. It soon became obvious that these people needed immense help up through their first harvest. These Jews believed that they were being led into a new Zion. A new promised land of milk and honey. Instead they found a harsh environment where they would have to drag life from the earth. The Eastern Europeans were mainly Orthodox Jews and they clashed bitterly with the Western Jews who ran the Association. Many would revolt and leave the colonies. [3] (That is not to say that all of them gave up farming, many stayed and thrived. Some colonies still exist to this day.) After 1904, more Jews started to arrive in Buenos Aries. They had strong community links and solid reasons to be distrustful of governments. Local community protection organizations (proto labor unions) had been set up by Italians and other Europeans and the Jewish craftsmen joined where they could. But Anarchism is where the Jewish population found a true spiritual home. Before 1904, the Italians ruled Anarchism and made up the list of regular police interrogation. After the Jewish influx, the list contained more Semitic names. Jewish anarchists reveled in the freedom that they took for themselves. In his article “The Positive Side of Stereotypes: Jewish Anarchists in Early-Twentieth-Century Buenos Aires,” Jose Moya points out that many pimps in the Jewish areas of Buenos Aries associated with Anarchists. The Anarchists would not turn anyone away and everyone could be an ally. While the Conservatives, and even the Socialists, considered anyone who didn’t do proper work to be scum, the Anarchists rejected such social mores. The Jewish connection to Anarchism became so common in the minds of most Argentineans that it almost pushed out the old stereotypes. Jews were known to be capitalist oppressors of the working class who would do anything in their anarchic power to overthrow capitalism. Anti-Semitism would flourish in Argentina among dissonant thinking such as this. Still Argentina kept its doors open for Jewish immigration. With the rumbling of the National Socialists in Germany, Western European Jews suddenly began to migrate. These Jews had been established in cities without ghettoes and most had ties to leftist ideologies. An influx of these Jews would exacerbate what the government of Argentina was already trying to fight, the strength of labor in their country. While almost every other Western nation refused to accept Jewish refugees (including the supposed Land of the Free) Argentina allowed those looking for freedom to immigrate. However, in 1938 the government of Argentina shut its doors to Jews trying to escape Europe.[4] No other Western nation would take them either. Argentina had given refuge to more Jews than any other nation, but now its ties to Germany had come to roost.
German immigration to Argentina is a fascinating subject, but one that is tough to pinpoint. Germans had a common language, but no common nation or region. There were Germans, Swiss, Austrians, Bavarians, Prussians, and even German Russians. They left from ports around Europe and immigration officials often mislabeled them. Poles taking a ship from Germany were marked as Germans, and Hanoverians leaving from Amsterdam could be marked as Dutch. [5] The years of 1880-1884 marked the height of German speaking immigration to Argentina. Depression in the fatherland and an outmoded system of inheritance for land left many with no way to survive. The cities were full and so those could would leave. Family members abroad would pay for passage or the immigrants would have to arrange for passage. It was an expensive process for poor farmers, but one that would be worth it. The Pampas region was beginning to boom with wheat farms and beef. The ports needed labor and Germans were willing to offer it. German farmers and longshoreman came in the thousands. Around the 1890’s the Reich stopped offering its citizens to the world. Industrialization was in full swing and Germany was rich. It started importing people from nearby nations for its labor shortages. German immigration to would thus slow to a trickle. For the Germans in the country already, they would be the spearhead of an “informal imperialism.” Germany saw that it needed a solid customer base for its increased production and a shunt for anarchists and communists. Argentina would serve as both. Germany had learned many lessons from Great Britain about how to run colonies and the fact that they didn’t own Argentina did not slow them down. German speaking communities kept their heritage alive with German schools. Students would learn what the Reich would want them to know. This served the dual purpose of education, important for a burgeoning class, and indoctrination into “Germaninity.” Families of Swiss, Russian, Polish, or any German speaking group would send their children to these schools and the community would meld. In the city, the indoctrinations were not so easy and individualist newspapers thrived. With the disastrous outcome of World War One (for the Germans), Argentina would see a second great influx of German immigrants. The nation would also see its export prices do a nose dive. The war had driven demand for Argentine crops sharply up and now that the guns had gone silent, the bottom fell out. Argentina would be forced to abandon its age old methods and begin industrialization. The depression in Germany saw conservatives leave and mingle with the conservatives in Argentina. They took over German newspapers in Buenos Aires and trumpeted the way of German industrialization. Germany and Argentina would cement their special relationship in this time. Moving a nation that had grown rich on agriculture to in country production proved to be a great headache for the Argentine government. The rich land owners realized the need but they dug in their heels. Farmers moved to the urban areas and workers went on strike for better pay[6]. German Communists, Socialists, and Anarchists raised their banners and made their voices heard. The nineteen twenties saw a settling down of the region. Agricultural export was in great demand again and the rich landowners jumped back to it whole heartedly. Britain supplied Argentina with goods so its nascent industries did not require the struggle that would have taken place to truly modernize Argentina. It wasn’t until the nineteen thirties that the German community started to rumble again. A new party had risen in the fatherland. They promised prosperity, happiness, and a restoration of German power. Most of all they promised the destruction of left wing groups. Conservative Germans in Argentina rejoiced. Left wing groups in Argentina balked at the national “socialists” and tried to raise the alarm. The German community began to split. Those trained in the German schools, the ones who led the informal colonization of Argentina, saw Hitler as their savior. The Communists and Socialists saw him as the enemy of freedom. Argentina technically stayed neutral in World War Two, but it delivered sustenance to Germany. It was the only Latin American country to not declare war on the Third Reich[7]. Germany invaded every neighbor it could lay its hands on, slaughtering millions of innocent men, women, and children like animals. The Argentine government calling on its bonds of friendship started throwing out lines for the rats fleeing a sinking Germany. The great powers of the war: America, Britain, and the Soviet Union spent their time collecting all the “best” scientists that they could track down. Evil men like Von Braun were shepherded to Allied nations and given the budgets to start the space race. However, it was in Argentina that the mass murderers would find a willing home alongside military technicians. Argentina’s large German population and social net would be perfect for Nazi war criminals trying to find a place to hide from justice. Juan Peron opened that door for them and it was his government that secured the rat lines. The Argentine Embassy in Madrid made fake passports for these men who had been helped along by sympathizers in the Catholic Church and local governments. Four of the worst criminals to escape from Germany did so with the support of the Argentine government: Eichmann, Mengele, Stangl, and Barbie. It would be unfair to say that the entire German society in Argentina accepted these criminals (estimates run as high as 9,000 coming into South America.) However, one must accept the fact that a portion aided these men in their escape. The blame can also be laid on the German and Austrian embassies. Former Nazis were left in power by the Allies and it was no wonder they helped their friends. Simon Wiesenthal, the nazi hunter, recounted that the Austrian embassy had the address and phone number of Stangl on file.[8] Wiesenthal would see that Eichmann and Stangl saw justice. Eichmann’s last words on the gallows included “Long live Germany, long live Argentina, long live Austira[9].”
What was this special connection that Germany and Argentina shared? What could drive a friendship that could forgive genocide and preserve beyond two world wars? The answer comes from Germany’s role in the modernization of Argentina’s military. The turn of the century (20th) was a scene of great competition between the powers of South America. Every military yearned for the best and the biggest guns and tactics to wipe out their regional foes. Germany took Argentina under its iron wing at this time, another expansion of its “informal imperialism.” Germany did not just supply Argentina with its latest Mauser (the 1897 Argentine Mauser manufactured in Berlin features the clasped hands of friendship between the two nations, I have one in my collection) but offered to completely Prussianize the way Argentina went to war. Military advisors helped set up a military academy for the Argentine army and stayed to show the Argentines how to run their forces. Before World War One, Argentina was completely reliant on Germany for armament.[10] In the years between the wars, military advisors were often sent between the two nations. It was here that they forged friendships that would last through the most horrific war yet known to man. One ambitious young officer would be sent to Europe to see how war was waged on the Continent. Juan Peron would pick up many things on his travels, but it would be his misunderstanding of fascism that would be the most enduring. Peron was attached to an alpine mountain division in Italy in 1939. If you believe his accounts; which changed multiple times, he was also stationed in Milan and took college courses three hundred miles from his base. Peron eventually made it to Rome where he heard Mussolini make his declaration of war. He then said that he was with the Germans when they invaded Paris, something else not to be believed[11]. Peron did get a firsthand look at the implementation of fascism in Italy and Germany. He believed that Mussolini and Hitler were working to make the worker’s lives better. In essence he was a small town boy taken in by big city ideas. Many would later interpret Peron’s admiration of those leaders as an admittance of Fascist intent, but it seems that it was truly just a misinterpretation of goals.
Juan Peron took power in 1946 on the back of labor unions and the military, a rare feat to be supported by opposing forces. As shown, his rule did accept war criminals, but not for the reasons of Anti-Semitism. The U.S. Ambassador to Argentina said that “there is not as much social discrimination against Jews as there is in New York or in most places at home.”[12] His government was in fact the first to allow Jewish people to run for political office. Peron was never a fascist, a nazi, or a communist in truth. He never could have held the support of Labor, the Church, and the Army if he had been a protrusion of any of those ideas. He was an ambitious soldier who wanted to do what he thought was best for the majority of people of his country. Most of the nazis that Peron took in had something to offer his regime or his country (something he felt as one in the same.) Industrialization and modernity seemed to be driving forces for Peron and nazi scientists like Kurt Tank were taken in to help that. Tank would be in charge of the Instituto Aerotecnico, attempting to modernize the Argentine Air Force. When Peron was ousted from power, he dispersed and his work was never completed.
The friendship of Germany and Argentina shows a special bond that can be a missing piece in the puzzle of Peron’s actions. These bonds were formed at a time when Argentina was desperate for military tutelage and Germany was looking to extend its “brand.” German and Jewish immigrants helped forge Argentina into the nation it is today, a nation of contradictions. Peron’s government truly embodied those contradictions, never really flying under one flag but trying to keep all of them fluttering. Argentina seems to be a nation that does not know who to be. A European country in South America, where the Catholic Church could endorse the same leader as a Communist laborer. The duality that allowed greatness and horror to walk hand in hand stems from a country that tried to absorb and synthesize cultures that did not want to be changed.
[1] Juan Batista Alberdi,“Immigration as a Means
of Progress,” The Argentine Reader,
ed. Gabriella Nouzeilles and Graciella Montaldo (Durham: Duke University Press,
2002) ,100.
[2]
Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Trans-Atlantic Migrations, 1870-1914,
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 93.
[3] Jewish Agricultural Settlement in Argentina: The ICA Experiment
Jews of the Latin American Republics 24-60
[4]
Peron and the enigmas of argentina,
93-97.
[5]
Walter Nugent, Crossings: The Great Trans-Atlantic Migrations, 1870-1914,
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992),
[6]
The argentine labor movement, 10-16
[7] Legislation against Subversive
Activities in Argentina
[8] Hunting evil, 333
[9] Ibid 310
[10] German Military Influence in Argentina, 1921-1940, 257-259
[11]
Peron and the enigmas of argentina, 85-88.
[12]
Ibid 221.
