The Catholic Church and the Jews: Argentina, 1933-1945

8. The Argentinean Church and the Plight of European Jewry, 1938–1942

CHAPTER 8 The Argentinean Church and the Plight of European Jewry, 1938–1942 The anti-Jewish pogroms that took place in Germany, culminating in the destruction of Kristallnacht on November 9–10, 1938 shocked public opinion in the Western world. The changes in Germany that resulted from discriminatory legislation based on racist ideology gave rise to a regime of violence directed against its Jewish citizens. When the Nuremberg laws were promulgated in 1935 their severity and implications were not immediately understood. But Kristallnacht and its terrifying accompaniments—arson, destruction, murder, collective fines, and imprisonment in concentration camps—were deemed to be of unusual brutality. Many governments and groups in the West rejected this violence and publicly condemned Nazi Germany.1 Voices from all sections of society were raised in Argentina: from socialist, liberal, and Catholic circles. The assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a Jewish youth in Paris was widely reported in liberal circles in Buenos Aires, which also noted the wave of antisemitism in France that followed. There was bitter and unequivocal condemnation in Argentina of the violence unleashed throughout the Third Reich. It was expressed by members of Congress belonging to the Radical, Socialist, and Progressive Democratic parties, who were joined by the League of Argentinean Women for Peace, the Civil Rights League, the Committee against Racism and Antisemitism led by the communist Emilio Troise, and the Central Workers’ Party.2 The socialists in particular were actively opposed to the Nazi atrocities. They circulated the latest information and published editorials about events in Germany in the socialist organ La Vanguardia, and organized a protest meeting against the “Nazi barbarians” on November 18, 1938. Openly condemning Nazi Germany, they expressed sympathy for the Jews in their plight, and charged Britain, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, with “collaboration” with Hitler, as seen in that country’s “silence” about the The Argentinean Church and the Plight of European Jewry 179 persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.3 Several members of the Argentinean Congress spoke at this protest meeting: Alicia Moreau de Justo, Enrique Dickman, and the chairman, Mario Bravo. The Hebraica Society (a Jewish cultural organization) and the Jewish communist organization also participated in the protest meeting. The liberal press supplied information about the increasing severity of the racial laws in Italy, and how this affected Jewish property; on the likelihood that in a very few years no Jews at all would be left in Austria; and on the possibility of a solution for the persecuted Jews—in British Guyana. The increased death rate among German Jews as a result of their fear of imprisonment in concentration camps, or from heart attacks caused by stress also drew the attention of the liberal press. It constantly reported the suffering of the Jews, the changes in Nazi policy, and the proposed option of securing the release of German Jews in exchange for foreign currency.4 In view of the foregoing, what was the reaction of Catholic circles representing the Church to the events of Kristallnacht? THE SILENCE OF THE ARGENTINEAN CHURCH The response of the Buenos Aires diocese may be compared to that of Paris, London, or Munich. Between November 8 and 10, 1938 a council of bishops convened in the Argentine capital, but it is unclear whether its participants were aware of the events of Kristallnacht, which occurred at precisely that time. Outside the deliberations of the council, it is clear that the citizens of Buenos Aires knew about the assassination of vom Rath, while details of the increasingly violent antisemitic campaign being conducted in Germany reached the city daily by telegraph from Europe.5 The first reports about Kristallnacht may well have reached the assembled bishops by the end of their meeting, and this catalyzed the council’s decision to issue a declaration “against totalitarianism” and “against racism.” Yet after more details about the German pogrom became known, the Argentinean Church hierarchy made no protest or condemnation of this harsh assault on German Jewry.6 The Catholic press did print statements by bishops in other parts of the world who publicly condemned this violent antisemitism as being against the tenets of Christianity, but the upper echelons of the Argentinean Church maintained their public silence, and moreover, the see of Buenos Aires continued to recommend exceptionally antisemitic literature, such as the Graciela Ben-Dror 180 book Sistemas genialmente antisociales (Patently anti-social systems) by the...