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Nazism in Chile

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Black-and-white photograph of Nazis standing in a decorated office. An empty table is in the foreground. Three men look towards the camera, including one in the middle with a toothbrush moustache.
Nazi meeting in Chile, from the country's 1940s investigation
Black-and-white photograph of a large assembly with a Nazi flag on the back wall. Hitler Youth stand on the left. Seated in the front row are suited men with Nazi armbands; the central baldish man has a toothbrush moustache. Behind him are a hatted woman and a man with no sideburns, flanked by four-plus children.
Nazi assembly of men, women, and children (including Hitler Youth), from the 1939–1947 investigation
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Some German Chileans supported Nazism prior to Adolf Hitler's taking control of Germany in 1933, including the National Socialist Movement of Chile (1932–1938). Germany also pursued the Nazification of the German Chilean community. Nazi spy networks operated in the country between 1937 and 1944, and were investigated by the Chilean government (with the aid of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) until 1947. Other movements related to Nazism continued to operate in the country until the latter half of the 20th century, and former Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Walter Rauff spent his later life there.

Background

Chilean physician Nicolás Palacios, a proponent of the scientific racism ideology, considered the "Chilean race" to be a mix of two bellicose master races: the Visigoths of Spain and the Mapuche (Araucanians) of Chile. Palacios traces the origins of the Spanish component of the "Chilean race" to the coast of the Baltic Sea, specifically to Götaland in Sweden, one of the supposed homelands of the Goths. Palacios claimed that both the blonde-haired and the bronze-coloured Chilean Mestizo share a "moral physonomy" and a masculine psychology. He opposed immigration from Southern Europe, and argued that Mestizos who are derived from Southern Europeans lack "cerebral control" and are a social load.

History

There was a German Chilean youth organization with strong Nazi influence prior to 1933 (when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control of Germany). Germany pursued a policy of Nazification of the German Chilean community, as it did elsewhere. The German Chilean communities and their organizations were considered a cornerstone to extend the Nazi ideology across the world, and they mostly supported Nazi Germany (at least passively), with a widespread presence in the country's German Lutheran Church. The Chilean German community, however, did not act as an official extension of the German state. A local chapter of the Nazi Party was started in Chile.

The National Socialist Movement of Chile (MNSCH) was founded in 1932. After it was dissolved in 1938, some of its notable former members migrated into the Agrarian Labor Party, obtaining high charges. Other former MNSCH members formed new parties of that kind until 1952.

Between 1937 and 1944, Nazi spy networks operated in Chile. After the Navy discovered their presence via radio, in 1941 the Chilean General Directorate of Investigations established the International Confidential Section (or "Department 50"), which investigated local Nazi activities until 1947. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation's Special Intelligence Service assisted Chilean officials in their efforts. Related records were subsequently maintained by the National Archives of Chile, which were declassified in the 21st century. In 2018, History's investigative documentary series Hunting Hitler visited the archives and asserted the existence of a network of over 700 outposts resembling Chile's secretive Colonia Dignidad (which housed some Nazis), as well as a concentration camp run by former Schutzstaffel (SS) officer Walter Rauff, who supported Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Senior SS officer Richard Glücks, believed to have died in 1945, was speculated to have escaped Germany, allegedly to Chile.

A new Nazi Party was formed in 1964 by school teacher Franz Pfeiffer; it organized a "Miss Nazi" beauty contest and formed a Chilean branch of the Ku Klux Klan before disbanding in 1970. Pfeiffer attempted to reboot the party in 1983 amid a wave of protests against Pinochet's military dictatorship.

Colonia Dignidad

This section is an excerpt from Colonia Dignidad. Colonia Dignidad ('Dignity Colony') was an isolated colony established in post-World War II Chile by emigrant Germans which became notorious for the internment, torture, and murder of dissidents during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s while under the leadership of German emigrant preacher Paul Schäfer. Colonia Dignidad has been described as a "state within a state".

Resistance

Nazism had also detractors in Chile. An example of this is the telegram sent by Salvador Allende and other members of the Congress of Chile to Hitler after the Kristallnacht (1938) in which they denounced the persecution of Jews.

See also

References

  1. "Hitler Youth Hiking". Facing History & Ourselves. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  2. ^ Documentos Dpto.50 (II parte) (in Spanish). Archivo Nacional de Chile. 11 January 2018. Event occurs at :30. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via YouTube.
  3. ^ Palacios 1918, pp. 35–36
  4. Palacios 1918, p. 37
  5. Palacios 1918, p. 41
  6. ^ Nocera, Raffaele (2005), "Ruptura con el Eje y el alineamiento con Estados Unidos. Chile durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial", Historia (in Spanish), 38 (2): 397–444
  7. Paula, Rogério Henrique Cardoso de (2017). "As comunidades alemãs frente ao nazismo no Brasil e noChile: uma História comparada" [The germans communities against nazism in the Chile and in the Brazil: comparative History]. Revista Trilhas da História (in Portuguese). 5 (10): 72–93. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  8. Penny, H. Glenn (2017). "Material Connections: German Schools, Things, and Soft Power in Argentina and Chile from the 1880s through the Interwar Period". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 59 (3): 519–549. doi:10.1017/S0010417517000159. S2CID 149372568. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  9. ^ Etchepare, Jaime Antonio; Stewart, Hamish I. (1995), "Nazism in Chile: A Particular Type of Fascism in South America", Journal of Contemporary History, 30 (4): 577–605, doi:10.1177/002200949503000402, S2CID 154230676
  10. "Transferencia de Archivos del Departamento 50 de la Dirección General de Investigaciones". Archivo Nacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  11. "Descifrando las redes de espionaje nazi: historia del Departamento 50 (1)". Archivo Nacional (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  12. Cassigoli, Rossana (May 2013). "Sobre la presencia nazi en Chile". Acta Sociológica (in Spanish). 61: 157–177. doi:10.1016/S0186-6028(13)70994-0.
  13. "Hitler's Last Will". Hunting Hitler. Season 3. Episode 8. 2018. 7, 10 minutes in. History.
  14. Huismann, Wilfried: Pinochets deutscher Pate. Tagesschau. ARD, September 3, 2023 (in German).
  15. Hamilton, Charles (1996). Leaders & Personalities of the Third Reich, Vol. 2. R. James Bender Publishing. p. 146. ISBN 0-912138-66-1.
  16. "Ex-nazi Says Martin Bormann, Three Other Hitler Aides, Alive in Latin America". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2 January 1968. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  17. Brown, Stephen (7 May 2012). "Insight: German sect victims seek escape from Chilean nightmare past". Reuters.
  18. Rotella, Sebatian (25 June 1997). "Siege may force colony to yield its secrets". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  19. Hevia Jordán, Evelyn (2022). "Colonia Dignidad: Lights and Shadows in the Recognition of the Victims". In Elizabeth Lira; Marcela Cornejo; Germán Morales (eds.). Human Rights Violations in Latin America. Peace Psychology Book Series. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 223–236. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-97542-5_16. ISBN 9783030975418. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  20. "Telegram protesting against the persecution of Jews in Germany" (PDF) (in Spanish). El Clarín de Chile's.

Bibliography

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