Increasingly arrogant Nazi activities in Uruguay, evidenced by the threat of a Nazi paper that Uruguay would be made another Scandinavia unless anti-Nazi utterances were checked, have provoked a storm of resentment in Uruguay.
The Nazi paper is called La Linea Siegfrieda (Siegfried Line) and only recently made its first appearance. It is accepted here as being under Berlin’s direction. The paper warned that if local newspapers, radio stations and other organs of expression continued their sharp attacks on “the great German nation,” then Uruguay would soon find itself in the position of Scandinavia.
Leading the burst of denunciation which greeted this threat, the newspaper El Pais asserted that the Uruguayan nation would not permit itself to be threatened “in such brutal fashion” as La Linea Siegfrieda had sought to do.
Another evidence of increasing hostility to Nazism was a demonstration of Montevideo University students, who burned a large portrait of Hitler and voiced demands for suppression of illegal Nazi activities in this country. Another great demonstration was held at the Atinea, local communal center where several thousand persons demanded action against the fifth column. During the demonstration windows of several German stores were broken.
Interest has been aroused by revelations by Prof. Hugo Fernandez Artuccio, supported by documentary evidence, that Nazis here are seeking to form a German bloc in order to pave the way for their recognition as a minority, using the same tactics employed in Sudeten Czechoslovakia.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
