Plans for a presentation here of Rolf Hochhut’s controversial play, “The Deputy, ” led Unitas Argentina, an anti-Communist Catholic group, to call a press conference which was marked by veiled threats and warnings to Argentine Jewry today, “The Deputy,” which has evoked controversy everywhere in Europe where it has been presented, contains the theme that the late Pope Pius XII failed to speak out against the Nazi destruction of European Jewry.
Washington Blanco Correa, president of Unitas Argentina, read a statement at the press conference in which he said that while his organization does not believe that the Jewish community, as such, had anything to do with the presentation here of the play, “representative Jewish bodies which have shown such concern for Christian Jewish relations, should make a statement in this regard.”
He added that the presentation of the play could be “a triggering factor for racial confrontation which we repudiate” but that “we shall take to the streets so that our religion will be respected.”
Msgr. Elias au Draos of the Arab-speaking Byzantine Catholics, said at the press conference that the play would “cause reactions contrary to Jews and will affect them seriously.”
Rodrigio Toranzo, president of the Association for the Captive European Nations, said “this drama will create artificial tensions” in Argentina “and will serve only Communism. ” Observers here said they believed that this was the first time that the debate which had greeted “The Deputy” almost everywhere had taken such a distinctly anti-Jewish tone.”
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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.
