Special to JTA Nazi Literature in Argentina

Argentina has emerged as a major world center for the publication and distribution of Nazi literature, it was reported by Rabbi Morton M. Rosenthal, director of the Latin American Affairs Department of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. In a special report to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he stated that newsstands and bookstores in Buenos Aires and other large cities in Argentina prominently display classic texts by Goebbels and Hitler in Spanish translations. Books by other Nazi writers as well as contemporary works and pamphlets eulogizing Hitler and the Third Reich are also on sale:

“Editorial Milicia,” which describes itself as “the only publishing house in all the world dedicated to the publication of fundamental texts of national Socialism” has been the main source of the literature. Rosenthal stated. Milicia celebrated its first anniversary on June 30, proudly announcing that it had already published 16 paperbacks in a series called “Library of Doctrinal Formation,” and 10 individual books on the topic, all of which have, been sold in “impressive numbers.”

Among the titles are two by Mussolini, “Fascism” and “Revolutionary Fascism”; two by Hitler, “My New Order” and “My Enemies and Yours”; and three by Goebbels, “Forward the Third Reich,” “The Conquest of Berlin,” and “Hitler or Lenin.” Other authors published include Nazi propagandists Dieter Schwarz, Heinz Roth, and Hans Sponholz.

Planned for publication this month Is the anti-Semitic classic, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which Milicia describes as the first Spanish translation of the celebrated edition published during the Third Reich by Theodor Fritsch “the maestro of anti-Semitism,” who translated it from the Russian.

NAZI PROPAGANDA DENOUNCED

The respected Buenos Aires daily “La Prensa” has condemned what it describes as Milicia’s “damaging and persistent spreading of the doctrine of Adolf Hitler,” Rosenthal reported. In its editorial “Publications of the Nazi Doctrine,” the paper called upon the government to close down Milicia, as it did 48 other organizations dissolved under public law, because their purposes involved “the spreading of alien ideologies.”

A similar request was made by representatives of Argentine Jewry in a lengthy meeting last month with the Minister of Interior, Gen. Albano E. Harguindeguy. The Jewish delegation, made up of Dr. Nehemias Resnizky, president of DAIA, the representative body of Argentine Jewry, and three other DAIA officers, expressed the community’s concern with the proliferation of propaganda that is plainly Nazi and anti-Semitic. They gave Harguindeguy a list of the literature and reminded him of the fact that under Argentine law, inciting religious or racial hatred is a criminal act.

The Interior Minister assured the Jewish leaders, who later described the meeting as being frank and cordial, that the government did not in any way encourage racial or religious prejudice. He said that the matter would be studied carefully and that the government would seek an appropriate solution.

CHARGE JEWISH CAMPAIGN

Editorial Milicia charged that “a campaign orchestrated by Judaism by means of the Masonic-Liberal-Bolshevik press” was trying to destroy it, Rosenthal said. In a printed four-page reply headed, “Who are the victims and who are the executioners, the Jews or the Nazis?” Milicia blamed Jews for the world’s problems. Among 18 examples were the creation of capitalism and communism by Jews, subverting Cuba and Chile, and causing both world wars.

According to Milicia, Adam Smith, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Jacques Maritain were all Jewish. Jews are also blamed for creating the United Nations and controlling international news agencies. An additional 18 points focussed on the role of Jews in Argentina, alleging that they lead the liberal parties and the Bolsheviks, and are responsible for prostitution and fraud.

The reply ended with Milicia’s vow to continue “to unmask Judaism. We will see who will win; the gold of the international Jew or the will of the Argentine people.”

The growing volume of literature is particularly menacing to Argentine Jews because the country is experiencing a political and economic crisis almost without precedent. The military junta, which took power in March of this year, is attempting to rescue the country from economic collapse while it simultaneously seeks to suppress left-wing guerrilla organizations.

ARGENTINE JEWS MENACED

The threat to Jews is magnified by a proliferation of indigenous anti-Semitic literature in addition to Milicia’s tracts. “Ediciones Theoria” recently published a fifth edition of “The Jew in the Mystery of History” by Rev. Julio Weinvielle, an anti-Semitic priest who was spiritual advisor to many nationalist officers until his death last year. “AOCRA Argentina” has published a new edition of two classic Argentine anti-Semitic novels by Hugo Wast–“El Kahal” and “Oro.”

Argentina’s new role as a major world center for Nazi literature is also a threat to the country’s image abroad. It evokes memories of the 1930s and ’40s when Argentina was the base for Nazi espionage and propaganda in Latin America.

The activities reached such proportions in the ’30s that the Chamber of Deputies created an investigating commission to study Nazi subversion. It is well-known that Argentina entered the war against Germany belatedly and reluctantly and, under Peron’s leadership, gave haven to thousands of Nazis who fled Germany as the Third Reich crumbled, Rosenthal declared.

The La Prensa editorial calling for a ban on Nazi publications pointed out that “there has never been sufficient clarification of the clandestine entry of thousands of Third Reich ex-agents and officials” under the Peronist governments: La Prensa contrasted the present situation in Argentina with that in West Germany where Nazism is proscribed “for moral reasons more than juridical.”