TY - JOUR
T1 - An anti-fascist struggle conditioned by ethnic concerns
T2 - Jewish self-defense groups in 1960s South America
AU - Rein, Raanan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Following the kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and the antisemitic wave it provoked in South America throughout the 1960s, Jewish-Argentines, Jewish-Uruguayans and Jewish-Chileans organized themselves into armed self-defense groups and trained in response to growing xenophobia and racism. This little-researched history highlights the efforts of Jewish youth to break away from communal political traditions. They defied the practice of their parents and grandparents who preferred peaceful compromise over direct confrontation with either state officials or extreme right-wing organizations. These Jewish youngsters defined organizations like the Argentine Tacuara or Juventud Uruguaya de Pie as neo-Nazi. They took as a role model the ghetto fighters and the partisans of World War II and were now prepared to resort to violence in their struggle against antisemitism. Based on an oral history project, the article describes how they not only guarded community institutions but also attacked nationalist bullies, printing houses of antisemitic literature and Arab diplomatic legations. However, as this article argues, they did not collaborate with leftist anti-fascist groups, since they were also concerned in promoting Zionism and immigration to Israel.
AB - Following the kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and the antisemitic wave it provoked in South America throughout the 1960s, Jewish-Argentines, Jewish-Uruguayans and Jewish-Chileans organized themselves into armed self-defense groups and trained in response to growing xenophobia and racism. This little-researched history highlights the efforts of Jewish youth to break away from communal political traditions. They defied the practice of their parents and grandparents who preferred peaceful compromise over direct confrontation with either state officials or extreme right-wing organizations. These Jewish youngsters defined organizations like the Argentine Tacuara or Juventud Uruguaya de Pie as neo-Nazi. They took as a role model the ghetto fighters and the partisans of World War II and were now prepared to resort to violence in their struggle against antisemitism. Based on an oral history project, the article describes how they not only guarded community institutions but also attacked nationalist bullies, printing houses of antisemitic literature and Arab diplomatic legations. However, as this article argues, they did not collaborate with leftist anti-fascist groups, since they were also concerned in promoting Zionism and immigration to Israel.
KW - Argentina
KW - Chile
KW - Jews
KW - Uruguay
KW - antisemitism
KW - neo-Nazis
KW - self-defense
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165293243&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08263663.2023.2223878
DO - 10.1080/08263663.2023.2223878
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AN - SCOPUS:85165293243
SN - 0826-3663
VL - 48
SP - 453
EP - 470
JO - Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
JF - Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
IS - 3
ER -