The Catholic Church and the Jews: Argentina, 1933-1945 (Studies in Antisemitism)

279 Pages·2009·1.27 MB·English

by  Graciela Ben-Dror

The Catholic Church and the Jews
Argentina, 1933–1945
STUDIES IN ANTISEMITISM
Vadim Rossman, Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist
Era (2002)
Anthony D. Kauders, Democratization and the Jews, Munich, 1945–1965
(2004)
Cesare G. De Michelis, The Non-existent Manuscript: A Study of the
Protocols of the Sages of Zion (2004)
Robert S. Wistrich, Laboratory for World Destruction: Germans and Jews in
Central Europe (2006)
The Catholic Church and the Jews
Argentina, 1933–1945
Graciela Ben-Dror

Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, for the
Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA)
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
© 2008 by the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism
All rights reserved
Manufactured and distributed for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study
of Antisemitism (sicsa), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, by the University of
Nebraska Press
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ben-Dror, Graciela.
The Catholic Church and the Jews : Argentina, 1933–1945 / Graciela Ben-Dror.
p. cm.—(Studies in antisemitism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8032-1889-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Catholic Church—Argentina—History—20th century. 2. Jews—Argentina—
History—20th century. 3. Catholic Church—Relations—Judaism. 4. Christianity
and antisemitism—Argentina—History—20th century. 5. Holocaust, Jewish
(1939–1945)—Foreign public opinion. 6. Judaism—Relations—Catholic Church.
7. Holocaust (Christian theology) I. Title.
BX1462.3.B47 2008
282(cid:24).8209043—dc22
2008011498
Editing and Typesetting: Alifa Saadya
To my family,

Víctor, Guy and Shirley, Amos and Lilach, Hagit, Doron and Romee

Contents
Foreword Haim Avni ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1

PART I: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ARGENTINA
AND ANTISEMITISM
1. The Consolidation of the Catholic Church in Argentina 21
2. The Consolidation of Antisemitism 41
3. The Stance of the Catholic Hierarchy toward the Jews 64
4. The Turning Point: The Military Coup and
“Catholic Argentina,” 1943–1945 90
PART II: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ARGENTINA
AND ITS ATTITUDE TO NAZISM AND THE HOLOCAUST
5. The Position of the Catholic Hierarchy in Argentina
on the Nazi Regime 113
6. The Attitude of the Clergy to Nazism and the
Jewish Refugees 132
7. The World War and Its Implications for the
Argentinean Church 151
8. The Argentinean Church and the Plight of European
Jewry, 1938–1942 178
9. The Reaction of Argentine Catholics to the
Mass Murder of European Jews, 1942–1943 211
10. The End of the War: Turning Point or Continuation? 235
11. Summary 248
Index 257

Foreword
The twelve and a half years of the Nazi era in Europe (January 1933–May
1945) were also a turbulent period in Argentina’s history: the “infamous
decade” (1933–1943) of a lame democracy, followed by two and a half years
of rule by a military-junta. The Catholic Church, whose dominance in
Argentine political life had been curtailed during the previous fifty years,
regained an enormous share of its bygone authority. This period also saw the
upsurge of a large movement of Catholic-oriented nationalism, the dominant
part of which was deeply antisemitic.
Five dimensions consequently converge: the attitude of the hierarchy of
the Argentine Church towards the Holocaust in Europe, its attitude toward
the local Jewish community and particularly, toward its increase through
immigration, the attitudes of some lower-ranking parish priests to the Jews
and the Holocaust, the support and official recognition gained by nationalist
antisemites from both the hierarchy and the rank-and-file clergy, and the
reflection Vatican policies toward the Jews during the Nazi era in the
Argentinean Church’s attitudes, as compared with the Church in other places.
In this last context, one should not lose sight of the fact that the Catholic
International Eucharistic Congress, which convened in Buenos Aires in
October 1934—undoubtedly a watershed in the history of the position of the
Church in Argentina—was headed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Eugenio
Pacelli, who in 1939 was elected Pope Pius XII. A strong and personal
acquaintance thus linked the Argentine Church hierarchy with the Holy See.
The author of this study, Uruguayan-born Dr. Graciela Ben-Dror,
belonged to a pioneer youth movement, and since her immigration to Israel
has been a member of a kibbutz. Undertaking her research at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem—some distance from her South American origins—
provided the advantage of a scholarly detachment from the subject. She has
succeeded in showing the variety of attitudes which prevailed in the
Argentine Church at the most critical period of twentieth-century Jewish
history.

Haim Avni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem