The Brazilian Ranch Where Nazis Kept Slaves
January 21st, 2014Via: BBC:
It’s well known that pre-war Brazil had strong links with Nazi Germany – the two were economic partners and Brazil had the biggest fascist party outside Europe, with more than 40,000 members.
But it was years before Maciel – thanks to detective work by history professor Sidney Aguilar Filho – learned the grim story of his farm’s links to Brazil’s fascists.
Filho established that the farm had once been owned by the Rocha Mirandas, a family of wealthy industrialists from Rio de Janeiro. Three of them – father Renato and two of his sons, Otavio and Osvaldo – were members of the Acao Integralista Brasileira, an extreme right-wing organisation, sympathetic to the Nazis.
The family sometimes held rallies on the farm, hosting thousands of the organisation’s members. But it was also a brutal work-camp for abandoned – and non-white – children.
(please excuse my English, I guess it is a bit rusty – whent it comes to writing at least) The report mentions, quite predictably, Integralism as a sort of Nazi ideology. The Mirandas might have been Nazis themselves (with all thoses swastikas everywhere) but Integralism itself can hardly be described as a Nazi ideology. It was just morally/socially conservative and nationalistic (disclaimer: I am not an Integralist), but with a take on social justice in the lines of Catholic Social Doctrine. It opposed Liberal Capitalism and was pro-worker while at the same time opposing Communism. It was, among other things, probably the first Brazilian national movement that had Black leaders amongst their ranks and also the youth (students) and women, at a time when political parties were controlled by middle-aged White men who owned land (farmers). One example of such Black leader would be Joao Candido, sailor and leader of the famous Revolt of the Whip (just search for “Joao Candido” “integralismo” and see the pictures). He also was, it seems, homosexual or was at least rumoured to be. And he was an important member of the Integralist movement
In the thirties there were many political movements worldwide who opposed Communism, some were more right-wing and others more “left-wing” (they opposed Liberal Capitalism also and tried to come up whith a “thid position”). It is quite complicated to equate all of them with “Fascism”, specially in Latin America and other parts of the world (outside Europe).
Integralism “battlle cry” or salute, for one thing, was “Anaue”, which is a Native Brazilian Indian (Guarany) salute! They in fact were pro-miscegenation and their symbol, the Greek letter Sigma (? ) referred to the mathematical concept of “summation”, as a metaphor for the union of races and ethinicities in Brazil (coming together in one nation etc etc. That is, anti-racist Nationalism). There were Integralist Jewish leaders, but many Integralist non-Jewish author were accused of Anti-Semitism, although they often argued that they had no racial prejudices against Jews and only opposed what they perceived as a sort of “Jewish supremacism” (nowadays they would probably claim that they are “anti-Zionists”… and not anti-semitic).
So, to whom it may concern, that is pretty much what I would like to comment just for the sake of historical accuracy.
Some images: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-z7TW83yTVAE/UFpae8aK9yI/AAAAAAAAQtA/7rHbSM_S9ow/s1600/php9He9HG.jpg
http://www.doutrina.linear.nom.br/artigos/Imagens/verdade_e_mentiras.jpg