An X-Ray of Chilean Right-Wing Attitudes Toward Jews, 1932–1940

Home , July 1938, November 1938

chapter 3 Indifference, Hostility, and Pragmatism: an X-Ray of Chilean Right-Wing Attitudes toward Jews, 1932–1940

Gustavo Guzmán

1 Introduction

Convened to discuss the issue of Jewish refugees, the Évian Conference (July 1938) raised two main positions in Chilean politics. While leftists and centrists sympathized with Jews, asking President Alessandri to increase their immigration quotas, rightists remained indifferent to the Jewish plight, reject- ing any attempt to expand their numbers. A leading voice in this regard was Conservative senator Maximiano Errázuriz Valdés, according to whom Chile did not need traders or intermediaries but farmers. “Sadly,” he said, “Jews are not farmers but traders who will come to compete [with our businessmen] and become intermediaries.” Additionally, echoing a discourse that was com- mon at the time in other countries as well, their religion made them “elements difficult to assimilate” and likely “to create a hitherto unknown ethnic problem.” Indeed, the ultimate responsibility for Jew-hatred, he stressed, lay with “the Jews themselves,” as “they create problems where previously they did not exist.” Consequently, Errázuriz Valdés asked the government “to restrict as much as possible the arrival of Jews and not to increase their quotas.”1 Similarly, after Kristallnacht (November 1938), while the leftist and centrist press largely condemned the pogrom, speaking of “barbarism” and “savagery,”2 influential right-wing media such as El Mercurio and El Diario Ilustrado embraced a less sympathetic approach. Although it might be “painful from a human point of view,” El Mercurio stressed, “the reasons that led the German government to expel members of the Jewish race are not for Chileans to discuss because they belong to the right of every nation to govern itself.”3 El Diario

1 Senado de Chile, Boletín de sesiones ordinarias 1938, vol. I, 12 July 1938, pp. 875–9. 2 “Barbarie,” La Hora, 14 November 1938, p. 3; “Barbarie nazista,” El Frente Popular, 16 November 1938, p. 3; “Nuestra protesta,” Ercilla, 16 November 1938, p. 3; “La barbarie parda,” Consigna, 26 November 1938, p. 3. 3 “La cuestión judía,” El Mercurio, 22 November 1938, p. 3.

Ilustrado agreed, emphasizing that the government-led persecution of Jews was “a problem that concerns a nation with vast independence to decide its own destiny.”4 In parallel, dozens of Chilean parliamentarians sent a letter to the German government protesting Kristallnacht. The absence of right-wing figures among its signatories was conspicuous.5 These examples are representative of the Chilean Right’s attitudes toward Jews during the 1930s. Although the international and Chilean contexts changed significantly throughout that decade, increasing both antisemitic vio- lence in Europe and Jewish migration, the attitudes of local rightists toward Jews did not vary sharply during those years, evincing both indifference and hostility. Such negative views can be discerned not only among Fascists and far rightists but also among the right-wing establishment, formed by the tradi- tional Conservative and Liberal parties, business associations, and influential media, as well as priests, military officers, and intellectuals. More importantly, negative approaches to Jews can also be found among key figures of Arturo Alessandri’s second government (1932–38), such as the director of the con- sular department, Carlos Errázuriz Ovalle. Alongside some Chilean consuls in Europe, Errázuriz Ovalle played a key role in hampering the immigration of Jewish refugees.6 Nevertheless, indifference and hostility were not the sole right-wing attitudes toward Jews. Despite the negative stance of figures like Maximiano Errázuriz Valdés, Carlos Errázuriz Ovalle, and other right-wing notables, Chile did allow Jewish immigration and it did so during Alessandri’s government. True, this immigration was modest—50 families a year—and limited to German-speaking Jews with capital. Nevertheless, the right-wing establishment accepted Jewish immigration as a fact, a new reality imposed by international circumstances, as well as an opportunity. Thus, they admitted Jewish refugees on condition they were capitalists who could contribute to the Chilean economy. By doing so, these rightists showed remarkable pragmatism. This chapter analyzes the Chilean Right’s attitudes towards Jews during the 1930s. It argues that an X-ray of such attitudes sheds light on broader aspects of modern Chilean history, such as the process of rightist identity-making vis-à-vis the “Jewish question.” This avenue likewise illuminates unexplored dimensions of Jewish immigration, such as contradictory views about “Israelites” within

4 “Las campañas antisemitas,” El Diario Ilustrado, 25 November 1938, p. 3. 5 “Parlamentarios chilenos protestan por la persecución de los judíos en Alemania,” Mundo Judío, 24 November 1938, p. 1. 6 Irmtrud Wojak, “Chile y la inmigración judeo-alemana,” in Avraham Milgram ed., Entre la aceptación y el rechazo: América Latina y los refugiados judíos del nazismo (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2003), pp. 134–6.