Date: Friday 22Historical Relevance

World War II

1) What was the political situation in your country during the Second World War?

During the Second World War, there were many presidents in Argentina. The two first head of state were Roberto Marcelino Ortiz(from the UCR party) and Ramón Castillo (from de PDN party). The first governed from 1938 to 1942, he resigned because of health problems. His vice­president assumed, he lasted only one year because he was deposed by a group of militars. This was the end of the “infamous decade”, a period that was characterized by continuous electoral fraud, with a government known for its conservatism. This new political period was known as “ Revolución del 43”, were three dictators governed: Arturo Rawson, Pedro Pablo Ramírez and Edelmiro Julián Farrell. This dictatorial government had a big civic support, their main objective was to guarantee Argentina’s neutrality until the end of the Second World War. During this period the figure of general Juan Domingo Perón emerged, creating the peronist movement. He was elected and assumed in 1946, after the last dictatorial period led by Farrell.

2) What role did your country play during the Second World War?

The Republic of Argentina had a long tradition of being in neutral position against world wars. However, Argentina had a policy opposed to the interests of United States and

its allies, and with some sympathy for the Axis countries. The allies were the countries against the Axis countries, whose main members were England, France, United States and the Soviet Union. They fought against the expansionism of their rivals. By contrast, the Axis’s members were Germany, Japan and Italy, in addition to the help of other countries. But everything changed when a conflict appeared throughout the maritime commerce to the Axis, as Argentina was unable to trade primarily with Rome and Berlin. That was why Argentina continued trading with the United States and with the Allies, especially with England, who depended on some products coming from Argentina to feed their people. Argentina also stopped being neutral and became part of the Second World War just a few months before the war ended. Here it was clear that Argentina was part of the war only for economics reasons. So, we can say that Argentina’s role at that moment was marketing their products with Allies countries to get economic benefits..

3) What role did your country play in the aftermath of the Second World War?

After the war, Nazis came to Argentina without any kind of trouble. Argentina was like a hiding place for the nazis because here, no one knew them. This was the case of Adolf Eichmann, Josef Schwammberger, Walter Kutschmann, Klaus Barbie, Joseph Mengele, Priebke, Ante Pavelic, Gerhard Bohne and Dinko Sakic.Nazis who stayed in Argentina as a kind of hiding place, had an important social position.For example, in Santa Rosa de Calamuchita Ludolf von Alvensleben lived, who was a member of the Nazi. This man was in Argentina with his real name, he was a councilor for radicalism, president of the only football club in the town and hunting and fishing inspector of the city of Cordoba. People like him were more than two hundred.Almost all were helped organizationally, with the support of the Catholic Church and the International Red Cross, and the complacency of the Peronist government, which came to create real 'welcoming committees' for these people.

The story and experiences of our family during WWII

Testimony of Luis Antonio Chiozza (Nicolas´s Grandfather):

In the middle of the Second World War, Luis was 13 years old, just like Anne Frank. Here, in Argentina, he was fine, but his grandparents were in Italy, so his family was always very worried about them. Communication was complicated, but in some way, they managed to tell Luis and his family what the situation was like over there. Luis, who loved to read and write, wrote a letter to his grandparents everyday after school. In that time he wrote small stories for a local newspaper, it wasn’t a job; he did it for free, because he loved it. And he used to write about his grandparents, and his idea of how they should feel. He never used their real names, but he and his family knew who the characters really were. Eventually the world war two ended, and his grandparents, came to

the country and stayed here for a few weeks.

Testimony of Veronica Casella (Victoria’s mother):

As my mother wasn't born to the Second World War, she didn’t have a personal experience of the war. However, she told me an anecdote of an acquaintance of hers. What happened was that before the war started, this person was forced to go to Italy with her mother to be cured of a disease that could only be taken care of there. Both of them, went to Italy leaving his father here in Argentina. Unfortunately, when they were ready to return to Argentina, his mother died of cancer. Therefore, he had to stay several more days in Italy.

But bad luck didn't end, when he was returning home with his father the war started. He went into hiding in Italy until the war ended. His father thought he was dead because there wasn’t news about him. And the letters he sent him, never had answers.But luckily, he survived the war. When he returned to Argentina his father had died two weeks ago. Being only 19, he became an orphan. But all the bad things that happened to him as a young man, was a learning for his future. Finally he could form a family and live happily.

Testimony of Salomon Kaplan ( Maia´s Grandfather):

My grandfather lived in Ukraine,a state of the Soviet Union. When the war started, he was 14 years old. He escaped to another part of the Soviet Union where the Nazis didn't go. after a while, he returned home and found that there wasn't anybody there in his neighborhood. It was like a desert. at that moment, he realised that his family was kidnapped by the Germans.After that, he started to look for places to stay. Finally, he went to Uruguay by ship. Some years later, he came to Argentina where he could start a family. Nowadays he doesn't want to talk much about the war because he suffered a lot, he lost his family and it was very hard for him. Since he was 14 years old, he had lived alone, but fortunately, he found a wife and they had three children..

Testimony of Miguel Grois(Ignacio’s Grandfather):Miguel was 18 years old, when the world war two started. He was born in Russia but he escaped from the communism to Argentina some time before the Second World War started. He and his family in Argentina weren’t affected directly by the war, but as the communication with his family in Russia was awful they didn’t know very much, and the information arrived with lots of mistake. They couldn’t know what would happen, they were a Jewish family and after hearing all the terrible thing that happened to other Jewish family in Europe they were afraid about their family in Argentina and Russia.