JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

72 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 3:71
at Congress Plaza. Referring to the antisemitic phenomenon of the repressors
of the “tragic week,” the writer Juan José Sebreli (in the book The
Jewish Question in Argentina, published in 1968 by Modern Times)
presented an interesting thought to explain the xenophobia of the oligarchy
of that time: the same racial hatred that the liberal bourgeoisie felt toward
the mestizo, who tried to replace the European immigrant, later turned
toward that immigrant when he unexpectedly revealed a dynamic element
of social unrest. 2
Among the direct background of the facts we could list, there are some
that stand out for their qualitative importance:
• During the tragic week of January 1919 until today, in the only
pogroms of America, there were attacks on the Jewish neighborhoods
in Buenos Aires, leaving dozens of dead and a large number
of injured; this kind of violent event did not occur in any other
country on our continent.
• Identity cards issued to Jews by Argentina Federal Police during
the 1910s and 1920s were stamped with a Star of David.
• In 1937, Marcos Savon, Argentine Consul in Gdynia, Poland, sent
several notes to Consul Carlos Saavedra Lamas under the title
“Cemita problem.” In the note of July 14, 1937, on the eve of the
Nazi invasion, Savon wrote: “The attacks on people and Jewish
property continue . . . On the other hand, and along the lines of
what you style in Germany, a conference of professionals will meet
next September and discuss the inclusion of a clause in the statutes
prohibiting Jews from entry into Christian associations. All these
measures fester tempers, and reach the pogroms against war.
Harassed, the Jew is driven to emigrate . . . I am of the opinion that
it would oppose more barriers to immigration from that part of
Poland animated by the deepest grudge against the Christian, and
willing to commit the greatest excesses. In addition, no week
passes without the Polish government finding centers of Communist
organizations in which the majority are Jewish, which keeps
alarming the authorities . . .”
• The existence of a “secret instruction” prohibiting entry into Argentina
for anyone persecuted by the Nazis (almost all of them Jews).
In fact, the discovery of secret circular No. 11, signed by the then
Argentinian Minister for Foreign Affairs José María Cantilo on
July 12, 1938, is a clear example of how the Foreign Ministry handled
these requests, by requiring that the consuls, without prejudice
2. Herman Schiller, “The First Pogrom in Argentina.” Published January 3,
1999; see http://www.salta21.com/+El-primer-pogrom-en-la-Argentina+.html.