New York Times, September 2nd, 1937
The 1937 eyewitness report of a foreign correspondent in the New York Times sheds light on a Brazilian South which fanatically and without restraint cultivates the breeding ground for German National Socialism in Brazil.
Nazis Abroad – A Picture From Brazil
From a Correspondent lately in Brazil
The way in which German citizens abroad are shaped into Nazi communities by the Foreign Organization of the German Foreign Office, now holding a congress at Stuttgart, is well exemplified in Brazil. The two southernmost States of the Brazilian Republic, Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, contain large settlements of Germans and descendants of Germans. These “German colonies” since long before the Great War, much more since the Hitler regime began, have been carefully nursed from Germany, and in many districts in the south and in towns such as Blumenau and Joinville a majority of the population understands nothing but German.
Through subsidized schools administered by professors and teachers sent out from Germany and through subsidized patriotic societies German national feeling has been sedulously fostered. A vast majority of Brazilian born descendants of German colonists have always been taught and have felt that it is to Germany and not to Brazil that they owe allegiance. These conditions existed already before the War. Laws have been passed that instruction in schools must be in the vernacular and not in German, but such laws have been disregarded by many. […]
As typical of what is now happening in Brazil, the cases of Blumenau (in Santa Catharina) and Porto Alegre (the capital of Rio Grande do Sul) may be cited. The greater part of Brazilian – not merely German – youth in Blumenau is obliged to belong to the Hitler Youth. Their oath of allegiance has to be renewed every two months. Periodical fêtes are organized with Teuton thoroughness. Every year obligatory Winter Relief collections are made. Half the amount thus collected goes to Germany: the other half remains in Brazil in the hands of the Nazi agents, who render to the contributors no account of its destination.
A representative of the Hitler regime was recently sent to Brazil with full powers. His mission is to control all the activities not only of Germans but also of Brazilians in the south, for Germans of the third and fourth generation born in Brazil are considered Germans by the German authorities. The Nazi emissary in Southern Brazil is Herr Friedrich Thiess. He is the direct agent of the Nazi Party. Three other “general agents” have also been recently appointed to Brazil by Berlin. Every year children are chosen to be sent to Germany to be “integrated in the Hitler spirit.” The expenses of their return journey and of their stay in Germany are defrayed by the Reich. Young men and girls of from 16 to 18 are also sent to Germany, where they are trained as Jugendführer (Hitler Youth leaders) in Brazil. Copious propaganda matter is distributed by Herr Thiess and his subordinates from house to house. Almost all the schools in the south are subsidized by the German Government. Their programme is to keep silent on everything that is Brazilian and to ventilate all that is German. […]
German Babies in Brazil
It is openly declared in the south of Brazil that Germany’s ambition is to have a population of 100,000,000, and Germans oversea are urged to aid the Fatherland in its effort to increase and multiply. Prizes are offered for large families. But as the children born in Brazil, even of the most ardent Nazi parents, are legally Brazilian, steps have been taken to see that Nazi babies “born into this world alive” shall start life with a legally German status. German ships calling at Brazilian ports have orders to embark prospective mothers, Germans or of German descent, in order that the child may be born under the German flag. Young men of German origin are exhorted to prefer blonde German maidens, and a provident régime undertakes to export for prospective bridegrooms the purest of Aryans, duly furnished with an official certificate to that effect. Everything entering Blumenau by land, sea, or even by post is subject to the control of the agents of the N.S.D.A.P., whose censorship is of the strictest. […]
Picture credits:
Cover Picture: Crianças da Juventude Hitlerista fazem a saudação ao Führer. No cartaz se lê: “Unser Deutschland – Sieg Heil! Unser Führer – Sieg Heil!”. Foto tirada em Presidente Bernardes, interior do estado de São Paulo, Brasil.
Nazis Abroad – article in the New York Times 1937
Newspaper Deutscher Morgen, 1932
