Crossing with No Return: Polish Jews in Brazil, 1939-1945

Abstract

Abstract: This article analyzes the diasporic condition of Polish Jews who sought refuge in Brazil from 1939, after the start of German occupation of Poland, until 1950, when thousands of former concentration camp inmates searched for their families, homes and identities. Many bore the tattoos that were stamped on their arms in Auschwitz as a sign of having been marked for death. Among them were dozens of Poles whose lives had been shattered by the genocidal actions of Nazi Germany and collaborationist countries. Not willing to return to Poland, their homeland, they glimpsed at Palestine and, later on, the State of Israel, as the Promised Land, a place where they would find peace and rehabilitate their Jewish identity. Others chose to live in countries where Jewish communities were better structured, such as the United States, Argentina and Brazil. The fact of having a family connection somewhere was enough to define their choice of a future homeland, because most felt lost, without any references. However, the Brazilian governments of Getúlio Vargas (1937-1945) and Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946-1950), defined this immigration as a risk factor for the nation and for the Brazilian people, which is why Memos, Resolutions, Service Orders, most of them secret and confidential, were promulgated, aimed at restricting the entrance of “undesirable” Jews.