Nazi paramilitary structure amongst Brazilian Germans?

[sid guttridge]

There were three quarters of a million German immigrants and their descendants in Brazil in WWII.

Does anyone know how the German paramilitary organisations (i.e. SA?) were structured there?

Thanks

Sid.

[phylo_roadking]

In the first year of his constitutional administration Vargas encountered considerable opposition from the radical wing of the Brazilian labor movement. Abortive Communist-led revolts occurred in Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro in November 1935. Martial law was declared, and Vargas was authorized by the congress to rule by decree. Mass arrests of radicals and other opponents of the government followed. Popular discontent soon attained grave proportions, with a newly formed pro-Nazi party organization (Integralista) winning broad support among the Brazilian middle class. This group soon became a center of antigovernment activity. In November 1937, almost on the eve of the presidential election, Vargas dissolved the congress and proclaimed a new constitution vesting his office with absolute, dictatorial powers. He reorganized the government in imitation of totalitarian Italy and Germany, abolished all political parties, and imposed censorship of the press and mails.

Try that party name and see what turns up.

[phylo_roadking]

The chief exception was Brazil, whose green-shirted Integralistas (Ação Integralista Brasileira) emerged as the largest single national party in the mid-1930s until involvement in a foolhardy coup attempt led to their suppression.

There's the full name.

That's nearly the full spectrum now. Did anyone ever wear puce shirts? Or a nice mauve?

[phylo_roadking]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Integralism

Problem is - anything specific seems to be either in Spanish....or in academic collections behind passwords.

[Paulus II]

If only it were Spanish I'd translate it easily. Problem is it's Portuguese.
Similar enough to Spanish to make something of it but still........
I'll give it a try in the evening when I get home from work.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

Thanks for that.

I am looking particularly for Nazi structures within the large and considerably autonomous German community of southern Brazil. The Nazis claimed jusrisdiction over Germans everywhere and seem to have set up structures to support this. However, I can find little on these structures. In particular I was looking for paramilitary organisations amongst them.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Paulus II]

So, after looking at 50-odd sites in German, Spanish and Portuguese the results are quite disapointing.

The organisation that Germans could join was the Ausland Organisation/NSDAP. Different sources claim that 2.900 to 3.100 Germans in Brazil joined the AO/NSDAP. Only some 5% of all German nationals in Brasil.
People of German decent but Brazilian nationality were not elligible for the AO. Many of those would have joined the Integralista party.
Organisation of the AO in Brasil is somewhat sketchy. Some sites mention only Ortsgruppen of at least 5 Party members and Blocks of at least 10 Party members but on other sites Dr. Friedrich Ried is described as a Kreisleiter in Porto Alegre and the man who founded 1.000 schools in Brazil with a nazi curiculum where some 58.000 students would have gone to.
I came across many sports- and other organisations that had the swastikaflag "flying high" but no proof of such an organisation being run or funded by the NSDAP.
There are a few references to paramilitary activities here and there but no details what so ever. Nowhere is there any connection made between paramilitary groups and the AO/NSDAP or the Verein für das Deutschtum.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Paulus,

Many thanks for the leads.

I am humbled. You have made more effort on my behalf on this subject than I have yet made myself!

Cheers,

Sid.

[tallus83]

How prevelant was the influence of these organizations in Brazil?

Brazil was one of the Allied countries and was a major base for U-boat hunting in the South Atlantic.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Tallus,

The German community was in the south of the country, well away from the areas the U-boats operated off.

My impression is that Nazi organisations were quite strong amongst Brazil's Germans, most of whom lived in a consolidated block and had not integrated much with the Portuguese-speaking population. By contrast, the larger Italian community was much more integrated and not so prone to Mussolini's influence.

That is not to say that all German Brazilians were puppets of the Reich. On one occasion a Brazilian FW-58 piloted by a German-Brazilian reported a U-boat to US forces.

Nazi policy for Latin America was not well developed. However, it seems that Hitler wanted the German Brazilians back in Europe so that they could be used to settle the lebensraum gained in the East with good Germanic stock. There seem to have been no plans to take over South America.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Opa]

As with many other aspects of the Third Reich, there is much hype and misinformation. Ultimately, many innocent civilians were deported
http://www.gaic.info/latin_american_history.html
because FDR wanted to make Latin America safe for US exports.

Max Paul Friedman. Nazis and Good Neighbors The United States Campaign against the Germans of Latin America in World War II (New York Cambridge University Press 2003), is a good source.

[tallus83]

Thanks for the information, Sid and Opa.