As the epitome of man-made evil, the Holocaust has served an unexpected purpose: that of enabling the articulation of parallel histories of victimisation among a variety of ethnic groups suffering racial oppression. This ‘multidirectional memory’ (Rothberg 2009) explains why Holocaust remembrance has become intertwined with reflections on colonialism as well as post-war decolonisation struggles. Yet, as I argue, this process can be traced back to the 1930s, long before the mass murder of European Jews came to be collectively known as the Holocaust. As I will illustrate with reference to Mexico and Argentina, the reception of Nazi racial ideology provoked a passionate response from the Jewish communities of these countries. A similar reaction came from local intellectuals who resented the fact that Latin Americans with indigenous and African roots were considered part of the ‘inferior’ races.
In Mexico, Jewish community leaders, as well as left-wing activists and intellectuals, were well aware of the violence and exclusion suffered by Jews in Germany and Europe under National Socialism (1933-1945). Eager to find allies and supporters within Mexico, they often portrayed Jews and the indigenous peoples of the Americas as victims of the same racial prejudice. They also celebrated the fact that Mexican society was the product of racial mixing (mestizaje). However, as the experience of Jewish refugees in contemporary Mexico confirmed, this pluralist narrative neither protected against discrimination nor guaranteed a right to cultural difference. In Mexico, as in the rest of Latin America, migration policies have historically favoured white and Christian European immigrants over Black, Asian and Jewish ones.
In Argentina, home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, the news of the ordeal suffered by fellow Jews in Europe also led to significant mobilisation. Organisations were set up to fight against what were seen as the twin evils of antisemitism and racism. In Argentina, a country where the indigenous population had been decimated in the past and which had recently experienced significant immigration from southern and eastern Europe, these arguments were particularly appealing to those who were still struggling to be perceived as full members of the Argentine nation. In both Mexico and Argentina, however, these activities and debates inevitably led to a complex interaction between a variety of actors: Jewish organisations, left- and right-wing groups, national and regional governments, migration authorities and, last but not least, local German and German-Jewish communities.
In sum, this seminar will raise both historical questions (i.e. how moral outrage was – or was not – translated into effective political action) and sociological questions (i.e. how race is a socially constructed, historically fluid and constantly contested category).

Course details:
• The seminar will be held in English, with readings in English and German. Knowledge of
Spanish is an advantage but not essential.
• Academic requirements: a) Module PolG I: regular readings and a short presentation on a
given topic; b) Module PolG II: the same plus a short essay based on the presentation. It is
also possible to choose topics from the course for the written (PolG I) or oral (PolG II) final
module examination.

Basic bibliography:
Aizenberg, Edna (2015): On the Edge of the Holocaust. The Shoah in Latin American Culture and Literature, Lebanon, NH: Brandeis University Press.
Gleizer, Daniela (2013): Unwelcome Exiles. Mexico and the Jewish Refugees from Nazism, 1933-1945, Leiden / Boston: Brill.
Rein, Raanan (2010): Argentine Jews or Jewish Argentines? Essays on Ethnicity, Identity and
Diaspora, Leiden / Boston: Brill.
Rothberg, Michael (2009): Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of
Decolonization, Stanford: University Press.