The plaque had been unveiled in 2001 by former Foreign Minister, Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini, together with the then Israeli Ambassador, Benjamín Oron, the President of the Latin American Jewish Congress, Manuel Tenenbaum, and other leaders of the Jewish community.

The list was made by the now questioned Commission of Enquiry into Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA), created in 1997 and, until 2001, funded with generous slush funds of the Foreign Ministry.

Since the plaque withdrawal several letters have been sent to Clarín on behalf and against some of the controversial diplomats.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation had been disputing this homage for three years. The organization stated that in most of the cases the diplomats did nothing that went beyond the call of duty. The diplomats of the plaque are: José Angel Caballero, Juan Giraldes, Luis H. Irigoyen, Luis Luti, Héctor Méndez, José Ponti, Federico Fried, Jacobo Laub, Roberto Levillier, Alberto Saubidet, León Schapiera y Miguel Angel de Gamas.

Moreover, investigations of journalist Uki Goñi and Israeli Professor Haim Avni indicate that Irigoyen -Second Secretary in Berlin in 1943- refused entry permits to one hundred Argentine Jews who Germany intended to repatriate to Argentina. Finally, all of them died in the extermination camps.

Baruj Tenenbaum, President of the Wallenberg Foundation, said to Clarín that he had searched among the more than 20,000 people considered to be ”saviors” of Jews registered by The Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Yad Vashem (top authority on this subject); he did not find not even one Argentine who emulated the deeds of Swedish diplomat Wallenberg, or of Brazilian Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, among many others that, sometimes risking their own lives, offered help to Jews.

However, businessman Erwin Auspitz sent a letter to this paper this week reminding that diplomat Giraldes, Argentine Consul in Viena in 1938, helped his parents, his sister and a grandmother to obtain transit visas yet knowing that the family intended to stay illegally in Buenos Aires. Egon Strauss, another reader, agreed when he claimed that Giraldes helped him in Viena, letting pass his fake identifications with which he was trying to travel to Buenos Aires.

Irigoyen’s descendants, Edelmiro Solari Irigoyen and Mercedes Irigoyen de Campbell, emphatically denied the Foundation’s claim and asserted that diplomat Irigoyen ”did constant and successful efforts” in order to save Jews, this attitude was recognised -they say without offering evidences- by figures such as Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt.

The seriousness of this matter lays on the fact that there is no official research that supports with facts the mentions in the commemorative plaque.

Translation: Florencia Gersberg

Many people date Argentina’s problems with the rest of the world back to the debt default of late 2001, and with much reason, but in order to really come to grips with the question of where Argentina went wrong, it is necessary to go back deep into the previous century. The 1930 coup, when Argentina parted company with the 1853 constitution for the first time, was spawned by the same serpent’s egg of world depression which hatched Nazism and for far too long Argentina went down the same road. The outside world still has not entirely forgotten the contrasting behaviour of Argentina and Brazil during the Second World War – whereas Brazil declared war on Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini as early as August, 1942, and sent an important expeditionary force (including tank regiments) to fight in Italy, Argentina maintained a neutrality distinctly tilting towards the Axis until almost the very end of the Third Reich (especially after the 1943 coup), subsequently harbouring war criminals.

Within this context the importance of the Foreign Ministry initiative to quash an anti-Semitic secret law dating back to 1938 should not be underestimated. There was nothing overtly anti-Semitic about Circular 11 from mid-1938 signed by then Foreign Minister José María Cantilo (subsequently sympathetic to the Allied cause) instructing consuls ”to deny visas to anybody leaving their country as an undesirable or as the result of expulsion, regardless of the cause of that expulsion” but in the context of 1938 this was effectively slamming the door on Jewish refugees from Europe. Thanks to the work of the Wallenberg Foundation, we know that this circular was not an isolated aberration because only last month the Foreign Ministry removed a plaque honouring 12 diplomats for saving Jewish lives during the Second World War – the dozen diplomats included Luis Yrigoyen (allegedly an illegitimate son of the great Radical leader) who, far from being an Argentine Wallenberg (the Swedish diplomat who saved hundreds of thosands of Jewish lives in wartime Hungary by extending them Swedish passports), regarded his excellent contacts with the Nazis as an end in themselves, giving his German friends to understand that Argentina could not care less when offered in 1943 the repatriation of 100 Argentine Jews as a goodwill gesture towards one of the more pro-Axis South American régimes.

Perhaps Argentina needs more than a bond swap to live down its history.

In July 1938, a year before the beginning of the Second World War, the embassies of Argentina in Europe received a secret communication -Circular number 11- by which they were ordered to deny entry visas to thouse who wanted to flee their country ”or those who had abandoned it on account of having been declared undesirable or had been expelled”. This order meant certain death for thousands of Jews who could not leave Germany and were later sent to the extermination camps. However, as happened with other written evidences related to the Holocaust, these documents vanished once the war was over and until the year 1998, when a forgotten copy was traced at the Argentine Embassy in Sweden. Now this secret order had been solemnly voided at Government House by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Rafael Bielsa, in the presence of President Nestor Kirchner.

After the victory of the Allies, Argentina became a haven for persons who had served Adolf Hitler’s regime. Several Jewish organizations have endeavoured to find out whether this collaboration had gone beyond the granting of safe havens. Thus, during the term of Menem’s presidency his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Guido di Tella, set up the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (CEANA). One of the researchers traced the document that involved the 1938 Government in the denial of help for persecuted people, but the Menem Administration decided to file away the case and keep its contents secret. The researcher quit the commission and since then the Wallenberg Foundation -named after the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews and later disappeared after being arrested by the Soviets- demanded the annulment of a decree which obviously was no longer in force, but had left thousands of persons devoid of protection.

The stance of the Argentine authorities was to deny the existence of the circular. ”They used to say that we were struggling against windmills and that antisemitism was non-existent. Even the files disappeared from the Foreign Affairs Ministry. But in the end it could be located”, stated Baruch Tenembaum, president of the Wallenberg Foundation, for whom it is quite clear that in times of the war ”Argentina was a nest of Nazis”. Bielsa admitted yesterday that the original order had ”gone astray” for two years but was finally found in another file where it had been hidden. ”The Peronist and Radical Governments had refused to annul the decree because doing so would have implied admitting its existence”, stressed Mr Tenembaum.

To make things more entangled, in July 2001, under the Radical Government of Fernando de la Rua, a plaque was placed on the front wall of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs to honor 12 Argentine diplomats ”who became prominent during the Third Reich regime for their solidarity and humane behaviour towards the victims of Nazism”, as read the text of the plaque. But in the light of the recently found document they did not act in that way, and even one of them was directly responsible for the fate of 100 Arentine Jews who had asked to return to their country and could not do so.

Antisemitism is not a minor matter in a country where at least 250,000 Jews are living, a country that suffered the worst two terrorists attacks in its history. In 1992 a bomb destroyed the Israeli Embassy, provoking 29 deaths. Two years later a car bomb destroyed the Jewish Welfare Center (AMIA) , which brought about the loss of 85 lives. ”I would like to point out the attitude of the Government, which has withdrawn the plaque and voided the circular”, said Jorge Kirszenbaum, president of the Federation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA).
Translation: Josefina Prytyka

It was about secret law number 11, one of the very most secret under the custody of the Argentine State, an order signed in 1938 by then Foreign Minister José María Cantilo and sent to each Argentinean delegation around the world, with the purpose of preventing Jews and other people persecuted by the Nazis from entering Argentina.

From New York, Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the International Foundation remarked: ”Secret law number 11 was an incompatible element with the human values that must prevail in a democratic government.”

”The Wallenberg Foundation headed the requests for the repeal of this norm”, said daily newspaper Clarín, one of the most widely sold in Latin-America.

”Derogation has been requested for years by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation”, newspaper Infobae informed.

On the ceremony president Kirchner and Foreign Minister Bielsa were together with Interior Minister Aníbal Fernández and Natalio Wengrower, vice president of the Wallenberg Foundation also attended by Beatriz Gurevich and journalist Uki Goñi.

Aníbal Fernández had taken interest in this case in April. After three years of complaints and negotiations, the Wallenberg Foundation sent a stern letter in which they denounced the existence of a plaque that appeared in the Foreign Affairs building honoring twelve Argentine diplomats for their alleged solidarity during the Holocaust. The plaque, unveiled in July 2001 by Foreign Minister Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini, included the name of Luis H. Irigoyen, a diplomat who during his mission in Berlin in 1943 had ignored the fate of 100 Argentine Jews that the Nazi Regime offered to repatriate to Argentina, as a good will gesture towards a country with whom they maintained excellent relations. According to investigations carried out by the Foundation, the remaining eleven members of the foreign service did not deserve the homage either since they had only assisted Argentine citizens in Europe during the years of war.

Resolution number 999 which finally withdrew the plaque was dated 16th May, 2005.

In his speech, Wengrower emphasized that, ”during more than three years the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation intensely negotiated, despite the opposition and indifference of many, the removal of this unjustified homage and the annulment of secret law number 11, that was the direct or indirect cause, of an unknown quantity of deaths whom we will never know. Justice has been finally made after sixty six years.”

Secret law number 11 was discovered in 1998 by the Argentine researcher Beatriz Gurevich. When she reported her discovery to the Foreign Affairs Ministry the document was filed and presumably destroyed. Only when Wallenberg Foundation decided to make public a copy on it’s web site, was when Circular Number 11 started to be known both in Argentina and around the world.

”I would like to point out the honest and sustained relationship between the Wallenberg Foundation and the citizenry. Not only do I want to pay homage to the talent and exhaustive research, but also to the perseverance and insistence”, Foreign Minister Bielsa said.

”When I took the decision of writing the derogation order, I obviously asked for the original… but it had disappeared, it was not there”, Bielsa explained.

”I am disappointed with myself for not having done this one year ago, and at the same time, I am thrilled for doing it today,” Bielsa ended while addressing Wengrower.

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Translation: Enrique Borst

President Néstor Kirchner abolished a 1938 confidential document which limited the entering of Jews and people persecuted by the Nazis into Argentina, yesterday.

He did so together with Foreign Minister, Rafael Bielsa, and Interior Minister, Aníbal Fernández, during a ceremony that took place at the Government House in Buenos Aires.

The confidential order, which was fostered by then Foreign Minister José María Cantilo and presently abolished after almost seventy years, denied visas to Jews and other people persecuted by Adolf Hitler’s regime.

Its abolishment was requested for years by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, an NGO founded in Argentina and with branches in Caracas, Jerusalem and New York.

The controversial resolution number 11, of 1938, was discovered in 1998 by Argentine researcher Beatriz Gurevich during her work for the Commission for Elucidating the Nazi Activities in Argentina (CEANA, in Spanish), an organization created in 1997 by former Chancellor Guido Di Tella, during the tenure of President Carlos Menem.

However, the investigator decided to quit the Commission when, after having reported her finding the authorities decided to file it once again and not to disclose its contains.

On thanking the Government for the abolishment of that resolution the Vicepresident of the Wallenberg Foundation, Natalio Wengrower, warned about ”the rising of new forms of all kinds of discrimination whose promoters are waiting in ambush for a turn in the development of history to instill their wicked plans.”

”We remind them that history does not go back,” he assured.

Translation: Nora Bellettieri

Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa will sign the order to end a seven-decade old secret internal ministerial norm which tacitly restricted Jewish immigration. The ceremony will be held at the Foreign Ministry with Interior Minister Aníbal Fernández, Natalio Wengrower, vice-president of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, investigative journalist Uki Goñi (a former Herald staffer) and Beatriz Gurevich taking part. Gurevich found the only existing original copy of the secret order at the Argentine Embassy in Stockholm.

Even though he kept silent during the entire ceremony, President Néstor Kirchner yesterday decided to be present at the ceremony in which Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafael Bielsa repealed a controversial secret circular issued by his Ministry. Currently unapplied, but theoretically still in legal force since 1938, the directive tacitly denied a visa to citizens of Jewish origin, at the time when Nazi Germany began the Holocaust.

Yesterday’s activities were to take place in the offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Palacio San Martín. But, in a rapid gesture, Kirchner had it transferred to the Salón Sur of Government House. Thus, the President, Bielsa and the Minister of Interior Aníbal Fernández, presided over the ceremony together with Natalio Wengrower, Vice Chairman of the Wallenberg Foundation that spearheaded the demands of the repeal.

Secret Circular N° 11 was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs José María Cantilo on June 12 1938. It instructed that ”apart from other regulations concerning the selection of travelers’ that came to this country and except for a specific order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consuls should deny a visa even as a tourist or passenger in transit to all persons who fundamentally were to be considered leaving or having left their country of origin as undesirable or expelled, whatever the reason of the expulsion”.

The circular was discovered in 1998 by researcher Beatriz Gurevich, who was very moved yesterday, alongside writer and journalist Uki Goñi. The woman found it ‘lost’ in the files of the Argentine Embassy in Stockholm, during her term on the Commission of Enquiry into the Activity of Nazism in Argentina, set up by former Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella.

Since then, as Wallenberg Foundation Director Gustavo Jalife pointed out to this paper, numerous requests were made for the circular’s repeal and for the withdrawal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building of a plaque that paid homage to twelve diplomats for their so-called solidary activities on behalf of Jews during the Second World War.

Last May 16, Bielsa signed Resolution 999 that led to the withdrawal of the plaque. Showing documents, Wallenberg Foundation proved that Luis H. Irigoyen, one of the diplomats honoured for his sojourn at the Embassy to Berlin, in 1943 ”showed himself uninterested in the destiny of one hundred Argentine Jews” which the regime of Adolf Hitler offered to repatriate to Argentina as a gesture of goodwill towards a country with which they maintained excellent relations.

Last week, Minister Fernández had committed himself to take steps before Kirchner towards the repeal of the circular. And yesterday Bielsa recalled the impediments that he found in the investigation of the episode: to start with, the original circular could not be found. ”I feel disappointed for not having done this a year ago and very moved for having done it today”, said the Minister.

Translation: María Lía Macchi

Buenos Aires, 24 May 2005

Father Horacio Fidel Moreno
President
Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
Av. Corrientes 1145, 11th floor
Buenos Aires
__________________________

Dear Father Moreno,

I am pleased to address you, and through you, all the members of your Institution, to express my appreciation for the praiseworthy task that you undertook that resulted in the removal of the controversial plaque which had been installed in the Argentine Foreign Ministry, which unjustly honoured an Argentine diplomat who had failed to uphold his unforsakable duty of safeguarding the most elementary human rights.

Please, extend this message to all those who, through their efforts and dedication have achieved justice through their coherent conduct.

Once again expressing my acknowledgement, I greet you with a warm and heartfelt

Shalom

Rafael Eldad
Ambassador of Israel

Luis H.Irigoyen was the Secretary of the Embassy in Berlin during the Nazi regime. In 1943, officials of the Third Reich wanted to hand over a hundred Jewish fellow country- men to the Argentine authorities.

Irigoyen never answered the Germans, thus leaving his fellow country-men to be judged by the machinery set up to kill Jews, sealing their fate: the gas chamber.

The plaque, that is polished every day by an orderly of the Foreign Ministry , in remembrance of the pretended ” saviours” of the Nazi genocide, includes his name.

Despite all the claims, both by private people and by different organizations, who showed their anger over the plaque, which was unveiled during Adalberto Rodriguez Giavarini’s administration in July 2001, the Foreign Ministry has not as yet removed the homage to 12 people, which is still on the ground floor of the building in 1212 Esmeralda Street.

The Committee for the Research of the Activities of Nazism (CEANA) created by Guido Di Tella in 1997, named twelve people of the Foreign Ministry ”heroes” for their presumed ”solidarity with the victims of Nazism” during the years of the Holocaust.

The indignation that arose from different sectors, is aimed at the ” atrocities” that took place by having included as ”solidary” and ” heroes” people, who at the most, fulfilled their duties as public officials, confirms The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation .

Notwithstanding, what caused more indignation was to read about the inclusion of Irigoyen in that plaque, without knowing the true motives that induced the CEANA to name him a hero in the fight against genocide.

Irigoyen’s actions, there are documents to ascertain them, caused the greatest indignation amidst different figures of society. They joined in solidarity with the complaint presented officially by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation as well as by the writer Uki Goñi, who cannot understand such a historical contradiction.

The requests reached the office of the Department of the Interior, more precisely Minister Aníbal Fernández, who after having spoken with the Minister of Foreign Affairs , Rafael Bielsa, promised to remove the ”homage” as soon as possible. Showing his extreme annoyance because of this historical mistake.
Traduccion: María Pensavalle

The Foreign office decided to remove a controversial plaque from its premises. The plaque paid tribute to 12 Argentine diplomats for their actions ”for the Jews” during the Second World War. One of these diplomats is accused by community organizations to have done exactly the opposite.

Decree 999 signed by Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa on Monday, and published yesterday, ordered as ”a preemptive measure” the removal of the plaque located in the office of the Foreign Ministry. The decree was taken considering the ”seriousness” of the denunciation, and because of ”reasons of institutional origin and responsibility” preemptive” measures will be adopted until a commission finishes the investigations on the matter.

The denunciation has been led for several years by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and was aimed against the controversial plaque, which was unveiled festively in July 2001, by then Foreign Minister Adalberto Rodríguez Giavarini. This paid tribute to a group of Argentine officials who ”stood out during the Third Reich Regime because of their solidarity and humane demonstrations” with the victims of Nazism.

But, after a thorough investigation, based on Nuremberg trials documents, on books and on genuine inquiries, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation holds that not only the men who ”just fulfilled with their diplomatic duty to help the Jews” were distinguished but also that there was more than one conflicting case. Gustavo Jaliffe, the Director of the Foundation, pointed at Luis H. Irigoyen, the former Secretary of the Argentine Embassy in Berlin, who – he says – refused entry visas to 100 Argentine Jews who Adolf Hitler’s Regime wanted to hand over to the Argentine Republic.

Translation: Nora Bellettieri