Argentina Cracks Down on Nazi Literature Distributor: A Victory Against Hate

Argentina Cracks Down on Nazi Literature Distributor: A Victory Against Hate

Edited by:  Fern Sidman

In a significant step towards combatting hate speech and promoting tolerance, Argentine authorities have recently taken decisive action against a publishing house accused of distributing Nazi literature online, as was reported Thursday by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The operation, led by the Federal Police, also resulted in the arrest of Pablo Giorgetti, a man previously raided for distributing Nazi propaganda more than a decade ago, the JTA reported. This latest crackdown underscores Argentina’s commitment to eradicating the dissemination of virulent anti-Semitism and hate-filled ideologies and materials.

Libreria Argentina, the publishing house at the center of this controversy, was allegedly the largest distributor of Nazi and anti-Semitic books in Argentina, according to the country’s leading Jewish organization, DAIA, as was noted in the JTA report. The two-year investigation into Libreria Argentina was initiated by DAIA after discovering one of the books it published for sale online in December 2021.

“It is astonishing that there are people producing this type of material and worrying that there are people who consume it,” remarked Marcos Cohen, the Vice President of DAIA, during a press conference at the Federal Police headquarters announcing the raid. “That is the challenge we have to work on.”

DAIA has been a longstanding advocate against the proliferation of Nazi propaganda, artifacts, and literature in Argentina. The JTA report indicated that the nation served as a refuge for Nazis, including high-ranking officials like Adolf Eichmann, in the post-World War II period. Five years ago, DAIA revealed tens of thousands of documents that shed light on Argentina’s support for the Nazis during that era, the report added.

The raid, carried out by Federal Police officials Juan Carlos Hernandez and Alejandro Ñamandu, along with DAIA’s President Jorge Knoblovits, resulted in the seizure of over 200 books from a residence in San Isidro, an affluent neighborhood in northern Buenos Aires, according to the JTA report. Additionally, electronic and printing devices were confiscated, along with a substantial cache of Nazi propaganda materials.

Disturbingly, the seized materials included printed books adorned with images of swastikas, Iron Crosses, and other symbols associated with the Nazi Party, as was reported by the JTA. These findings underscore the gravity of the issue and the need for immediate action to curb the spread of hate-filled ideologies.

The initial discovery of these blatantly anti-Semitic materials was made on Mercado Libre, Latin America’s largest online retailer. However, the JTA report said that Mercado Libre is actively working to restrict the availability of Nazi content through its sales platform.

“We are shocked by how profuse the material is,” Cohen expressed, as was reported by the JTA. “We have to work on punishment, but we also have a lot to do in education because the first thing we have to eradicate are the readers of this material.”

The successful raid on Libreria Argentina and the subsequent arrest of Pablo Giorgetti send a strong message that Argentina is resolute in its efforts to combat anti-Semitism, hate speech and the dissemination of extremist ideologies. It also emphasizes the importance of educating the public to recognize and reject such harmful materials, promoting tolerance, and fostering a more inclusive society.

In the summer of 1994, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was bombed, killing 85 people and injuring over 300.  To date, the bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history, as was reported by Wikipedia.org.  Argentina is home to a Jewish community of 230,000 making it the largest in Latin America and the sixth-largest in the world outside of Israel.

On October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused the Iranian government of directing the bombing, and the Iranian proxy terror group Hezbollah of carrying it out. The AMIA bombing underscored Hezballoh’s global ambitions and tragically illustrated Iran’s support of international terrorism. High-level Iranian government officials were directly implicated in the attack, and Hezballah carried it out at the direction of the Iranian regime.

In 2015, Alberto Nisman filed a 300-page document accusing former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of covering up Iran’s role in the incident, as was reported by Wikipedia. However, Nisman was murdered hours before he was due to testify against the former president, which the Federal Court of Buenos Aires ruled was a “direct consequence” of Nisman’s accusations against Kirchner. Wikipedia also reported that in 2017, Argentine judge Claudio Bonadio accused Kirchner of treason and called on the Argentine Senate to permit her arrest and trial for allegedly covering up Iranian involvement in the 1994 attack.