Brazilian Visa Project

Last updated March 16, 2019

The Brazilian Visa Project is the name given by historians to the Catholic Church's project during World War II of allowing converted Jews to emigrate to Brazil in order to escape persecution in the European Theater of the war.

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2017. As the world's "oldest continuously functioning international institution", it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilisation. The church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. Its central administration, the Holy See, is in the Vatican City, an enclave within the city of Rome in Italy.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

The conversion of Jews to Catholicism during the Holocaust is one of the most controversial aspects of the record of Pope Pius XII during The Holocaust.

1939 petition to the Brazilian government

In March 1939, various members of the German Catholic hierarchy asked the newly elected Pope Pius XII to petition the Brazilian government for 3,000 immigration visas for German Catholic Jews to settle in Brazil. This was followed by two years of diplomatic exchanges, starting with an instruction form Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione to Benedetto Aloisi Masella, the nuncio in Rio de Janeiro, to request the visas from President Getúlio Vargas. The visas were formally conceded by Vargas, through Brazil's Conselho de Imigração e Colonização (CIC), on June 20, 1939.

Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, was head of the Catholic Church from 2 March 1939 to his death. Before his election to the papacy, he served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio to Germany, and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany.

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populated city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, and the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; it is also one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world.

Luigi Maglione was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1935 and served as the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope Pius XII from 1939 until his death. Pius XII never replaced Maglione, opting to assume the responsibilities of the office himself, with the assistance of two undersecretaries.

Strict conditions

From the very beginning, the visas came with strict conditions, "some necessary, others obstructionist", which grew stricter over time.^[1] The visas were available to baptized Jews in Germany and other countries, but were required to submit a recommendation from the nunciature of their respective country.^[2] The emigrants were further required to prove that their baptism had occurred before 1933.^[2] Protestant Jews were denied visas.^[2] Later conditions included a substantial monetary transfer to the Bank of Brazil and approval by the Brazilian Propaganda Office in Berlin.^[3]

Protestantism is the second largest form of Christianity with collectively between 800 million and more than 900 million adherents worldwide or nearly 40% of all Christians. It originated with the 16th century Reformation, a movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy and sacraments, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. They emphasize the priesthood of all believers, justification by faith alone rather than by good works, and the highest authority of the Bible alone in faith and morals. The "five solae" summarise basic theological differences in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church.

Banco do Brasil S.A. is the largest bank by assets in Brazil and all of Latin America. The bank, headquartered in Brasília, was founded in 1808 and is the oldest active bank in Brazil, even older than the country's central bank. It is also one of the oldest banks in continuous operation in the world.

Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3,748,148 (2018) inhabitants make it the second most populous city proper of the European Union after London. The city is one of Germany's 16 federal states. It is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and contiguous with its capital, Potsdam. The two cities are at the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region, which is, with about six million inhabitants and an area of more than 30,000 km², Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions.

Role of Cardinal Innitzer

In the face of these many hurdles, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna wrote to Pope Pius XII on February 4, 1941, asking for his immediate aid in granting the visas, in light of the beginning of deportation of 60,000 Jews of Vienna, at least 11,000 of whom had been baptized.^[2] A reply from Maglione outlined the various difficulties associated with such a step.^[2] Innitzer was not satisfied, and complained again later that month.^[2]

Theodor Innitzer was Archbishop of Vienna and a cardinal in the Latin Rite branch of the Catholic Church.

Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria, and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primate city, with a population of about 1.9 million, and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Suspension of the program

The visa program was suspended on September 3, 1940 and officially ended on November 20, 1941.^[4] The fascist Spanish and Portuguese governments had already refused to issue travel visas for those using the immigration visas to Brazil.^[4] Innitzer updated the Holy See again on the increased pace of the deportations on May 20, 1942 and the Vatican tried for the last time to appeal to the Brazilian government in July 1942.^[4] Maglione wrote in December 1941 to the bishop whose request had initiated the project that: "as you have certainly been informed [...] many emigrants have departed and—I regret to say—from what I have been told, a good many of them, both by their improper conduct and alleged demands, have not corresponded to the concern which the Holy See has shown in their behalf".^[4]

The Estado Novo, or the Second Republic, was the corporatist authoritarian regime installed in Portugal in 1933, which was considered clerical fascist. It evolved from the Ditadura Nacional formed after the coup d'état of 28 May 1926 against the democratic and unstable First Republic. Together, the Ditadura Nacional and the Estado Novo are recognised as the Second Portuguese Republic. The Estado Novo, greatly inspired by conservative and authoritarian ideologies, was developed by António de Oliveira Salazar, President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, when he fell ill and was replaced by Marcelo Caetano.

The Holy See, also called the See of Rome, is the apostolic episcopal see of the bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, ex cathedra the universal ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the worldwide Catholic Church, and a sovereign entity of international law. Founded in the 1st century by Saints Peter and Paul, by virtue of Petrine and Papal primacy according to Catholic tradition, it is the focal point of full communion for Catholic bishops and Catholics around the world organised in polities of the Latin Church, the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, and their dioceses and religious institutes.

Lack of gratitude from visa recipients

The emphasis of Maglione's letter was not on the failure of a diplomatic effort, but chagrin at the alleged conduct and lack of gratitude of the recipients of the visas.^[4] According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, by "improper conduct", Maglione could only have meant that the recipients had continued to practice Judaism.^[3]^[5]

Judaism ancient, monotheistic, Abrahamic religion with the Torah as its foundational text

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. It is an ancient, monotheistic, Abrahamic religion with the Torah as its foundational text. It encompasses the religion, philosophy, and culture of the Jewish people. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Israel. Judaism encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. The Torah is part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth largest religion in the world.

Number of visas

It is difficult to verify the exact number of visas that were issued.^[4] Only 1,000 visas were actually allocated to the Brazilian embassy in the Vatican, and most—although not all—were probably used.^[4] The remaining 2,000 in control of the Brazilian officials in Germany were never used, not even in the early months of the project.^[4] Maglione was "remarkably acquiescent" to the cancellation of the program and his response to the Brazilian ambassador about the possibility of reinstating the program in the future was "agonizingly impersonal and diplomatic".^[6]

Attitude adopted by Pius XII

Morley views the importance of the Brazilian visa project as fourfold: first, in demonstrating the concern of Pius XII "primarily, almost exclusively" with baptized rather than unconverted Jews, and viewing their persecution primarily as an infringement on the rights of the Church; second, in exemplifying the reliance on diplomacy, even as "an end in itself"; and third, in showing the reluctance of the pope to disturb the status quo, "even when a staunchly Catholic country reneged on its promise to the Pope"; and finally, the use of prior failure as an "apologia" against later proposals to aid Jews.^[6]

Notes

↑ Morley, 1980, pp. 18-19.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Morley, 1980, p. 19.
1 2 Gutman, 1990, p. 1136.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Morley, 1980, p. 20.
↑ Lesser, 1995, p. 151–168.
1 2 Morley, 1980, p. 21.

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References

Morley, John (1980). Vatican diplomacy and the Jews during the Holocaust, 1939-1943. New York: KTAV Pub. House. ISBN 0-87068-701-8.
Lesser, Jeffrey (1995). Welcoming the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08412-8

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[1] Morley, 1980, pp. 18-19.

[m19-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Morley, 1980, p. 19.

[gutman1136-3] 1 2 Gutman, 1990, p. 1136.

[m20-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Morley, 1980, p. 20.

[5] Lesser, 1995, p. 151–168.

[m21-6] 1 2 Morley, 1980, p. 21.