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These days, eurocentric Europeans are celebrating the end of World War II, although in Asia, that show didn’t get cancelled until a few months later. The surviving US-American, British, French, Belgian, New Zealand, Australian, Indian, Canadian, Soviet veterans and even the partisans are commemorated with parades and marches, the dead ones with visits to cemeteries.
But every year, the soldiers of one country are completely forgotten.
No, I am not talking of our grandfathers in the Wehrmacht. Most of them really don’t deserve any celebration.
I am talking about the Brazilian soldiers who helped the Allies to liberate Europe from fascism.
You never heard of them? See, that’s exactly what I mean. They always get overlooked. And it wasn’t just a handful of Brazilians who served in the US-American or British military. No, Brazil dispatched a whole division to Italy in World War II. That was 25,000 soldiers.
As the Second World War began, Brazil wanted to imitate Switzerland, remain neutral and continue trading with both sides. At that time, Brazil was a dictatorship once again, which did have some sympathies for Nazi Germany (although the melting pot of Brazil managed to be fascist light without the genocidal-racist element). But the North-American charm offensive was simply too convincing, and in 1942, Brazil allowed the USA to establish military bases for the war in the Atlantic.
Neutrality became untenable when, in the same year, German submarines sank 13 Brazilian merchant vessels and hundreds of people died. Actually, the government of Brazil still didn’t want to enter the war against Germany. The calls to do so came from the people and became ever louder. Protesters demanded an entry into the war and smashed German restaurants. On 22 August 1942, Brazil declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan.
That step was becoming increasingly popular in South America at the time. Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Venezuela and Uruguay followed suit, in that order. Oh, and the heroic nation of Argentina took the bold decision just in time before it was too late, on 27 March 1945; it was the last declaration of war against Germany.
But even in Brazil, nothing happened after the announcement. Public anger kept boiling, although the real reason for that may have been the cancellation of the Football World Cups during World War II. A saying at the time was that “sooner would snakes smoke a pipe” than the government would send troops to Europe, to express the skepticism whether this would ever happen. In English, one would say “when hell freezes over”, but in Brazil, nobody knows the meaning of freezing.
Finally, almost two years after officially joining the war effort – and conveniently after the successful landing in Normandy, when it had become clear to everyone who would walk off the European battle pitch as winners -, the first Brazilian troops were shipped to Italy on 2 July 1944.
“The snakes are smoking!”, the incredulous cries accompanied the soldiers, and the Brazilian Expeditionary Force self-mockingly selected that symbol for their shoulder patch. War is always chaos, and thus, it only became obvious as the troops landed in Italy that they had no weapons, that nobody had arranged barracks for them and, worst of all, that nobody had told them about winter, cold and snow.
There is no snow in Brazil. It was an unknown concept to most soldiers. And in the winter of 1944/45, these beach boys were supposed to fight the Wehrmacht’s hardened mountain infantry in the Apennines, where they had dug themselves in along the Gothic Line.
All the more surprising that the Brazilians advanced quite successfully, won battles, liberated Parma, among other cities, and took more than 20,000 soldiers, mainly Germans, as prisoners. The photo shows the German lieutenant general Otto Fretter-Pico surrendering to a Brazilian soldier.
So, the German propaganda had remained ineffective, although there had even been a radio program in Portuguese for the enemies from Brazil: “Hora Auri-Verde”. These broadcasts probably tried to frighten the South-Americans more deeply of even more snow, ice and frost, recommended a return to Rio, and threatened a severe drubbing in football should they not heed the advice.
In their propaganda directed at the Italian population, the Nazis also used the fact that many Brazilian soldiers had darker skin. They tried to incite fear of rape and murder, their work now being continued by Italian parties like the Lega.
During the long winter months in the trenches, the Brazilian soldiers had time to think. They realized that it was weird, fighting for democracy in Europe, while being governed by a dictator at home. Thus, it was also under the influence of the returning soldiers, that Getúlio Vargas announced elections in 1945, allowed parties to be formed and promised not to run for office anymore. But to be on the safe side, he was removed by a military coup, but then re-elected in 1950 and finally, in 1954, confused by the constant back and forth, he shot himself.
Links:
- More about World War II.
- More about Brazil.
- And more about Italy.
- If you are from some country whose contribution to world history hasn’t been appreciated, let me know! For a little bribe, I’ll make your country great again, too.
The Happy Hermit 
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“The heroic nation of Argentina” – that was very funny!
I am wondering what will happen when the first Argentinean reader will spot it. :D
And I was wondering if there is a connection between that reluctance on the part of Argentina and many Nazis picking it as their second home after May 1945.
Yes, that is interesting.
I’m sure someone’s written about it.
Wikipedia has the following two interesting entries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(World_War_II_aftermath)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n#Protection_of_Nazi_war_criminals
Dear Andreas,
here’s a Brazilian movie (A Estrada 47 / Road 47) about the FEB participation in WWII. It was shot in Italy in 2005:
It is a shame that your country of origin, Germany, does NOT remember the end of the war on 8 May 1945. It is telling what the country thinks of this period in its history.
I am not clear as to the point of your comment. I have no idea exactly how the end of the war is commemorated in Germany, but I’ve always heard that Germany faced the atrocities it committed head-on, much more than other countries such as Austria and Holland. I take it that Andreas will respond with his views.
David, I tend to agree with you, but with caution.
The saddest part of how Germany and Germans have been facing their history were the decades after 1945. At that time, many people were ashamed, everybody wanted to forget, and the East-West confrontation pushed everything else into the background (even de-Nazification was no longer carried out with any zeal). About two decades were lost.
But beginning in the 1960s and mainly with prosecutions of former SS members (and also the renewed interest due to the Eichmann trial in Israel). things began to change. I am talking about West Germany here, because the East basically said “we are communists, we were always anti-fascist, we are a new country, we have nothing to do with this, let’s look forward”.
There could always be done more, and much was only done due to pressure (for example, the forced laborers were only compensated after class-action lawsuits were brought in the USA), but in comparison with other countries, there is quite an astonishing consensus in Germany about the historic guilt and the ongoing responsibility for it. I also see in young people that their interest in this is not diminished. Many of them are volunteering to work at memorial sites, do school projects or engage in local history. The awardees of the Obermayer Award are just some examples: http://obermayer.us/award/awardees.htm
Anyone who says that Germany does not commemorate 8 May 1945, must never have been in Germany on that day, or at least not anymore since the 1970s.
In East Germany, 8 May was always celebrated as a day of liberation.
In West Germany, there was indeed a dispute whether 8 May 1945 was a day of liberation or a day of collapse and no agreement could be reached in the first two decades or so after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. This debate continued, also because the situation was complicated by East Germany still not having been free (from the Western perspective) until 1990. To some, it seemed a bit strange to have an official Day of Liberation, when half the country was under a communist/socialist dictatorship. (Let’s not forget that West Germany did not regard East Germany as a foreign country, but maintained the claim to represent the whole German people.)
The breakthrough in the West came on 8 May 1985, with a speech by then-President Richard von Weizsäcker: https://andreas-moser.blog/2015/01/31/weizsaecker/
You will notice that this was a remembrance ceremony in the Bundestag, something which is being held every year. (True, we don’t celebrate it with parades of tanks like in Russia, although there are many more flowers on that day before the Memorial to the Soviet Soldiers in Berlin.)
As to days of remembrance, I would however say that 27 January ranks higher. It is the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps in Auschwitz and the official memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust. What I have found most impressive is that in some years, a survivor of the Holocaust was giving the speech before Parliament. You find the full list here: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedenkstunde_zum_Tag_des_Gedenkens_an_die_Opfer_des_Nationalsozialismus#Redner
Thanks for your take.
Re East Germany, yes, the Communists’ view (not only in E. Germany) was always “we were always anti-fascist, so we shall examine nothing”. Molotov-Ribbentrop is conveniently glossed over…as is widespread local collaborators in certain countries.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (or “Hitler-Stalin Pact” as it is known in German) is indeed overlooked too often.
In the countries that still uphold (in part) the Soviet narrative of the USSR single-handedly having rid Europe of fascism (Transnistria comes to mind), it is overlooked that Stalin basically invited the Nazis into Eastern Europe. To be fair, the Nazis might have attacked Eastern Europe anyway, but that doesn’t diminish Stalin’s participation.
But also in some Eastern European countries that now define themselves by their anti-communism (for example in Lithuania), I have seen the weird phenomenon of people bitterly complaining about the Soviet occupation and dismissing the period of Nazi occupation as “not so bad in comparison”. They completely overlook that the Soviet occupation was based on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and thus had explicit German approval.
But there are probably other factors at play. One is that the Soviet occupation continued for longer and was the more recent memory, basically until 1990.
The other is sadly reflective of local tacit support for the Holocaust because I have often heard in Eastern Europe: “sure, the Germans also occupied us, but they behaved well”, completely ignoring that they did not behave well against Jews, Roma and other minorities. To me, it shows that the idea that one can be Jewish and Estonian or Roma and Romanian is still a foreign concept to many.
As an example for this distortion of history, I point to Grutas Park in Lithuania.
well said.
And thanks for the link to your post on Grutas Park – I read your blog religiously (if you’ll excuse the word:-)) but either I missed that one or I forgot it.
That’s a religion that even I can accept. ;-)
But to be fair, the article about Grutas Park is more than 5 years old. This makes me think abut all the old articles which are buried under sands of time, only waiting to be detected by a reader who has broken a leg and is sitting at home, bored.
Ah, that was before I discovered this blog, as I recall. So i’m not senile yet.
And now you know what you can look for if you are ever super-bored. :-)
Maybe I should re-publish some of these old articles, for otherwise they will hardly ever be found. (Except for a few long-term classics which get many hits every day, like the one on suicide or the the one about the practicalities of traveling to Israel and other Middle Eastern countries).
I don’t think I saw the one on suicide.
As to the other one – the former is impossible and the latter not advisable for me :-)
Well I was born in East Germany and therefore May 8 is a well known date for me. However, ask anyone today about the date and what has happened and a great number of people will shrug their shoulders. Of course it is laudable that the Germans have no parades showing off their tanks etc. but a public reminder what the day stands for I think is necessary.
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An excellent historical fact … Thank you
Thank you!
And your wonderful country had so many interesting historical stories to discover. One, also about the time of World War II, I discovered by accident when I spoke to a taxi driver in Santa Cruz and it turned out that his father had been a Jewish refugee from Germany: https://andreasmoser.blog/2016/02/19/german-history-bolivia/
Obviously I need to comment! I LOVED THE ARTICLE! Haha the name is so perfect! Hahahaha!
Yea, our pracinhas (the way we call our soldiers) had a participation in WWII. As you pointed very well, Brazil tried to be neutral (even if helped Nazism giving Olga Benário to them).
Here we don’t talk too much about it tho, maybe because we joined late to “””party”””.
You said Brazil arrived in Italy without guns, yea, you are right, we took the instruments to play samba instead took guns. Our strategy was start a carnaval and make evryone to do a deal of peace! Haha. Joke aside, this picture is the most famous here about the WWII.
About Getúlio, well, the pracinhas didn’t cared too much about the dictatorship here, the processes of take him from power started in 1943 with 76 politicians who wanted the power back (before Getúlio we had what we called “milk-coffee politic” that basically was only 2 states of Brazil could has presidents, that is, 1 President was from SP and next time 1 president from MG. Getúlio made a coup and say “let’s change this coffee-milk drink for mate”, because he is from South). Anyway, the WWII was a good chance to him just accept the fact he lose power and he accepted to go to exile.
Anyways, Brazil was cool country in WWII. After it the UN was created and people there scheduled the first General Assembly. So they faced a HUGE problem “who will make the first speech?!” If they choose someone who won, the losers would be angry. If they choose someone who lose, could be nonsense… so they thought “who is the most friendly people who don’t like to fight with anyone?” So Brazil was the country!
Fact is, after it, Brazil do the first speech in General assembly until nowadays, so cute.
Sad fact is we fought against nazims and we have the tropical Hitler as President now. The world turns around as we say here…
Ps: I need to make you disappointed. Brazil have snow! In the South
I was already waiting for your reply! :-)
Because I know only very little about Brazil, having been there only one month and just having read a few books in that time.
Thank your for correcting me and for filling in the details! (But I am almost scared of writing more articles on Brazil now, for fear of getting something wrong about Positivism.)
I didn’t know the sad story of Olga Benario (and Elisabeth Saborowski) yet.
And I didn’t know the funny story about opening the UN General Assembly either.
But I did know that there is a little bit of snow sometimes. But I think hardly anyone lives where it falls, no? As a writer, you sometimes have to make the story smooth and not try to explain every detail and exemption. (I explain and digress far too much already, anyway.)
Now I felt like a petulant in your publications, haha. I’m sorry if I look like that. I just love the way you write and feel free to comment :)
Although our flag directs us to be totally positivist (thank you, French), we are not like that (I’m a terrible example of Brazilians: petulant and prolix) so, please write more and don’t care too much about my big messages.
It is interesting to know the perception of foreigners in relation to Brazil, it is as if they were narrators telling the story, I think this is extremely interesting and opens up possibilities for reflections on how we are as a society.
I have this preciousness of trying to make everything as explicit as possible. This is an inheritance of Latin linguistic logic, haha. But your statement (which I will take as advice) is great, thank you.
Waiting for the next article about Brazil
Excellent! Thanks for the education. There must be a book on this somewhere (?), hopefully in english.
There is a chapter in this book – https://amzn.to/2WCDn8a – , which has information about lots of other countries who contributed, but who have mostly been forgotten.
Didn’t even know Brazil was in ww2.
i know they declared war on nazi Germany, but had no idea they sent troops
I think they had a squadron flying Thunderbolts too
I always learn something new when I read your blog, so thank you!
Being American, I know all too well about “national guilt” and how it’s swept under the rug. There is more talk and education about the time of slavery, but still so much misinformation or lack of information about the atrocities committed against the Natives. Of course, that guilt belongs to Europeans as well.
It can snow in Santa Catarina though you could argue it’s rather Germany than Brazil ;))
And apparently, it’s such a phenomenon that it has its own Wikipedia page: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neve_no_Brasil
Obrigado por fazer lembrar ao mundo, de nossos heróis!
“Cobras Fumantes eterna é a sua vitória!”
É um prazer!
Muito poucas pessoas sabem sobre isso.