Demonstrators make a Nazi gesture while singing the national anthem in Santa Catarina Photo: Reproduction / Social Networks
Unicamp anthropologist Adriana Dias warned: In 2021, at least 900,000 people in Brazil downloaded neoNazirelated materials made available on sites managed by neoNazi groups in Brazil. It was a balance of downloads recorded between 2002 and 2018.
The figures, the expert explained, indicate a growing interest in the topic in the country. Access has been facilitated by instant messaging groups like Telegram.
According to her, Brazil currently has at least 530 neoNazi cells.
Access to the materials did not imply knowledge of the Nazi experience in Germany. On the other hand.
“From the comments and reactions we’re seeing on the networks, it’s impressive that people have no idea what Nazism was. They think it was a thing that was limited to Germany. For example, many do not know that Japan took part in the war. That it affects all of Europe and the countries of Africa. Or that it was a war against the world and against the Jewish people,” she told me in January 2022.
Cut the scene.
In November of that year, a group of demonstrators blocking streets in Santa Catarina to protest the election of Lula (PT) were caught giving a Nazi salute during the act.
The state has a lieutenant governor who is unable to publicly condemn his father’s sympathy for Adolf Hitler lest he appear bad for his family.
Nearby, in Ponta Grossa (PR), a teacher was fired for giving the Hitler salute in front of students.
And at the end of the elections, students at an elite university in Valinhos (SP) created a whastapp group called “Fundação Anti Petismo” to protest the results of the polls and spread neoNazi ideas.
In addition to racist remarks, the group also spread hate speech against Northeasterners and defense of enslavement. A young black man of progressive parents was included in the group, whether by mistake or coercion is not known.
But the case stalled towards the school, which did nothing, and became a police case.
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Racism is a crime in Brazil, but no one can imagine that a rich, white student could suffer any kind of punishment like suspension or expulsion from school “just because” he works to annihilate opponents out there.
Not far away, in the same town, a condominium occupant humiliated a black motorcycle courier with racial slurs after a disagreement. The episode caused a scandal by opening wide what should remain veiled in the implied order of whiteness.
If anyone still thinks neoNazism is child’s play and has no practical consequence other than morbid curiosity, it’s good to think differently.
These young people who advocated killing opponents did nothing they hadn’t heard back home. These people lack neither hatred nor language nor weapons.
The turning of social groups into enemies in Germany under Hitler required a process of dehumanization, as they were portrayed as rats long before they were exterminated in concentration camps.
In Brazil, there is no shortage of people out there who advocate the annihilation of PT voters, Northeasterners, or minorities comprised by progressive groups because they are not seen as people, but as a threat that needs to be stopped.
Hate propaganda and distillation worked in 20thcentury Europe and has been happening here since at least 2013.
Authorities (not yet coopted), institutions and historical awareness must act in good time.
It comes as no surprise to anyone else when the heirs to the most tragic experiences of the last century decide, at their own risk, to find their final solution against those they have chosen as their enemies.