Vivendo com o outro: os alemães na Bahia no período da II Guerra Mundial

Abstract

This thesis aims at the reconstitution of the history of the German people in the state of Bahia, specifically focusing the World War II. The initial concern is that the ethnical variable has grounded all repressive process against them – and this broadened the frontiers between these immigrants and the population of Bahia. The concept of ethnicity was taken from Fredrik Barth. It can be understood as a form of social organization based on attributes that classify people according to their supposed origin. Such a kind of classification is validated along with social interactions as cultural signs are activated in the very groups by means of identities and differences. The concept of ethnicity as well as the “key questions” elaborated by Philippe Poutignat and Jocelyne Streiff-Fenart were fundamental points to understand the society of Bahia as a space of alterity and cultural confrontation. The work tried to demonstrate that the negative image attributed to the German people during the War had been mainly produced along with their historical trajectories, and it has had as a possible origin the nationalistic movements beginning in the Old Brazil Republic when people used to discuss about the “German danger” and the need to extinguish the so-called ethnical “tumors’ that existed in Southern Brazil. The international, national and baiana conjunctures also contributed to increase such labels to these immigrants and their homeland. The main results are drawn that the Germans were the other ones in Bahia, not only due to the wordly conflict or disputes for the Brazilian market as local and national interests were put into action. Though the state of Bahia had a small German population, it looked like a problem during the War and suspicion and mistrust finally led the Germans to be confined in the interior of the state.