Around 250,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors lived in displaced persons camps (DP Camps) in Germany, Austria, and Italy. There, they received basic assistance, rebuilt communal life, and searched for surviving relatives while waiting for the possibility of being accepted by another country.
In this context, Argentina emerged as a possible destination, although one marked by strong contradictions between its immigration tradition and the restrictive policies then in force. During the immediate postwar period, the country maintained a selective and exclusionary immigration policy. Under the government of Juan Domingo Perón, the Argentine state prioritized immigration considered “useful” for national development, especially due to the need for labor in agricultural and industrial activities. This policy sought rapid ethnic and cultural assimilation into Argentine identity. For that reason, immigration of Italian and Spanish origin was particularly encouraged, as it was perceived as more easily integrated.
Within this framework, the admission of Jewish Holocaust survivors remained limited. Between November 1945 and June 1947, the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (National Directorate of Migration) was headed by Santiago Peralta, a nationalist anthropologist and outspoken antisemite. Peralta promoted immigration selection criteria based on ethnicity and culture and argued that Jews lacked “social affinities” with the Argentine nation.
It is difficult to establish a precise number of Jewish immigrants during the postwar years. It is estimated that between 1945 and 1949 around 4,800 Jews entered Argentina, of whom approximately 3,300 did so illegally.
Nevertheless, Argentina was the Latin American country that received the largest number of Jewish refugees and survivors between 1933 and 1955. It is estimated that around 40,000 Jews managed to enter the country, making Argentina one of the principal destinations in the world for those fleeing persecution and the Holocaust.
Marc Turkow and Holocaust Survivors in Argentina
Marc Turkow was a key figure in the reception, assistance, and organization of Holocaust survivors who arrived in Argentina after the war. An intellectual, community leader, and prominent figure in Jewish cultural life, he played an important role not only in material assistance but also as a mediator between the trauma of the European experience and the reconstruction of collective life in exile.
Turkow actively participated in communal and cultural networks that supported survivors. He promoted spaces of social, cultural, and symbolic support that were essential for those who arrived without family, resources, or, in many cases, words to describe what they had experienced.
His work was especially connected to the world of Yiddish culture, the press, and Jewish cultural institutions. Within these spaces, survivors found practical assistance, but also a sense of belonging that helped transform the experience of displacement into a shared memory.
