The complete text will be published in June. In his thesis Allende
examined the schools of thought which were then current (in 1933) in legal and
crimininalistic medicine regarding personalities of delinquents and methods to prevent
crime and rehabilitate the delinquent.
The purpose of publishing the complete 1933 thesis is to provide a link, not known until
now, which forms part of Allende´s consistent approach to principles of social and cultural
progress by means of the development of political and economic democracy, respect for
humanistic values and condemnation of all forms of racial discrimination and
anti-Semitism.
In this thesis, the young Allende refers to the observations of Lombroso, the Italian
criminologist, about the supposed relationship between Hindus, Arabs, Gypsies and Jews
and certain kinds of crime. Allende concludes that Lombroso has not shown that race has
any influence on delinquency ("there is no precise data showing
any such influence in the civilized world", Allende maintains).
The young medical student refers to the theses of the then famous endocrinologist,
Nicolas Pende, on the Southern Italians, the Spanish and English in relation to thyroid
activity. He coincides with the Spaniards professors Suñer and Jiménez de Asúa, in
describing as insufficient, simplistic and one-sided the doctrines of the endocrinologist
schools such as those which, referring to the thyroid and the thymus, see internal
glandular secretion as the only explanation of crime.
Allende cites within the category of "collective crimes" the nascent Nazi-Fascist
movements, which, without mentioning them by name, he describes in this way: "the world
economic crisis and existing political instability have created in different countries
armed institutions in the guise of political parties that use extreme violence".
In his thesis, Allende attributes a criminal nature to some leaders of the masses who
use force "to impose their principles on all else". Without mentioning Hitler by
name, he describes that contemporary phenomenon in the following words:
"So it comes about that these collective crimes lead to truly tragic consequences,
when a psychopathological phenomenon develops in the masses which eminent psychiatrists
compare to an insidious virus. A pernicious influence can be exercised all too easily on
the masses by an apparently normal person who, in reality, forms part of an identifiable
category of the mentally disturbed".
Allende then condemns the use of terror as a method of government:
"History is rife with these examples, so we see, and so we can understand, with the
help of psychiatry, how collective deviation is motivated by the irrational impulses of a
leader. So it is that Robespierre and Marat amongst others have been diagnosed as
belonging to certain pathological categories".
Allende brings his thesis to an end affirming his trust in free will and in the human
conscience of mankind:
"We are fully in agreement with Mariano Ruiz-Funes when he says: 'If Taine is correct
in saying that every man carries within himself a Phidias capable of sculpting supreme
works of art but also of creating monstrosities, it is equally true that each society
creates criminals or shapes men of superior virtues and, in both cases, whether on an
individual or social basis, an ethical imperative determines that all activity should be
of a transcendental nature. If that is not the case, be assured that our conscience will
be burdened with the knowledge that we are in the presence of a mediocre sculptor, one
that deserves our disdain".
Warning of the libelous text circulating by Victor Farias
The defamatory intention is exemplified in the treatment of the case of the Nazi
military criminal, Walter Rauff.
- Farías's silence on the fact that the Allende Government made possible the
questioning of Rauff on June 28, 1972 at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of
Germany in Santiago by a German judicial civil official
The declaration was taken in relation to the trial that continued in Germany against
the SS official Bruno Streckenbach. The complete text of the declaration is published
in
Nizkor.
- He distorts the way in which President Allende sympathized with Wiesenthal, at
the time explaining to him that Chilean law obliged the President to follow the 1963
ruling of the Supreme Court 1963 related to Rauff
Here is how Simon Wiesenthal describes it in his book, Justice, Not
Vengeance1:
"But Rauff was lucky: under the Chilean statute of limitations murder charges
cannot be brought after fifteen years, and when the Supreme Court in Santiago dealt
with the case eighteen years had elapsed. By three votes to two the application for
extradition was rejected. A judge from Hanover, who went to Chile to interrogate Rauff
in the action against Pradel, returned with the conviction that it would only be
possible to get hold of the Obersturmbannführer if a different regime came to power in
Chile.
Eight years later just that happened: the Socialist Salvador Allende became head of
state. On 21 August I handed over to the Chilean ambassador in Vienna, professor
Benadava, a letter to Allende, drawing his attention to the Rauff case. Allende relied
very cordially but pointed to the difficulty of reopening a case when the Supreme Court
had already handed down a judgment. I requested Allende to examine the possibility of
having Rauff, who was not yet a Chilean citizen, deported: we might be able to proceed
against him in a country with a more favorable legislation. But before Allende could
answer my second letter there was a coup and Allende lost his life".
These are Wiesenthal's own words that refute the libelous statements of Farias'
undocumented text.
There are reasons to suspect that Farías also had been able to falsify or to manipulate
the text of the letter that he attributes to President Allende in answer to the one of
Mr. Wiesenthal.
- Farías silence that Pinochet protected Rauff from those who wanted to put him
on trial.
Below you can read the letter from the Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dr.
Efraim Zuroff, sent on November 23, 1997 to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu2:
Simon Wiesenthal Center
23 Cheshvan 5758
23 November 1997
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Jerusalem
Dear Prime Minister,
We recently learned that the Chief of Staff of the Chilean army and the country's
former president General Augusto Pinochet is planning a visit to Israel. Although he
was invited by "Machshirei Tenua", a private company, the visit nonetheless has serious
public implications which have prompted this letter.
General Pinochet served for many years as a dictator who purposely and systematically
ignored the principles of human rights and democracy. During his presidency, many of
his political opponents were murdered, among them numerous Jews. These facts are, in
my opinion, sufficient cause to prevent his visit to Israel, but allow me to add an
additional dimension related to the activities of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
For years, General Pinochet granted a safe haven to Nazi war criminals who escaped to
Chile, among them SS officer Walter Rauff who invented the gas vans in which hundreds
of thousands of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in the Chelmno death camp,
various parts of the Soviet Union and in Yugoslavia. Later Rauff served in Tunisia and
in Italy, where he played an active role in the measures taken against the Jews.
After the war, Rauff escaped from Europe and settled in Chile. I am well acquainted
with the great efforts invested by the Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish organizations
during the late seventies and early eighties to convince the Chilean government headed
by Pinochet to extradite Rauff to the German authorities who sought to put him on
trial. Pinochet, however, adamantly refused to accede to this request and defended the
Nazi war criminals (who died in Chile in 1984).
From a moral point of view, the State of Israel, as the national home of the Jewish
people, cannot host individuals like Pinochet who caused so much damage, sorrow and
pain to Jews. Your intervention is therefore requested regarding this painful subject
in order to prevent the visit of the murderous dictator, defender of Nazi war criminals
like Walter Rauff.
Please spare us this embarrassment.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Director
Simon Wiesenthal Center"
- Farías' silence in the face of what is public and well-known, that Salvador
Allende's relationship as a youth and an adult, with all the creeds, beliefs and ethnic
groups in Chile, without distinction, was always excellent.
Every one of Farias' supposed "discoveries" and "findings" on Salvador Allende turn
out to be a string of unsupported falsifications.
For more information on the next publication you can refer to:
President Allende Foundation (Spain)
Tel. 34-91.531.19.89
Fax 34-91.531.68.11
E-mail: 100407.1303@compuserve.com
1
Wiesenthal (S.): Justice, Not Vengeance. N. York, Grove
Weidenfeld, 1989 1st US edition; Weidenfeld and Nicholson London 1989, pp. 62-64.
2
The copy of this letter was produced by Dr. Efraim Zuroff on
December 1998 into the proceedings against Pinochet in the National Criminal Court of
Spain, for the crimes of genocide, terrorism and torture.
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