Home Again

Brazil was an unhappy host to unwelcome guests; 705 exiles, fresh from Germany, had turned up in Rio. Because they happened to be Brazilian citizens they were admitted.

Most of the 705 were descendants of German immigrants who, in the past 100 years, turned southern Brazil into a New World Bavaria. During the '30s, as good Volksdeutsche, they had gone heim ins Reich (home to the Reich). War trapped them, but apparently they had not minded too much. Although Brazil was at war with Germany (and had a division of troops in action) none of Rio's visitors complained of having been sent to concentration camps.

After Germany fell, the 705 began to lean hard on their Brazilian citizenship. They drifted into D.P. camps and finally wangled a ride back to Brazil. Stalking off their ship last week in Rio, they sounded anything but reconstructed. For the Nazi war criminals, they had no word of censure; for U.S. and British treatment, they had nothing but gripes.

At first, the Brazilian press swallowed the D.P.s' line and echoed their complaints in big headlines. Later, the press took second thought. Said 0 Globo: "These countrymen aim . . . to set Brazilian opinion against our allies. . . . Their preoccupation [is] with preserving National Socialism."

What would Brazil do about its new visitors? Shrugged one official, "What can we do? We will try to watch them, but Brazil is a very big country and we are not [another shrug] a vindictive people."

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