In 1830, the Portuguese were starving in Brazil. It was a bad fishing year, and the Indigenous people they had enslaved weren’t providing enough food.
The Portuguese only lived along the coast , even though the country was extremely rich in land and resources.
Brilliant idea, “let’s offer land to the Germans and Italians to come and farm”. Word was sent out and there was massive immigration from Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and smaller countries.
From Rio to the south, these immigrants settled and farmed the land. The state of Santa Catarina had the most Germans.
Some of the southern states spoke German until WW2, when the government outlawed the German schools. My former in-laws spoke German as well as Portuguese.
The NAZIs that escaped to Brazil went to the state of Santa Carolina because they were the most German. They easily dominated the locals and forced them to pay “protection “ money, while living there under the radar. Until Simon Wiesenthal and his Nazi hunters discovered Mengele was living there.
That was the 1970’s. Santa Catarina borders Paraguay and the president was Stroessner, a Nazi sympathizer. So once the chase was on, Mengele hopped to Paraguay. There were literally gun battles on the river.
It made for incredible nightly news and good reels.
The Portuguese only lived along the coast , even though the country was extremely rich in land and resources.
Brilliant idea, “let’s offer land to the Germans and Italians to come and farm”. Word was sent out and there was massive immigration from Italy, Germany, Scandinavia and smaller countries.
From Rio to the south, these immigrants settled and farmed the land. The state of Santa Catarina had the most Germans.
Some of the southern states spoke German until WW2, when the government outlawed the German schools. My former in-laws spoke German as well as Portuguese.
The NAZIs that escaped to Brazil went to the state of Santa Carolina because they were the most German. They easily dominated the locals and forced them to pay “protection “ money, while living there under the radar. Until Simon Wiesenthal and his Nazi hunters discovered Mengele was living there.
That was the 1970’s. Santa Catarina borders Paraguay and the president was Stroessner, a Nazi sympathizer. So once the chase was on, Mengele hopped to Paraguay. There were literally gun battles on the river.
It made for incredible nightly news and good reels.
