- Thread starter AlterEgo
- Start date
Don't Praise Trujillo in DR
People remember the lack of crime and clean streets, and believe it or not better education under El Jefe and attribute all of that to him, but in reality the Mano Duro was only partially responsible for than. People had more respect for each other as well as more fear of doing something wrong. So greater respect for other people and their property, and greater fear of the punishment for breaking laws. Now days kids grow up respecting nothing. My mother-in-law who grew up under his rule doesn't remember him with kindness , however she would like a reincarnation of Joaqu?n Balaguer.
The guy was a ruthless politician and ordered the murder of many. His grandson is not responsible for that but maybe a low profile would be a better idea.
as I understand it only a few hundred jews actually made it to DR and did so only temporarily for the most part. He was paid for it. as a young man I had only a vague sense of who trujillo was and in my mind I could have switched him with any other banana republic dictator. Woody allen even, from moon over paradise. Now I can't read enough. I prefer the angle of family saga rather than political intrigue. although in the DR those two are intertwined.
The quotation above from the comments section...Trujillo still rules us from his grave. true true.
The quotation above from the comments section...Trujillo still rules us from his grave. true true.
I think one needs to look at the Dominican Republic at the turn of the 20th Century. The country was in turmoil, warlords (caudillos) were on the rampage, leaving a trail of death and destruction wherever they went. It's a lot of history to write down in a single post; however, to make a long story short: life for the average Dominican was described (by one observer returning from the Dominican countryside) as "not worth living".
Decades of civil war, quasi-anarchy, famine, starvation, disease, and finally an American invasion and brutal occupation had left the Dominican populace traumatized.
Trujillo will always be a controverstial figure. Trujillo had many flaws (to say the least). But it's unfair to judge those who supported Trujillo by modern standards.
The Dominican Republic that Trujillo took control over in 1931 had sunk as low as a country could go. It was beyond bankrupt; it was deeply in debt. The country was in ruins. The government was still dominiated by caudillos (including the president of the republic).
Dominicans had suffered the trauma, brutality, and humiliation of foreign occupation. The Dominican people were exhausted and improverised; still mostly landless and toiling like Medievel serfs for wealthy plantation owners. The average Dominican had never even attended school. Hunger was common place. So was casual brutality.
Life pre-1960 America is not the standard to measure the DR by. I think 1905,1910,1916 Dominican Republic would be correct choices.
One has to put themselves in the shoes of the average Dominican (if the average Dominican even had shoes) and think about a life without food, security, education, medical care, paved roads, or bridges. Consider a world where your women weren't safe, your sons could be forced into military service by a local warlord, your home burned down, your crops stolen, your life taken by a local caudillo for nothing. Then ask yourself, would you have supported someone like Trujillo?
Trujillo took a nation that was broken, and he resurrected it. Trujillo brought order.
Yes, Trujillo killed a lot of innocent people. Trujillo ruined a lot of innocent lives.
And so here we are.
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An American historian conducted a series of interviews in the Dominican Republic between 1992-1994. One elderly Dominican peasant cautioned against writing about the Trujillo regime without considering the Dominican peasants' perspective:
"You never Trujillo...For example, you say Trujillo was a dictator, a wretch, you know, a son of a bitch. But you are looking at a map that man created who wanted nothing to do with [Trujillo], not because you actually saw Trujillo and what he did...You are only children compared to me...You only know a history made by the powerful who no longer wanted anything to do with Trujillo, and they tell you, "Trujillo was a wretch...." No senor, to speak truly, we the downtrodden were not going to say that Trujillo was [a wretch]. The bad ones were those who came after him."
"You never Trujillo...For example, you say Trujillo was a dictator, a wretch, you know, a son of a bitch. But you are looking at a map that man created who wanted nothing to do with [Trujillo], not because you actually saw Trujillo and what he did...You are only children compared to me...You only know a history made by the powerful who no longer wanted anything to do with Trujillo, and they tell you, "Trujillo was a wretch...." No senor, to speak truly, we the downtrodden were not going to say that Trujillo was [a wretch]. The bad ones were those who came after him."
Sadly a lot of these problems still exist. Only now, in addition to the above, there is a lot of
crime and corruption too.
I just reread the quote and noticed several typos. Here the statement is again:
"You never knew Trujillo...For example, you say Trujillo was a dictator, a wretch, you know, a son of a bitch. But you are looking at a map that a man created who wanted nothing to do with [Trujillo], not because you actually saw Trujillo and what he did...You are only children compared to me...You only know a history made by the powerful who no longer wanted anything to do with Trujillo, and they tell you, "Trujillo was a wretch...." No, senor, to speak truly, we the downtrodden were not going to say that Trujillo was [a wretch]. The bad ones were those who came after him."
"You never knew Trujillo...For example, you say Trujillo was a dictator, a wretch, you know, a son of a bitch. But you are looking at a map that a man created who wanted nothing to do with [Trujillo], not because you actually saw Trujillo and what he did...You are only children compared to me...You only know a history made by the powerful who no longer wanted anything to do with Trujillo, and they tell you, "Trujillo was a wretch...." No, senor, to speak truly, we the downtrodden were not going to say that Trujillo was [a wretch]. The bad ones were those who came after him."
Trujillio committed to taking up to 40,000 Jewish people in WWII to avoid the death camps. Not that many came and most of the ones that did left after the war but the fact remains he was willing to accept them.
That shouldn't be ignored. I'm not saying the guy was a saint but he did do a few good things.
Crime and corruption were way down under Trujillo, from what I've heard. There was fear of him and his regime - that kept most of it down. That continued for some time after his death too, things were similar under Balaguer as far as safety/crime.
Staying at my in-laws in the mid 70's, smack dab in the middle of Santo Domingo, I was very uneasy because they didn't even close their doors at night, never mind lock them. There were six children, all coming home at different hours, so it was easier to just leave it open.
At that time, I had an apartment in NYC, with two Medeco locks, one with a plate over it, and a locked chain on the door. Oh - and a metal gate on the windows to the fire escape.
up to 100,000...The DR was the ONLY country on the face of this planet to do so at the Envian Conference and Israel Knows this very well
Does anyone know if the DR, or Trujillo for that matter, are acknowledged any way in Israel for their role, like other countries (like Denmark) and individuals (like Schindler, Wallenberg and so many others) are? The "righteous among the nations"?
I get the impression that it's not a very well known episode in history beyond the DR.
I get the impression that it's not a very well known episode in history beyond the DR.
there is no one from DR on the righteous among the nations list.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/statistics.asp
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/statistics.asp
Trujillo's motivation for allowing Jewish refugees into the Dominican Republic was basically sinister. He wanted to deflect international condemnation for the mass murder of Haitians residing in the Dominican Republic a year earlier. Trujillo was the subject of particularly pointed attacks from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Trujillo feared that his growing isolation would lead to his regime's downfall.
Taking in Jewish refugees accomplished several things: He gained positive publicity from segments of the foreign press; he could use the Austrian and German Jews to accelerate his plans to whiten the Dominican Republic; and he could make a quite profit off of American Jewish groups who funded the refugees. There is a lot of written on this matter; it's best to research it for yourself.
There is a lot that can be written about Trujillo's relationship with the Jews. I wrote about this 10-11 years ago, but I believe the threads have all been deleted. A few quick comments:
Trujillo admired Hitler. He used to watch newsreels and read everything he could on him. Trujillo adopted Jack boots and even wool great coats (which aroused a lot of comments in this country's tropical climate) in his attempt to copy Hitler's style. Trujillo's only real criticism of Hitler was Hitler's refusal to bemedal himself (Hitler wore only the medals he was awarded during World War One, which included two Iron Crosses). Trujillo's daughter, Flor de Oro and her husband, the egregious Profirio Rubrosa, were invited by Hitler to share his box at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany.
More needs to be said about Rubirosa. Profirio was implicated in the murder of a wealthy Polish Jewish goldsmith and jewelry store owner. (Rubirosa almost certainly murdered the hapless victim personally) and pocketed a fortune in gold and jewelry. When a Dominican diplomat telegraphed Trujillo with the details of the murder, Trujillo fired the diplomat.
Rubirosa was involved in "helping" Jews escape Hitler. From memory he was selling visas to them. He would brag later" I made a lot of money off the Jews back then. Didn't everybody?"
Trujillo made no attempt to redress this situation.
I find it hard to believe that an investigation of the Dominican episode would inspire the Israeli government to award "Righteous among nations" to the Dominican Republic, Profirio Rubirosa, or Trujillo.
If anyone deserves any mention at all, it would be Flor de Oro. Flor de Oro had attended a posh girls school in France with some very well connected students, including an Afghan princess and several European Jewish girls. One of them, wearing the uniform of one her maids, made her way to Flor's residence in Berlin and begged for help escaping Germany. (From memory) Flor appealed directly to her father, and he finally agreed to issue a transit visa.
The Dominican people themselves had nothing to do with it. Why should they be honored?
The Dominican Jewish colony was used (and "we allowed ourselves to be used"-Jewish refugee in a post Trujillo Era interview) by Trujillo to gain political dividends until the day he died. But that's another story...
Taking in Jewish refugees accomplished several things: He gained positive publicity from segments of the foreign press; he could use the Austrian and German Jews to accelerate his plans to whiten the Dominican Republic; and he could make a quite profit off of American Jewish groups who funded the refugees. There is a lot of written on this matter; it's best to research it for yourself.
There is a lot that can be written about Trujillo's relationship with the Jews. I wrote about this 10-11 years ago, but I believe the threads have all been deleted. A few quick comments:
Trujillo admired Hitler. He used to watch newsreels and read everything he could on him. Trujillo adopted Jack boots and even wool great coats (which aroused a lot of comments in this country's tropical climate) in his attempt to copy Hitler's style. Trujillo's only real criticism of Hitler was Hitler's refusal to bemedal himself (Hitler wore only the medals he was awarded during World War One, which included two Iron Crosses). Trujillo's daughter, Flor de Oro and her husband, the egregious Profirio Rubrosa, were invited by Hitler to share his box at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany.
More needs to be said about Rubirosa. Profirio was implicated in the murder of a wealthy Polish Jewish goldsmith and jewelry store owner. (Rubirosa almost certainly murdered the hapless victim personally) and pocketed a fortune in gold and jewelry. When a Dominican diplomat telegraphed Trujillo with the details of the murder, Trujillo fired the diplomat.
Rubirosa was involved in "helping" Jews escape Hitler. From memory he was selling visas to them. He would brag later" I made a lot of money off the Jews back then. Didn't everybody?"
Trujillo made no attempt to redress this situation.
I find it hard to believe that an investigation of the Dominican episode would inspire the Israeli government to award "Righteous among nations" to the Dominican Republic, Profirio Rubirosa, or Trujillo.
If anyone deserves any mention at all, it would be Flor de Oro. Flor de Oro had attended a posh girls school in France with some very well connected students, including an Afghan princess and several European Jewish girls. One of them, wearing the uniform of one her maids, made her way to Flor's residence in Berlin and begged for help escaping Germany. (From memory) Flor appealed directly to her father, and he finally agreed to issue a transit visa.
The Dominican people themselves had nothing to do with it. Why should they be honored?
The Dominican Jewish colony was used (and "we allowed ourselves to be used"-Jewish refugee in a post Trujillo Era interview) by Trujillo to gain political dividends until the day he died. But that's another story...
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