One primary area of concern in the study of fascism for some is the overwhelming Eurocentrism of the work that has been done. On some levels this may appear to be natural. The two regimes that nearly everyone agrees are fascist arose in Europe. The subsequent history of those regimes encompasses some of the most gruesome events in western history, the details of which need not be addressed in this essay. However, there are larger forces at work in determining the way in which fascism and much of modern history is studied. The "mainstream" of the historical field is the study of Europe, followed closely (in this country at least) by the study of the United States. The history of Asia, Africa, and Latin America is often viewed and studied to determine how it relates to these "mainstream" areas. This trend is quite prominent in the study of fascism. By the very nature of their definitions, some scholars espouse the viewpoint that fascism is strictly a European phenomenon. Stanley G. Payne takes this approach in his recent and exhaustive account of fascism entitled A History of Fascism: 1914-1945. His working definition of fascism virtually precludes the notion that fascism existed outside of Europe or even outside of the time period in question. This is emphasized by the fact that the chapters in his book which discuss non-European movements are entitled "Fascism outside Europe?" and "Generic Fascism?", the only chapters which include a question mark in their titles. In many studies of fascism, there are certain characteristics which are regularly listed by those scholars that seek to provide a definition of fascism. The exact nature of their relationship varies, with some scholars choosing to label these components as simply being necessary to call a movement fascist, a "fascist minimum"(Roger Griffin) while others choose to view them as simply being the sufficient conditions for labeling a movement as fascist. Those in the former category require additional characteristics which vary from scholar to scholar. Among those characteristics that many scholars believe that a movement must posses in order to qualify as fascist are: an extreme, palingenetic nationalism, a rejection of materialism and liberalism, corporatism, totalitarianism, and the desire to create a new man(This is a summary of common factors from the works of Roger Griffin, Stanley Payne, Walter Laqueur, and the original writings that appear in the volume Fascism as edited by Roger Griffin.). There is much debate as to whether or not racism and, specifically, anti-Semitism is an inherent part of fascist movements. The question of anti-Semitism is one that will be addressed in this essay. While I believe that it is certainly possible for a movement to merit study in the same context as other fascist and corporate movements without anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism is so widely identified with fascism that it will serve as an integral part of this essay. It is also a question that is of vital importance to the two works that I wish to focus most closely on: Jacobo Timerman's Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number and Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz. One key element in fascist movements that is nearly universally agreed upon, then ignored is the corporatist aspect of fascist movements. This may be the key to discovering an analytical paradigm that moves the study of fascism beyond the provincial view that it is exclusively a European phenomenon.

The question being addressed here is a variant of what appears to be one of the key questions within the study of fascism: where does one draw the line that places fascist movements on one side and non-fascist movements on the other? The direct focus on fascism may be what makes this area of study difficult and often unnecessarily narrow. The early twentieth century saw the rise of a wave or corporatist thought and movements throughout the western world. One particular European variant of this was fascism. One other important variant of corporatism arose in many predominantly catholic countries which sought to use government to implement the ideas put forth in recent papal pronouncements. Two European governments are often referred to as clerico-fascist or clerical-fascist for following this pattern of authoritarian, catholic corporatism: they are Salazar's Portugal and the Austrian government lead by Dollfuss. Just as many fascist movements never came to power or failed to come to power on their own in Europe, many corporatist movements also failed to come to power in Europe and in the rest of the world. I will be, primarily, examining Argentina during the dirty war period (1976-83) to demonstrate the extent to which this period in history bears similarity to previous fascist regimes. I will do so primarily through a comparison of the two books mentioned above, with a larger focus on Timerman's than on Levi's. It is not my intent to "prove" that Argentina was a fascist nation. Rather, I seek to show the rather arbitrary nature of developing a separate study of fascism as if it were only a European phenomenon or only something that could occur in one time and place. I believe that we are not immune from future fascism as some scholars may wish us to believe. The striking similarities between the actions and ideology of the Nazis and the Argentine military during the cold war certainly helps to demonstrate this. \par There was a strong corporatist and militarist tendency in Argentina dating back to the early part of the twentieth century. In the first few decades of this century the primary struggle in Argentine political life was between the traditional liberal oligarchy and the nationalists. The liberal oligarchy had ruled Argentina for the first century of its independence. They were strong Anglophiles and had completely adopted 19th century British style liberalism. In the 1920's and 1930's Argentina's nationalists began to become increasingly militaristic. In a speech given in Peru in 1924, the prominent Argentine nationalist writer Leopoldo Lugones stated that:

"The army is the last aristocracy, the last hierarchical organism that has escaped destruction at the hands of demagoguery. At this historic moment only military virtue represents a superior form of existence."

The Argentine corporatists had a brief period of power beginning in 1930. The nationalist general Jose Uriburu lead a coup against the Radical Party lead government. General Uriburu had ties to many nationalists, was widely respected by the nationalist community and was seen before the coup as one of the leading nationalist generals. The Uriburu government immediately set out to initiate corporatist policies and implement corporatist structures in Argentina. The structure of national representation was re-organized around corporations. The representatives of these corporations were chosen in such a manner as to ensure their loyalty to the government. This type of representation had the effect of minimizing the power of the voting citizens who were now one voice in the government rather than the basis of the government. The allocation of national resources was also to be organized on corporatist lines. Uriburu's government set up boards composed of workers and producers to manage and distribute food supplies and manage other vital sectors of the economy (Rock, pages 80-85) . These measures and General Uriburu himself were criticized as fascist by some of his opponents. During his reign there was a marked rise in demonstrations of a fascist nature by certain nationalist groups. The Legion Civica Argentina (LCA) was a prominent paramilitary group with more than 10,000 members which wore fascist type uniforms and used the fascist salute (Rock 92).However, even within the corporatist nationalist circles, the LCA was a distinct minority. Uriburu lacked the will, the personality type and the conviction to take the kind of measures that would have marked him as a fascist. Eventually, he gave in to pressure from liberal groups within the army. He was replaced in early 1932 by General Augustin Justo thus marking the end of this particular nationalist grab for power. \par The end of their brief time in power did nothing to discourage the nationalists, however. Argentine political life continued to fragment through the 1930's and 1940's. The elites, particularly the military were split over which side to back during the war. The Argentines, even those with fascist tendencies, were not fond of Nazi Germany, but they continued to express their open admiration and support for Mussolini. A nationalist military coup in 1943 eventually led to the ascendency of Juan Domingo Peron to the presidency of Argentina. Peron was a divisive and destabilizing figure in Argentine politics who was removed from power in another coup in 1955. Generations of Argentines have defined their political existence in terms of whether they are Peronist or anti-Peronist, regardless of whether their views are right, left, or center. Peron's populist, bread and butter pro-labor policies garnered him a high level of mass support. After the coup which removed him from power, this support never wavered. Through the remainder of the 1950's, 1960's, and into the early 1970's the military either ruled directly or allowed limited civilian rule which was designed to limit the power of the popular Peronist political party, the Partido Justicialista. This military led repression resulted in a spiraling level of violence. There were armed parties of leftist Peronists, leftist anti-Peronists, rightist Peronists, and rightist anti-Peronists. These groups all conducted terror campaigns against each other and against the government. They extorted huge sums of money from foreign companies or from the ransom of executives whose companies wouldn't pay them. Many companies paid both right and left wing groups. After the military coup in 1976, these companies paid the military as well (Timerman, pages 44-45 \par Over the course of the twentieth century, the military had come to be the arbiter of Argentine national life. Military coups were common, expected, and sometimes even desired by a fair amount of the population. The 1976 coup was greeted with a fair amount of approval, although it appears as if the military manipulated conditions in the country until they became so bad that the military would appear as the potential savior of the nation upon initiating their coup. Any popular support that they could muster would be necessary because this time they had something much more grand and sinister in mind than on previous such occasions. In the preceding decade, the small, closed world of the military had grown much more radical. This segment of Argentine society had always been practitioners of a radically right wing brand of Catholicism. Now, however, they had combined the religiosity of the clerico-fascist regimes that they had so openly admired with the radical tactics of the Nazis whom they had begun to re-evaluate more positively. "The military government...arrived... with an all-embracing arsenal of Nazi ideology as part of its structure."(Timerman, page 69The military now had a religious mission. They saw the world as organized into two competing camps: the Christian west and the godless east. They believed that communism was Satan's plan to subvert western Christian culture. They were on the frontlines in a struggle that was no less than good vs. evil. Their holy mission required "that the military preserve the 'natural order' manifest in the Western and Christian civilization to which Argentina is integral..."(Graziano, Pages 26-27). The military organized its government under a law for a Process of National Reorganization, the philosophy behind which is reminiscent of the palingenetic nationalism referred to by many scholars as one characteristic for fascism. In practice, it was highly similar to Hitler's night and fog policy. The military had a complex system of "official" and "unofficial" prisons and prisoners. The unofficial prisoners usually just disappeared without a trace and thus were given the name desparecidos (the disappeared). The Argentine military set about its new mission with a paranoic zeal. To the military, subversives and terrorists were everywhere, they were "...not just someone with a gun or a bomb but also someone who spreads ideas which are contrary to Western and Christian civilization" (Graziano, page 27). The natural outcome of this philosophy was a violent totalitarian state. We find many similarities in style to that of the Nazis, however, that was intentional and not the natural consequences of the ideology adopted. Accordingly, we also find the same moral dilemmas suffered by the regimes functionaries. The following passage demonstrates many of these points: \par "Such a philosophy was most dramatically borne out in State action on the so-called 'night of pencils' when sixteen students between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were abducted, tortured, and-with the exception of three-executed...From the detention centers themselves survivors reported the repressors' initial hesitation and guilt in regard to torturing and executing teenagers, but these feelings were always allayed in the "final solution" context... or by direct resort to the underlying mythological infrastructure of the "dirty war". One victim was told, for example, "You are our best young people...valuable people, but...this is a holy war and you want to disrupt the natural order...you are the Antichrist...I'm not a torturer, I'm an inquisitor." (Graziano, page 31) \par There were virtually no limits to the brutality of methods that the military was willing to undertake in order to create their vision of Argentine society. In some ways it might be inaccurate to say that the military was promoting a palingenetic nationalism. Many Argentines believe that the country has never really developed any sense of who it is. In his memoir on his time as a prisoner, Jacabo Timerman speculates on this using the thoughts of the acclaimed Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borge as his basis: "Borges remarked, some thirty years ago, that the Argentine is not a citizen but an inhabitant; that he lacks an idea of the nation where he resides...but if I were to assess how each of the diverse Argentinas existing at present within that territory-each regarding itself as the authentic one-would interpret Borges definition, that would provide a more descriptive and precise response, something akin to a French pointillistic canvas." (Timerman, page 16). After giving accounts of the various ways in which diverse ideological sectors of the country might interpret Borges' comments, Timerman comes to this conclusion: "only nations capable of creating a political environment that embraces multiple political solutions for any situation are able to escape Argentina's violence." (emphasis added). This may seem to be an almost self evident statement, but I believe that it is a very important observation. No fascist party arose during times of normal political activity. The population at large in countries with successful corporatist or fascist movements came to feel that the democratic political system was incapable of handling the problems with which they were faced. It would seem that the existence of an entrenched, mature political system might go further toward explaining the lack of successful corporatist and/or fascist movements in certain countries than the "cultural" explanations that we often see. These "cultural" explanations are often little more than reinforcements for biases in western culture such as the perceptions of "English civility", "German fastidiousness", or the passionate, emotional Italians and all of the baggage that goes with these stereotypes. \par Although their experiences were separated by thirty years, thousands of miles, and innumerable differences of culture and circumstance, Jacobo Timerman and Primo Levi suffered much the same and for the same reason: because they were Jews. While being far from a model of tolerance, the Italian fascist state under Mussolini lacked the rabid, radical anti-Semitism of the Nazi state. This came to change after Mussolini had been removed from power by his own inner circle, then placed back in charge of the German occupied portions of Italy as head of the Italian Social Republic. Freed from the constraints of Italian society, Mussolini returned to some of the radicalism of the early fascist party on social and economic policies. He was clearly no longer the equal of Hitler in their power relationship. On areas of vital importance to the Germans, the Italians had no real autonomy. This included the "Jewish question". }

It was in these circumstances, having lived most of his life under fascism including 5 years of war, that Primo Levi was taken prisoner by the Nazi/fascists and sent to Auschwitz.It is with an amazing naivete that Levi designates himself as an Italian Jew. Upon finding out they were to be taken east, Levi almost instantly begins to give up on the concept of hope (Levi, throughout, but beginning on page 27) . From his very arrival in Auschwitz, hope is his enemy. In order to survive, Levi had to concentrate on the minute to minute and day by day facts of his existence. He could not think about the outside world and more than anything else he could not think about the future. (Levi, page 36) The work camps were designed to dehumanize their victims. While many groups were victims of the work and death camps, more than anything else they were aimed at the Jews. Within the camp system, the Jews were placed at the bottom, lowest of the low (Levi, page 33) . In spite of the apparent hopelessness in the situation and even in Levi's attitude, his will to live is strong. This is not true with all of the victims and perhaps more than anything explains Levi's survival. Levi realizes that "he who loses all often easily loses himself" (Levi, page 27) , but that "one must want to survive...to remain alive, not to begin to die." (Levi, page 40) \par To many, it seemed after World War II that the madness of aggressive war and the holocaust could never happen again. It was believed that we had learned this lesson. In a more militant and personal manner, the Jewish people (particularly the camp survivors) took the words \\'93never again\\'94 as a vow. This viewpoint has informed much of the scholarship on fascism, indeed has contributed to the narrowing of the definition of fascism by many. It would be unfair to do anything but laud the idealism of this viewpoint in the decades immediately after the war. In the last two decades, it is clear that this viewpoint is a false panacea. It may provide some palliative effect for the psyche of those who believe it, but it denies the reality of recent history and suggests an ignorance of recent world affairs. \par There might be many excuses that one could make for the abduction of Jacobo Timerman. He was a liberal journalist under a violent right wing dictatorship. He openly antagonized a military dictatorship. There can be no mistake that while these other factors did nothing to endear him to the military, his ordeal came about because he was Jewish. The following is a sample from his first interrogation and torture session:

"Question: Are You Jewish?

Answer: Yes

Question Are you a Zionist?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is La Opinion a Zionist Newspaper?

Answer: La Opinion supports Zionism since it is the liberation movement of the Jewish people. It considers Zionism to be a movement of high positive values, the study of which can shed light on many problems related to building national Argentine unity

Question: Then it is a Zionist Newspaper?

Answer: If you wish to put it in those terms, yes.

Question: Do you travel to Israel often?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do you know the Israeli Ambassador?

Answer: Yes.

Timerman writes a moving account of his own experiences and is an incredibly well informed source for Argentine politics during the time given his position as a political reporter, then editor of one of the most influential newspapers in the country. His only major shortcoming is a lack of objectivity in regard to certain aspects of the ideology of the far right. Most of his observations are astute, but at times he may be given to hyperbole about the role of the Jews in that ideology. It is his contention that the Jew is the most hated natural enemy of the far right in all times and places\{\\super\\fs19 \\chftn \{\\footnote \\pard \\sa240 \{\\plain \\super\\fs19 \\chftn \}\{\}\{\\plain Timerman, page 63\}\}\} \}\{\\plain . This may be going too far, but the rest of his observations are, I believe, valid. It is far easier to whip up hatred against the Jews than many other groups that is far more than just based on socioeconomic factors. They are the foreigner in nearly every possible sense to most westerners: a different religion, language, and race. \\'93Hatred of the Jew adds a spicy and delicious ingredient to the struggle for World Revolution\\'94\{\\super\\fs19 \\chftn \{\\footnote \\pard \\sa240 \{\\plain \\super\\fs19 \\chftn \}\{\}\{\\plain Timerman, page 65\}\}\} \}\{\\plain The military government made no open pronouncements of anti-Semitism. In fact, it did nearly everything that it could to project an image of tolerance toward Jews to the international community. In many respects the \\'93private\\'94 acts of anti-semitism in the country decreased under the military government. The first priority of a dictatorship is usually to restore \\'93law and order\\'94, however lawless the tactics of the regime may be. Timerman cites much evidence, both statistical and anecdotal to prove the anti-Semitic nature of the Argentine military. He notes that \\'93Jewish girls were violated twice as often as non-Jewish girls\\'94\{\\super\\fs19 \\chftn \{\\footnote \\pard \\sa240 \{\\plain \\super\\fs19 \\chftn \}\{\}\{\\plain Timerman, page 70\}\}\} \}\{\\plain and that Jews were a disproportionate share of the victims. They were only 400,000 out of a country of 25 million, but comprised a considerable percentage of the victims. Timerman does not equivocate as to his view of his captors. He openly refers to them as Nazis or Argentine Nazis throughout the book. The military and its defenders refute this claim now, stating that there was no holocaust. Timerman\\'92s simple reply is moving: \\'93Must all anti-Semitism wind up in soap?\\'94\{\\super\\fs19 \\chftn \{\\footnote \\pard \\sa240 \{\\plain \\super\\fs19 \\chftn \}\{\}\{\\plain Timerman, page 70\}\}\} \}\{\\plain \\par \}\{\\plain \\tab Timerman\\'92s experience in the Argentine camps was radically different from Levi\\'92s. Levi\\'92s experience was communal to the point of claustrophobia. For much of his time in custody, Timerman was held incommunicado. The conditions of daily life were designed to bring the eventual death of the inmates under Nazi Germany. The did not set about to wear the life out of its victims. If one were valuable to the regime, such as Timerman, one would experience torture and humiliation, but be kept alive. To the average citizen that found him or herself caught up in the military\\'92s web, their eventual death was swift, usually from the barrel of a gun. The solitary condition of Timerman\\'92s imprisonment only allowed him two possible paths of resistence: suicide and madness. Under the circumstances, the possibility of suicide seems like a grand act of resistence. It does not feel as if it were a desperate act. The mind can only contemplate this option for so long before firmly deciding whether to proceed or not. Upon having come to the conclusion that he was not going to commit suicide, he felt even more powerless than before. This left him with the hope that he would fall into madness. It seems that dreaming of madness was very frustrating for him. There was nothing that he could do to bring it on, he could only wait for it.\{\\super\\fs19 \\chftn \{\\footnote \\pard \\sa240 \{\\plain \\super\\fs19 \\chftn \}\{\}\{\\plain Timerman, Chapter 7\}\}\} \}\{\\plain \\par \}\{\\plain \\tab Depending upon the definition that one chooses to use, the Argentine military government from 1976-83 might or might not be considered fascist. That definitional aspect is irrelevant. It is obvious that the military government of Argentina from this time period had much in common with the successful fascist movements of the 1920's and 1930's as well as the other corporatist movements of the same time period. It was far right wing and authoritarian, but not conservative. It sought to impose its radically rejuvenated vision of the nation. It existed in a closed circle whose members believed in a set of myths that would have seemed ridiculous to most people, particularly people who were immersed in a culture of liberal humanism. The world of the Argentine military was one of secret alliances, plots, and subversives. They believed in a variety of schemes even more unrealistic than the particular brand of East vs. West that was mentioned earlier. They believed that both Israel and Uganda were Zionist nations and that they had designs to create a third Zionist nation in the Argentine pampas. In spite of believing that the U.S. was the leader of the western, Christian nations, they also believed that the U.S. was the center for Jewish capital and Jewish propaganda (Hollywood)\{\\super\\fs19 \\chftn \{\\footnote \\pard \\sa240 \{\\plain \\super\\fs19 \\chftn \}\{\}\{\\plain Timerman, chapters 3 and 4.\}\}\} \}\{\\plain . The mythological world that they inhabited allowed them to create a coherent reality from any conflicting set of beliefs. In this respect, they strongly resemble the Nazis. It is this similarity in goals and beliefs that is disturbing, particularly in light of the fact that we have scholars writing lullabies that would lull is into the comforting belief that we need not guard against this danger. Perhaps it does not matter if the subject in question is \\'93fascist\\'94 or not. Perhaps what matters is that we seek to develop a study of these phenomena that does not regard Europe as the center of the universe and that seeks to guard all human beings from being placed in this situation again. My displeasure at the European bias in this study is not just based on a belief that there is an excessive degree of Eurocentrism in the study of history. It is also based on a concern that dismissing this as a European phenomenon prevents us from studying similar movements elsewhere with the seriousness and with the same eye toward seeing that it never happens again}

Graziano, Frank. \plain\f3\fs24\i Divine Violence: Spectacle, Psychosexuality, & Radical Christianity in \tab the Argentine "Dirty War"\plain\f3\fs24 . Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1992. \par \par Griffin, Roger, editor. \plain\f3\fs24\i Fascism\plain\f3\fs24 New York: Oxford University Press, 1995 \par \par Lacqueur, Walter. \plain\f3\fs24\i Fascism: Past, Present, and Future. \plain\f3\fs24 New York: Oxford University \tab Press, 1996. \par \par Levi, Primo. \plain\f3\fs24\i Survival in Auschwitz\plain\f3\fs24 . New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. \par \par Payne, Stanley G. \plain\f3\fs24\i A History of Fascism: 1914-1945\plain\f3\fs24 . Madison, Wisconsin: The University \tab of Wisconsin Press, 1995 \par \par Rock, David. \plain\f3\fs24\i Authoritarian Argentina\plain\f3\fs24 : \plain\f3\fs24\i the Nationalist Movement, its History, and its \tab Impact. \plain\f3\fs24 Berkely: University of California Press, 1993. \par Timerman, Jacobo. \plain\f3\fs24\i Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number\plain\f3\fs24 . New York: \tab Random House, 1981. \par }