“National Reconstruction”

Chapter 4 examines the attitudes of General Pinochet and the Junta toward Jews from September 11, 1973, through late 1977—and is divided into three sections. The first section explores the impact of the coup on Jewish Chileans, focusing on the initial years of military rule. Chile’s armed forces exiled several left-wing Jews; some were tortured, murdered, and disappeared. However, the military did not target them for their ethnicity but rather for their left-wing affiliations. In fact, right-wing Jews enthusiastically collaborated with Pinochet’s regime. The second section is about Pinochet’s seizure of power and its impact on Jewish Chileans. Although the Directorate for National Intelligence (DINA) can indeed be compared to the Nazi terror apparatus in terms of its human rights violations, the Pinochet regime was anything but Hitlerian when it came to Jews. The third and final section contextualizes the Junta’s friendly attitudes toward Jews. In their eyes, Jews were wealthy, white, and essential to the recovery of the Chilean economy—and they maintained strong connections with their brethren in the US. That is, social class, ethnicity, and the Cold War all informed the Junta’s philosemitic stance. So, too, did the participation of Jews in Chile’s armed forces.