Yiddish Culture After the Shoah: Refugee Writers and Artists as "Fresh Creative Energies" for Buenos Aires

Abstract

The case of the group known as ?the refugees of ?52 became a highlight in the saga of the Jewish-Argentinean community. In 1951 a few local Jewish institutions obtained entry and residency permits for a group of writers and artists who found themselves in Western Europe as refugees. Soon after, they began to arrive at the port of Buenos Aires. Most of the newcomers were Polish-born, more or less known public figures in the Yiddish world between the two world wars.In this study I hope to illuminate some aspects of the global Yiddish cultural field after the Shoah. Specifically, I seek to understand the motivations put forward in Buenos Aires to justify the efforts to negotiate permits for this group of Yiddish-speaking refugee writers and artists, and how they, in turn, positioned themselves in the face of the expectations their hosts entertained regarding them.