Enrique Guttfreund: A Final Entry

This week, an interview of Enrique "Quique" Guttfreund by Lea Freund has been featured. This interview was conducted March 2, 1981 in Miami.

All of Lea's questions are in parentheses.

Again, many thanks to Lea for granting the necessary permissions to publish her work online.
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(Where did the majority of the people come from that made the Jewish community possible?)

Well, a great part came from Alsace-Lorraine, and from Germany. They spoke mostly German and French,a newly acquired language. There was the Frankel family. You have to even talk in translations because then they branched out. Let's say the daughters married somebody else but there were, I remember many French, but mostly Alsace-Lorrainer. There was the German-Jewish community, but it was all in one because it was all from the same background. There wasn't much difference between having lived on the left or the right of the Rhine. They weren't ;t diverse. There were one or two families from Rumania or Besarabia, Mr. Gould, who married a girl, a lady from Chile. I would say the census that was taken would be the best source of information. Most of the people who came because of Hitler during the war, or before the war, they didn't stay there because they couldn't get work permits or it was difficult, and they moved on. Some stayed two or three years, but they moved on as soon as they had the opportunity because to get work or make a living was very limited.

(When did the Jewish community in Salvador have the synagogue and how was it built? What was the economic position of the community, and how did they come to building the synagogue?)

Well, we had this house. It was not meant to be a synagogue where you could have meetings. They younger people worked it out so a meeting room could be established. Maybe in 1945 or 1946, land was bought for the synagogue. Mr. de Sola was the only Jewish architect and drew the plans. A little house was added for Mr. Freund, the Rabbi, to live in and that served as a community center and then it became too small for parties or the things for the younger people. So Mr. Eugen Liebes and his wife donated the back part and the kitchen. A complete kitchen was added. Then it became a real community center. To separate the sanctuary from the rest, a movable wooden door was made. It was a sliding door, so whenever we had activities which had nothing to do with the religious part it was closed. We had very nice parties for official things like when Golda Meir was the foreign minister of Israel and she came to Salvador.

(What was the reason she came to Salvador?)

I knew she would be going to Guatemala and she hadn't scheduled Salvador and I thought we were overlooked. We had worked a lot for Salvador to never vote against Israel in the United Nations, or to at least abstain. I know that we influenced the 1948 vote to abstain, I think, but Guatemala was very affirmative. At that time, the United Nations delegate in Guatemala was Garcia grandson, so she made a thank you trip and Salvador wasn't scheduled. But I worked hard for it. I was so dismayed that Golda Meir should be so near and not come. We moved a lot of levers. She came it was a big boost to the community.

(When did you have the cemetery?)

Mr. Liebes, who lived from 1888 to 1911 in Salvador, told me he doesn't remember any Jewish life of this time. Since he had lost two children to the very poor sanitary conditions of the time, his wife, my aunt did not want to have any more children in Salvador. Not bring them up or anything. They went back to Hamburg and then he returned to Salvador because of Hitler in 1939. The first thing he said when spoke about the community, was that we needed a cemetery. He made the donation for it and he was also the first man to die and be buried in this cemetery. That was in 1949, the same year Max Freund died. He died in 1949 so he was in Salvador from during Hitler until 1949 and that was the beginning of the cemetery.

(How was the situation of the Jewish community with the Salvadoran community?)

Well, all of a sudden there was a cable at the Hamburg consulate: NO Jews admitted. That was in the time of General Martinez, who was the dictator for 13 years (Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez ruled from 1931-1944). He respected Germany and we read about it from other communities. Through Germany and Hitler [German] ambassadors told them; "What are you doing? Why do you take in the scum of the earth. The Jews. Who we are throwing out and you take them? Be very careful." This was the reason for the cable stating that nobody else could come to Salvador.

I never detected any social anti-semitism. We were accepted in all the clubs. Arabs living in Salvador were called "turkos." They are called "turkos" because they were from a program against the Catholic Arabs in the Ottoman Empire. Since the Turkish empire was in Bethlehem in 1911, most of those families came in 1911. There were many large families, but they were never admitted to clubs.

(Were Jews admitted)

Yes. I was among the founders of the sports club [Club Circulo Deportivo]. When I was secretary, I spent practically all my free time for years trying to bring in a family from Lebanon, the Siman's. There were Rotarians and there were the Lions. When the Lions club came there was never any discrimination. Even in government. I think it was that they didn't know who was Jewish. We were Germans to them. The ones who came from Germany and talked Spanish with a German accent. There were always good relations between Israel and Salvador on both the commercial and diplomatic fronts.

(So right now the Jewish situation....)

So I would say that one of the disappointments is the tragic disappearance of such a wonderful community. We still have some hopes that it is not permanently disappeared.

We can still hope for not only the community, but for the Salvadorans who are wonderful people. We must hope that the Salvadoran people can find a solution for their deep political difficulties. It is now a house divided, which cannot stand.

I can see that the Jewish life could flourish again, once it's become more peaceful, and thus open to a pluralistic approach to society, as it was when we were there. Ojala, as they say in Spanish....

Transcription prepared by the University of Florida Oral History Program. Interview conducted by Lea Freund