Constrained anti–Semitism? Nuances of Nazi racist discourse with respect to Iberian America and Portugal

The ideological core of the Nazi regime rests upon a racist pseudo-scientific theory. In an international political and diplomatic framework that theory was to become potentially problematic since it asserted the uniqueness and superiority of the German "Aryan" population to all other peoples and nations. Several institutions of the Nazi regime, especially those working in the field of international relations (the Foreign Office, Cultural Institutes etc.), soon realized the problems brought forth by such an ideology and adopted differenciated views of it, adapting these views to the nations, populations and governments they dealt with. The paper attempts to analyze the specific constraints of German racial discourse in Portugal, a southern european and colonial country, which was by that time ruled by a neutral and yet German friendly regime. Nazi racial discourse had therefore to be adapted to a local complex setting, consisting of white (southern) europeans, black and other colored peoples of mixed ethnic origins, and where the jewish community played a not at all neglectable role in the financial, political and educational milieus.