Editing Jorge Luis Borges (section)

===Anti-fascism===
In 1934, Argentine [[ultra-nationalist]]s, sympathetic to [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party]], asserted Borges was secretly [[Jewish]] and by implication not truly Argentinian. Borges responded with the essay "[[Yo, Judío]]" ("I, a Jew"), a reference to the old phrase "Yo, Argentino" ("I, an Argentine") uttered by potential victims during [[pogrom]]s against Argentine Jews to signify one was not Jewish.<ref Name="Humor">De Costa, René (2000) ''Humor in Borges (Humor in Life & Letters)''. Wayne State University Press p. 49 {{ISBN|0-8143-2888-1}}</ref> In the essay, Borges declares he would be proud to be a Jew, and remarks that any pure Castilian is likely to come from ancient Jewish descent, from a millennium ago.<ref Name="Humor"/> Both before and during the [[Second World War]], Borges regularly published essays attacking the Nazi police state and its racist ideology. His outrage was fueled by his deep love for [[German literature]]. In an essay published in 1937, Borges attacked the Nazi Party's use of children's books to inflame antisemitism. He wrote, "I don't know if the world can do without German civilization, but I do know that its corruption by the teachings of hatred is a crime."<ref>Jorge Luis Borges, ''Selected Nonfictions'', p 200.</ref>

In a 1938 essay, Borges reviewed an anthology which rewrote German authors of the past to fit the Nazi party line. He was disgusted by what he described as Germany's "chaotic descent into darkness" and the attendant rewriting of history. He argued that such books sacrificed the German people's culture, history and integrity in the name of restoring their national honour. Such use of children's books for propaganda he writes, "perfect the criminal arts of barbarians."<ref>''Selected Nonfictions'', p. 201.</ref> In a 1944 essay, Borges postulated,{{blockquote|text=Nazism suffers from<!-- !  check for tone !--> unreality, like [[Erigena]]'s hell. It is uninhabitable; men can only die for it, lie for it, wound and kill for it. No one, in the intimate depths of his being, can wish it to triumph. I shall risk this conjecture: ''Hitler wants to be defeated''. Hitler is blindly collaborating with the inevitable armies that will annihilate him, as the metal vultures and the dragon (which must have known that they were monsters) collaborated, mysteriously, with [[Hercules]]."<ref>Borges, ''Selected Nonfictions'', p. 211.</ref>}}

In 1946, Borges published the short story "[[Deutsches Requiem (short story)|Deutsches Requiem]]", which masquerades as the last testament of a condemned [[Nazi war criminal]] named Otto Dietrich zur Linde. In a 1971 conference at [[Columbia University]], Borges was asked about the story by a student from the creative writing program. He recalled, "When the Germans were defeated I felt great joy and relief, but at the same time I thought of the German defeat as being somehow tragic, because here we have perhaps the most educated people in Europe,  who have a fine literature, a fine tradition of philosophy and poetry. Yet these people were bamboozled by a madman named [[Adolf Hitler]], and I think there is tragedy there."<ref>''Borges on Writing'' (1970), pages 60–61.</ref>

In a 1967 interview with Burgin, Borges recalled how his interactions with Argentina's Nazi sympathisers led him to create the story. He recalled, "And then I realized that those people that were on the side of Germany, that they never thought of German victories or the German glory. What they really liked was the idea of the [[Blitzkrieg]], of London being on fire, of the country being destroyed. As to the German fighters, they took no stock in them. Then I thought, well now Germany has lost, now America has saved us from this nightmare, but since nobody can doubt on which side I stood, I'll see what can be done from a literary point of view in favor of the Nazis. And then I created the ideal Nazi."<ref>Burgin (1968), pp 331–332.</ref>

At Columbia University in 1971, Borges further elaborated on the story's creation, "I tried to imagine what a real Nazi might be like. I mean someone who thought of violence as being praiseworthy for its own sake. Then I thought that this [[archetype]] of the Nazis wouldn't mind being defeated; after all, defeats and victories are mere matters of chance. He would still be glad of the fact, even if the Americans and British won the war. Naturally, when I am with Nazis, I find they are not my idea of what a Nazi is, but this wasn't meant to be a political tract. It was meant to stand for the fact that there was something tragic in the fate of a real Nazi. Except that I wonder if a real Nazi ever existed. At least, when I went to Germany, I never met one. They were all feeling sorry for themselves and wanted me to feel sorry for them as well."<ref>''Borges on Writing'' (1970), page 61.</ref>