A suástica de João Jessl: memória e imaginário no Cemitério São Miguel da Cidade de Goiás

• Autor(a) principal: Gondim, Frederico Tadeu
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFG
• dARK ID: ark:/38995/001300000cbh8
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/11735
• topic: Cemitério Johann Jessl; Cidade de Goiás; Suástica; Cemetery; Johann Jessl; Cidade de Goiás; Swastika; CIENCIAS HUMANAS::HISTORIA

This research began with the observation of a burial located at Cemitério São Miguel in Cidade de Goiás, which aroused our interest because of its accompanying headstone. The small object refers to an Austrian young man who lived in the former capital of the Brazilian state of Goiás from (at least) 1928 until 1936, and the friendly words on the headstone are followed by a swastika. Intrigued by the latter, we conducted a literature review that allowed us to understand its transformation into “nazi symbol”, starting with the a-historical treatment the swastika received at the end of the nineteenth century up to its political use by the Nazis in the early twentieth century. In addition to this, we went through documents which mention Jessl (the Austrian young man), available at the local historical archive, registry office and also online, in order to establish a dialogue between the files and the headstone, as well as reflect upon the memory built around this foreigner back in the day (POLLAK, 1989, 1992). In doing so, we do not aim for a final interpretation of this Austrian young man’s presence in Cidade de Goiás – what we propose instead is an open discussion, as we are guided by the interests of our time and the sources available at the moment. If a swastika on a headstone catches our attention today, we need first of all to place Jessl and the symbol historically, in a context that was at once different than that of Austria and outside of Nazi Germany’s control. Only then should we consider how Jessl and the swastika are interpreted today by the local imaginary (DURAND, 2004, 2012; MAFFESOLI, 2018).