Migration & Belonging · Family archives · 1938–1948
A Homeland Across the Atlantic
Three Argentine-born siblings between Argentina and Germany, 1938–1948
An imagined homeland
When the place called “home” becomes a place to leave
What can the journey of an Argentine-German family across the Atlantic reveal about belonging before, during and after the Second World War?
Following three siblings who travelled from Argentina to Germany and eventually returned, this family history explores the movement of people, ideas and political affiliations between the two countries. Their experience complicates familiar accounts of postwar migration from Germany to Argentina.
The story draws on an unpublished family diary, photographs, postcards, memoirs and historical records.
Argentina · The family’s beginnings
The story begins in Misiones
Misiones is a province in northeastern Argentina, bordering Brazil and Paraguay, thousands of kilometres from Germany. The siblings were born there to parents who had emigrated from Germany in 1924.
Although born in Argentina, the children grew up with German language, schooling and cultural traditions. Germany remained an important point of reference in family life, even before the siblings had seen it themselves.
Belonging · Before the war
Germany as an imagined homeland
For these children, the idea of Germany was shaped by their parents’ memories, education and family connections. The photograph shows the four siblings on their way to their German school in Argentina.
Family archives reveal how a sense of national belonging can be sustained across borders, through language, everyday practices and expectations about a place that is not yet directly known.
1938 · Across the Atlantic
Ruth’s first voyage to Germany
Ruth’s diary records a sea voyage from Argentina to Germany that lasted just over a month. She departed in 1938, while one sister remained in Argentina. Her two brothers followed in 1939, arriving shortly before the outbreak of war in Europe.
The diary offers an unusually close view of how the journey was experienced: not simply a change of country, but an encounter with an imagined homeland.
Germany · Arrival and expectations
A “fairy-tale” arrival
Ruth’s diary describes a welcome at the port by relatives and members of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the National Socialist girls’ organisation. Her account conveys the excitement of arrival and the influence of the political environment into which she had entered.
“They shouted a warm welcome to us and sang happy cheerful songs.”Ruth’s diary, as reproduced in the original project
The contrast between this initial welcome and the later experience of war is central to the story.
Germany · Education under National Socialism
Education and political institutions
According to Ruth’s daughter, Ruth attended the rural training school Arvedshof in Elbisbach, Saxony. The research connects the school’s institutional history to the Reichsnährstand and to the wider reorganisation of the Reifensteiner schools under National Socialism.
The school photograph and the family’s recollections invite questions about how education and everyday life were shaped by the political system.
1939–1945 · War and captivity
A generation drawn into war
Ruth’s brothers arrived in Germany aged ten and twelve. As they grew older, they attended schools and organisations influenced by National Socialist ideology.
In his memoirs, one brother described his recruitment into the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service) and later into the SS at the age of seventeen. According to the family account, the brothers were sent to the front and subsequently spent approximately eighteen months in Soviet captivity.
The family’s letters and photographs show the extent to which war affected their plans and transformed their relationship with Germany.
After 1945 · Leaving Germany
Returning was not simple
The end of the war did not immediately make a return to Argentina possible. The siblings had to navigate postwar administrative processes, including obtaining denazification certificates.
According to Ruth’s diary, they travelled back aboard the Córdoba, a ship associated with the Compañía Argentina de Navegación Dodero.
The voyage reversed the direction of Ruth’s first Atlantic crossing, but took place under entirely different historical circumstances.
1947 · Ruth’s diary
The journey home
A diary page dated 18 December 1947 records Ruth’s reflections on the return journey. The account captures the emotional distance between the hopeful arrival years earlier and the quiet departure after the war.
“No one was standing at the harbor waving goodbye.”Ruth’s diary, English translation in the original project
These private recollections allow the return journey to be understood through the experience of someone who had once imagined Germany as home.
Fieldwork · Memory today
Homeland redefined
For the three siblings, homeland was not a fixed location. Its meanings changed through migration, political mobilisation, war, captivity and eventual return.
Family photographs, diaries and contemporary fieldwork reveal how ideas of Germanness moved across borders and were reconsidered over time. Those histories continue to shape memories on both sides of the Atlantic.
The journey asks how people interpret belonging when the country they understand as their homeland becomes one they must leave.
A question for public history
Who decides what counts as a homeland?
This family’s Atlantic journeys show how belonging can be inherited, imagined, contested and changed through historical experience. They also demonstrate what becomes visible when family archives enter public history.
Sources & Credits
- This story is based on Virginia Vecchioli’s family-history research, including an unpublished diary by Ruth, family photographs and postcards, one brother’s memoirs, a historical map, institutional records, a photograph of the Córdoba, and the author’s fieldwork.
- The contributor thanks the descendants of the three siblings for sharing their family histories and giving access to unpublished photographs, diaries, letters and documents.
- Privacy: Family surnames and the specific name of the German-speaking colony in Misiones are deliberately withheld at the contributor’s request.
- AI-use disclosure: The original project states that ChatGPT assisted with English translation, language editing and technical guidance during the visual design process in Canva.
- Editorial note: This page has been copy-edited and adapted from the contributor’s visual project for accessible web presentation. Historical interpretations and source permissions remain attributable to the contributor. Images and family records are presented with the credits and privacy restrictions stated in the original contributor project.