Historical memory as a controlling instrument during the Estado Novo period. The anti-semitism exemple

Abstract

I aim to outline the consequences of the use of historiography and historical memory as mind-controlling instruments. It will address aspects of the historical-cultural identity that the Estado Novo tried to impose, and pay attention to the problem of anti-Semitism. We will seek to correlate these issues with the discussion about the nature of the Portuguese dictatorship.
I propose that, due to the personality of the leaders and to the balances of the regime, to the charactersitics of the country and of the international context, also in the cultural sphere did the Estado Novo chose to impose formally moderate solutions. This would be a historical memory short of ideology that could scarcely be distinguished from the prior dominating narratives not marked by anti-Semitism. It was embodied through neo-methodical historicism.
It is further argued that from a military dictatorship, against the First Republic, against a democratic solution or «socialist» model, the Estado Novo took shape as fascism. This very classification is valid despite António de Oliveira Salazar and the intermediate leaders of the regime having claimed that there were religious, ethical and legal limits to the exercise of violence and to the operationalisation of modalities of controling the «civil society».