Hugo Wast: The Anti-Semitic Director of Argentina’s National Library, 1931-1955

Hugo Wast (pseudonym for Gustavo Adolfo Martínez Zuviría) was Argentina's National Library director for almost a quarter of a century, from 1931 to 1955. He was also a very popular writer, who gained notoriety for his anti-Semitic novel El Kahal/Oro. This work evoked strong reactions from some of Wast's contemporaries, who also utilized the opportunity to criticize his performance as director of the National Library. Prominent among such critics were playwright César Tiempo and poet Carlos Mastronardi. Juan Bautista Magaldi offered a more favorable assessment of Wast as librarian. Wast was a product of his time, when Argentine nationalism (influenced by European fascism and Nazism) was a powerful ideological force, especially in the 1930s to the mid-1940s, known as the "infamous decade." Future research will involve a further consideration of how Wast's nationalist ideology may have affected his policies as Argentina's National Library director.