Vladimir Herzog

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Vlado "Vladimir" Herzog (Osijek, Sava Banovina, Yugoslavia, June 27, 1937 — São Paulo, October 25, 1975), was a Brazilian jewish TV journalist, university professor and playwright, who was tortured to death by the political police due to ideological reasons.

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[edit] Early life

Vlado Herzog was born in the town of Osijek, in the former Yugoslavia (currently Croatia) in June 27, 1937 to Zigmundo and Zora Herzog, both of whom were Jewish. His family immigrated to Brazil when he was just a young boy in the early 1940s, escaping the Independent State of Croatia (a puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy).

[edit] Education and career

Herzog graduated in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1959. After that, he started working in important Brazilian media outlets, such as O Estado de S. Paulo. While working for this particular newspaper, he decided to start using the pseudonym of "Vladimir", because he thought that his real name sounded extremely exotic. He would also work for three years on the BBC. On the 1970s Herzog became the chief of journalism of TV Cultura, a public station from São Paulo.

Herzog also worked as a professor at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo and as of a dramaturgist. He was also active in the civil resistance movement to the 1964-1985 Brazilian military dictatorship.

[edit] Detention and murder

Herzog was killed in detention on 25 October, 1975 by the agents of the state's repressive apparatus. He had been arrested after turning up voluntarily at the headquarters of the II Army to clarify his political activities and connections with clandestine opposition movements. The official version for his death was that he had committed suicide by hanging, after admitting to be a member of the then-illegal Brazilian Communist Party. Autopsy was inconclusive, but at the time forensic pathologists were functionaries of the police and systematically produced false autopsy reports in cases of death by torture. Two other journalists who were arrested with him and were at an adjoining prison cell witnessed his torture. Public opinion, however, never accepted this version and his murder generated national indignation. The then president of the Republic, General Ernesto Geisel was also irritated by these and other actions by what he called the "criminals" of the largely parallel power of military-directed violent political repression, and ordered a clean-up and a step down in these activities, firing the main ultra-right wing general behind it, Ednardo D'Ávila Melo.

According to Henry Sobel, the chief rabbi of the main synagogue of São Paulo at the time, the murder of Herzog changed the country. "It was the catalyst of the eventual restoration of democracy. His death will always be a painful memory of a shady period of repression, a perpetual echo of the voice of freedom, which will never be kept silent".

After finding out that Herzog's body bore the marks of torture, rabbi Sobel decided that he should be buried in the center of the cemetery rather than in a corner, as Jewish tradition demands in cases of suicide. This was made public and completely destroyed the official version of suicide. Officially, the first irrefutable proof that Herzog's death was not a suicide was reported in Fernando Pacheco Jordão's Dossier Herzog - Prisão, Tortura e Morte no Brasil. The author points out that the picture provided by the military as proof of Herzog's suicide portrayed the prisoner hanging by his prison belt tied in his cell's bars with his feet touching the floor and his knees notably bent — it is physically impossible to kill oneself in such a position.

By the time time of Herzog's death, Brazil was in extreme tension. The military had been in power for over ten years and the Brazilian population was constantly in fear. Student demonstrations were frequent; opposing movements had already kidnapped two foreign ambassadors (an American and a German) to be exchanged for political prisoners and as a mean to publicize their message in a censored press.

Additionally, Herzog was the thirty-eighth person to "commit suicide" after being arrested by the military. The first thirty-seven however, were not as renowned as Herzog was. Precisely because he was a public figure, his death attracted public and governmental attention to the case. Opposition to the repressive order was rekindled. An active and effective anti-dictatorship movement was launched and this culminated with the re-democratization process and the end of the military dictatorship in 1979. His death is seen today as the beginning of the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Herzog has become a symbol of the fight for democracy in Brazil and has been honoured in many ways, such as by attributing it to the street where the TV Cultura is located in São Paulo. In addition, a public prize for journalism devoted to amnesty and human rights has been established with his name (Prêmio de Jornalismo Vladimir Herzog de Anistia e Direitos Humanos).

Later, in a civil lawsuit of his widow against the government, a federal tribunal recognized his wrongful death and accorded monetary damages to Herzog's family. A documentary by director João Batista de Andrade, titled Herzog - 30 anos, was shot in 2005. In the same year, a new public scandal happened when new photographs of an alive and fully-naked Herzog in the prison cell were released to the Internet, and were justified by a high-ranking military officer in president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's office.

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