The hard life of Raquel Liberman, the Polish prostitute who inspired China Suárez and became a symbol of the fight against trafficking

Raquel died in 1935. A cancer of the throat had consumed her. He did not speak anymore. The agony was short but very painful. Before getting sick, his appearance was not good either. He seemed to have many more years than he actually had. He was 35 years old, but he seemed to be in his fifties. It was a worn and broken person. With a past that does not leave it, with a perpetual pain that runs through it. However, she was a quiet woman. He had fought, had not surrendered despite adverse circumstances and had won. Against all forecasts.

Ruchla Laja Liberman was born in the 20th century in Berdychiv (Ukrainian territory today). Soon he moved to Warsaw. He spent more than two-thirds of his short life there. But his last years (and the name he adopted during them) are what gave him immortality. His destiny was to go unnoticed, to be subjugated, a victim of more, like so many thousands of others. But she refused, she rebelled. And with unusual courage, he stood before his exploiters. It was his bravery that allowed him to debate today to name a subway station (a strange habit of Buenos Aires: renaming stations, or even worse to accumulate names in stations), and one of the protagonists of the novel The highest note of Argentina is (freely) inspired by his figure: the character of Raquel Zimmerman who plays Eugenia China Suarez in Argentina, land of love and revenge he honors her.

"Argentina, land of love and revenge" (ElTrece)

At the beginning of the last century, life in Poland was very hard. Hunger, needs and pógroms. For young Jews, any trip seemed tempting, any other destination in the world offered an illusion. Ruchla, like so many other young Polish Jews, went to Argentina in search of a better future to escape misery. But his story is not equal to that of others. She was married to Yaacov Ferber, had two young children and decided to follow her husband, who had been away for a while. Upon their arrival, the family went to Tapalqué, in the province of Buenos Aires. In this town, her sister-in-law Elke officiated as a madama in a brothel.

Soon tuberculosis caused the death of Yaacov. Ruchla, who at that time, upon entering Argentina, was Raquel (the names of immigrants who were once Castilian) left her children in the custody of the Tapalqué people and settled in Buenos Aires, eager to earn a living. . bad, a mark of the times, was a near impossible way to ignore.

The thugs moved through Buenos Aires. They had them from all backgrounds. Italians, Spaniards, French, Jews. The organization that has gained notoriety over time is the Zwi Migdal, of Polish Jewish origin.. That the history and (bad) reputation of Zwi MIgdal have survived the time is not only related to the extension of their activities. Although it was a large established criminal organization, Zwi Migdal was neither the only nor the most powerful perpetrator of human trafficking. The media impact of its downfall, the legends that have woven over time and the ever-present dose of anti-Semitism in society have done the rest.

The myth, extended and established, maintains that girls were sought after in Poland and brought to Argentina under the spellor Beautiful teenagers, poor and virgins. Weddings in the distance, offers to live a dream life in a country far away, peaceful and prosperous. Mirage that cleared up as soon as they left the ship.

The searcher Donna Guy in his book Dangerous bad showed that it was a paternalistic and rebaduring myth that was not always verified in reality. The construction required that they be innocent and deceived girls. But in many cases – more than good conscience would accept – these women knew what they had come to the country. Others have already practiced prostitution in their home country. The situation in Eastern Europe during those years was so tragic that any exit seemed like progress. There is also another practical issue that baderts that the story of the pimp who chose a woman and proposed the marriage and then exploiting it in the country, can not be true in the large number of cases in which it applies. It would be necessary to speak of a battalion of thousands of men coming to Europe with the same objective.

The Zwi Migdal was born with another denomination. It was the Israeli Society of Mutual Aid in Warsaw. And that name lasted from its creation in 1906 until after the mid-1920s, by which time it adopted the name by which it is known. The Mutual owned a cemetery in the city of Avellaneda, provided some health services, provided other benefits and organized social activities, as did many community entities in the country.. There was also a large headquarters, a kind of palace on Avenida Córdoba 3280.

However, Warsaw was primarily a gathering place and monitoring network operating hundreds of thugs. He had over four hundred ruffian partners. The girls, those who had arrived deceived and those who knew what they came from, could not imagine what would happen. Living conditions were deplorable. They were bad slaves. Exploited, without care, they spent all their lives badually serving customers who fed brothels.

The epicenter was in Lavalle and Junin, in the district of Once. There the inhabitants multiplied. Albert Londres, French correspondent who was in 1927 one of the first to study the subject in his book The road to Buenos Aires He exaggerated that young women frequented 70 clients a day. Other testimonials speak of 50 clients a day. Although we know that the days lasted twelve hours, it is impossible to believe in such a level of activity. However, there is no doubt that girls had to serve client after client. It should be remembered that, during these years, prostitution was a legal activity (only in 1936, it was prohibited) and regulated. Not if the white slave.

Raquel Liberman worked for several years in the brothels of Zwi Migdal. His agreement was better than the rest of the girls. He kept a higher percentage. Thus, he could soon buy his freedom at $ 1,500. He continued to exercise alone. He married José Korn, considered by many as an envoy of Zwi Migdal to fall back into his clutches. Nobody manages to break free from these mafia badociations. This man deceived Raquel. He acquired a house with 60,000 pesos from her on his behalf, in a fraudulent scheme. Korn installed in this house, how could it be otherwise, a brothel. Raquel remained, again, without anything. And he began his search for justice.

The fall of this emporium of prostitution, which generated millions of dollars a year, began in this small scam in which the young woman cracked thirty years decided not to forgive. Ambition and impunity have lost the Zwi Migdal. He met a resolute and tired woman of humiliation, a commissioner of principles and a judge who did not fall into the temptation of venality..

Rachel had the same fate as other Poles: to give her youth to the tormentors and the customers, to grow old prematurely, to get tired of life and to be replaced by a younger, maybe five years younger but without obvious wear, without the grin. the chiseled defeat on the face, without the marks of exploitation crisscrossing the body.

The woman claimed her money. This money was his independence. The paradox is that he managed to finish with the organization of thugs that he wanted, with his savings, to become madama himself. They did not hear your orders. Neither her ex-husband Korn nor the officials of Zwi Migdal where he went. He then denounced the scam, but no one believed that in Justice, one would listen to him. Who would pay attention to a Polish prostitute? What kind of investigation could not stop with bribes in a timely manner?

The conservative Julio Alsogaray, a moralist and reputed to be incorruptible, he listened to Rachel and began to move: for years he was behind the organization and still touched the wall of silence and complicity. With nobility, Alsogaray warned Raquel against the risks of ratification of his complaints. Raquel chose to continue. He found an echo in an honest judge, the magistrate Manuel Rodríguez Ocampo.

While the denunciation flourished, Raquel lied about its origin. He wanted to protect his children. He only followed the script of the legend. She recounted that she had traveled under the spell of a deceptive marriage proposal and that when she had landed in the port, she had been kidnapped and forced to prostitute herself. As Jorge Luis Borges said about her Emma Zunz: "The story was incredible, but it was imposing on everyone, because it was essentially true. That was true tone, true modesty, true hate. True was also the outrage he had suffered; only the circumstances, the time and one or two proper names were wrong ".

Raquel, who started only by claiming his debt, ended up denouncing and describing the operation of the criminal network. The Zwi Migdal could not resist the badault. The judge ordered 108 arrests. But with time, almost everyone was released. Only two years were sentenced a few years later. But circumstances have demolished the bandits' empire. Public opinion became more and more moralistic (prostitution was banned in 1936: Raquel did not see her, she died the year before). The impact of the news and the sensationalism had a considerable impact and the antisemitic factor was also influenced. The largest and most established prostitution networks were ignored because they belonged to other communities.

With his complaint, Raquel caused the fall of Zwi Mikdal. This was a consequence until involuntary. For years the history of travel, of fraudulent marriage, of fraud has been repeated to its credulity. Writer Myrtha Schalom in her book The Polish guy He dropped all these legends with great research work. Family stories, documents and letters told another story. More real, more human, with nuances and contradictions. She saved them and found a life.

Raquel Liberman has lived only 35 years. He escaped from misery in Poland. And traveled with hope to Argentina, looking for an opportunity. Here he found death, pain, abuse and exploitation. However, in her own way, alone, against a whole era, she dared to fight, to fight for herself. That's his legacy.