SWARSENSKY, HARDI (Bernhard; 1908–1968), journalist and publisher. Born in Berlin, Swarsensky graduated as a lawyer and practiced law briefly until he was debarred by the Nazis in 1933. During the next few years he devoted himself to Jewish communal life in Germany and was active in the leadership of the Reichsverband der Juden in Deutschland. In 1939 he immigrated to Buenos Aires, where in 1940 he founded the German-Jewish weekly Juedische Wochenschau, which he edited until his death. A passionate Zionist and supporter of Israel, he was president of the Theodor Herzl Gesellschaft from 1942 and of the large German-Jewish communal organization Nueva Comunidad Israelita from 1942 until 1953. He was also a leading figure in the World Jewish Congress and one of the founders of Centra, the umbrella organization of Central-European Jewish organizations in Latin America. In 1942 he founded the publishing house Estrellas, which issued works by German-Jewish and Argentine-Jewish authors, including many of his own writings: Von Basel nach Jerusalem (1945), Eroberung durch Aufbau (1949), Walter Rathenau (Sp., 1967), Noche de Cristal (1968), and Pogrom ueber Deutschland (1969).
