Fascism took a step back in Burgos

Javier Lacalle, mayor of the Spanish city of Burgos, was forced not to host an exhibition honoring the figure of Captain General Juan Yagüe at a exhibition centre dependent on the city council. The popular pressure both inside and outside the city forced Lacalle to recognize his aim was breaking the law that expressly forbids any form of appraisal of those who took part from the coup led by General Franco on 18 July 1936 or the subsequent dictatorship, although his decision triggered the anger of María Eugenia Yagüe Martínez-Campo, the daughter of the so-called Butcher of Badajoz and head of the foundation that scheduled the homage.

I wrote an article on the website of Catalan advocacy group Help Catalonia on 29 January 2014, which is quoted below:

Homage to the Butcher of Badajoz 

The mayor of Burgos, a Spanish city situated in the Northern region of Castille-Leon, has allowed an exhibition to honour the figure of Juan Yagüe, a Captain General of the Spanish army and one of Franco’s closest collaborators during the Civil War (1936-1939), to be held in a public building in the city. Its name will be Un hombre y el resurgir de Burgos, Yagüe (“A man and the rebirth of Burgos, Yagüe”, in Spanish) and will be hosted by his daughter, who owns a foundation dedicated to preserve the legacy of the person who was appointed as Minister of the Air Force after the end of the war and was given the nobility title of 1^st Marquis of Yagüe.
Juan Yagüe will always be remembered for his role during the war. He is eventually known as “the butcher of Badajoz” for having conducted one of the most dreadful massacres of the conflict. On 14 and 15 August 1936, Francoist troops occupied the city of Badajoz, in the south-western region of Extremadura, during their northward advance. The troops under his commandment, mainly Moroccan “Regulares” and legionaries started a mass-scale repression campaign against everyone who was supposed to fight within the loyalist troops, being supporter of the legitimate Republican government or even taking part in a protest.  For these reasons, nationalist troops engaged themselves in a massive slaughter that would horror the foreign journalists who were covering the development of the war alongside fascist troops and triggered criticism even by some conservative intellectuals.
There is no agreement amongst historians regarding the number of victims of the massacre, but it is estimated that between 1,000 and 4,000 people were executed at the bullring and in front of the cemetery. British historian and Hispanist Paul Preston quoted American journalist as saying that 2,000 people were killed only during the first two days of the occupation of Badajoz. After being questioned by Jay T. Withacker, Yagüe claimed that he ordered the killing because he did not want to leave enemies on the rear: “Of course we shot them –he said to me- what do you expect? Was I supposed to take 4,000 reds with me as my column advanced, racing against me? Was I expected to turn them loose in my rear and let them make Badajoz red again?”, he said.This army official was also well-known for having driven some of the most important offensives of the Spanish civil war, including the occupations of Belchite, Caspe and Lleida. He and his troops also had an important role on the Battle of the Ebre (25 July – 16 November, 1938), the longest and one of the deadliest confrontations of the war. He would also be one of the officials who entered in Barcelona on the aftermath of the occupation of the city on 26 January 1939.
By supporting such homages, the authorities in Burgos are flagrantly violating the Spanish law on historic memory, which expressly forbids any expression of appraisal of those who took part in the coup d’État and the subsequent dictatorship. Once again, the victims of the conflict and Franco’s regime will be publicly disrespected by an official institution.

Fortunately, common sense prevailed at this occasion and the people's pressure against such apology of a figure involved in plenty of war crimes forced local authorities not to lend a public building for that purpose. If the exhibition is finally to be hosted, the responsability will lay only with the relatives of Yagüe and the unfortunately not so scarce supporters of fascism. This should be a single small step towards the end of impunity of Francoist regime in Spain.

Andreu Nin, a late homage

Catalan Parliament finally decided praising the figure of Andreu Nin, a Catalan anti-stalinist intellectual and politician who was detained, tortured and finally executed with the placet of the Spanish Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. He had been one of the founders of POUM (Worker's Party for Marxist Unification) in 1935, as well as the Justice Minister of Catalan Government during the Civil War, until he was expelled from Generalitat in May 1937. A month later, he would be detained and finally murdered for daring to propose another way to conduct the Spanish civil war instead of the dependence towards the Soviet Union. In fact, even the NKVD was involved in his death.
It was the first time that all the Catalan political forces had managed to celebrate an hommage in his remembrance, almost 76 years after his death. However, his political relevance was once again a matter of controversy whilst each party praised a different trait of his career. Despite this disagreement, the reality is that he was a brave politician who dared to oppose Stalin after having worked for the Commintern, alying himself with the Trotskist Left Opposition. In addition, he would later break up with Trotsky because of the unification of Trotskist Izquierda Comunista de España and Bloc Obrer i Camperol, a Catalan communist party opposed to the Comintern. Furthermore, he always defended the right of Catalans and other peoples in Spain and Europe to freedly decide on their own future. As an intellectual, he collaborated in many newspapers, translated some classic books from Russian literature into Catalan and Spanish and wrote several essays in which he reflected his political ideas.

Nin was kidnapped on 16 June 1937 in front of the headquarters of his party at Ramblas, one of the main streets of Barcelona. After being held in Barcelona for a while, he was later transferred to a prison in Alcalá de Henares, a city situated 40km away from Madrid where several communist cadres from the PCE (Spanish Communist Party) and political commissars from the Soviet Union were trying to control the Republican Army. However, his inprisonment was totally unofficial: it is not on any record. 

He was repeatedly interrogated by the police while being held, in order to make Nin confess that POUM was involved with Falange in a conspiration against the Spanish republican government. No evidence could proof it, only a few documents which were fabricated by two Spanish policement following orders of Soviet NKVD and the Soviet consul in Barcelona. After that, several men under the command of Alexander Orlov picked him out from the prison and transferred him to a Cheka, a secret detention centre which was firstly seen in the USSR; during the Spanish Civil War, it was used by the Republican faction, mainly by communists, to detain either Francoist prisoners or political dissidents. The detention centre where Andreu Nin was confined was situated at the house of the matrimony formed by Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros, a communist aristocrat and General of the Republican air forces, and Constanza de la Mora Maura, the granddaughter of former conservative Prime Minister Antonio Maura and eventually the head of the Foreign Press Office of the Republican government. Once there, Nin was tortured and finally executed at an undetermined point in the road from Alcalá de Henares to Madrid.
However, the official version would never admit that the death of Andreu Nin was the result of a conspiration led by Soviet agents who were deployed in Spain under the treaty by which the USSR agreed to provide weapons and aircraft to the Republican Army. Instead, the government claimed that the former POUM leader escaped from the prison helped by his "contacts" within Falange and Gestapo agents hidden in the International Brigades. That is the reason why Spanish Prime Minister Juan Negrín used to say that Nin was either in Salamanca or in Berlin, helping the Nationalist faction win the war.
The documentary below investigates the conspiration that would lead to the murder of Andreu Nin. It is based in the investigations by Catalan historian Pelai Pagès, among others and broadcast by Maria Dolors Genovès (in Spanish).

Andreu Nin was a victim of the tensions within the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil war, in a conflict that has be named as a "second Civil War within the Spanish Civil War" by some historians. The opposition between two ways of making the war was effectively one of the reasons that caused the defeat of those who were fighting for their freedom and trying to prevent the imposition of a regime with close ties to Fascism and Nazism. In fact, the Republic (and also the Catalan government) were victims of the geopolitical reality of a European continent on the eve of a total war. European countries decided not to help the legitimate government whereas Germany and Italy were helping Francoist troops, lefting Republicans in the hands of Stalin. However, the non-intervention would not prevent the outbreak of the Second World War.

Given all these circumstances, the hommage to Nin becomes an act of special importance, especially when his corpse has not still been recovered. His remains are lying somewhere near the road between Alcalá de Henares and Madrid. So the time has come to rehabilitate his memory and praise him as an intellectual who fought tirelessly against fascism. 

Praising the wrong ones

The Spanish government will spend more than 280,000 euros in the restoration of Valle de los Caídos, the mausoleum where former dictator Francisco Franco was buried after his death. Franco himself ordered its construction on 1 April 1940, when he was celebrating the first anniversary of his victory in the Spanish Civil war. It would not be finished until nearly 20 years later. It would also serve to "perpetuate the memory of those who fell in our glorious Crusade (sic)". In fact, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Falange Española de las JONS (the Fascist party which would be one of the ideological pillars of Franco's dictatorship, especially during the first years) was one of the people whose remains would be housed there.
However, Primo de Rivera and Franco would be an exception: the people buried in the Valle de los Caídos were mainly civilians and military soldiers or cadres without any political relevance. Moreover, some of them were members of the Republican Army who fought against Franco during the war, whose remains were transferred to the mausoleum without the authorization of their relatives. Furthermore, the relatives of the majority of the buried there were not aware of that, as shown at the documentary "Avi, et trauré d'aquí" (Grandpa, I'll get you away from here), broadcast by Catalan television TV3.

NO-DO, the official newscast for the propaganda of the regime, admitted that thousands of political prisoners took part in the construction of such a mausoleum. Indeed, forced labour was one of the means used by Francoist to punish opposition and political resistance against the regime. In this particular case, thousands of prisoners took part in the works during nearly 19 years under the strict commands of the Central Board for the Redemption of Sentences through Labour. This board was directly commanded by the Head of State and had the purpose of "praying to God for the souls of all the Fallen (those who died fighting alongside Franco during the Civil War) as well as for Spain".

The video below shows an extract of a reportage broadcast by No-Do praising the regime for "giving the political prisoners a chance to redeem the damage they could have done before".

Unfortunately, this has not been the first nor the only action taken by the Spanish government in memory of the victors of the Spanish Civil war. Whereas nearly anyone who dares either to oppose the budget cuts which are making many citizens endure poverty or to claim that Catalan people have the right to decide on their own future are described as Nazis, the representative of the central Government in Catalonia participated in an event whose purpose was to honor former members of the Blue Division, a body of volunteer Spanish soldiers which fought in the Eastern front alongside Nazi troops during the Second World War. In addition, the State still subsidizes National Francisco Franco Foundation, an organization which preserves the memory of the dictator and praises him.

Spain is the only "democratic" state in which a dictator is worshiped almost like a hero instead of punishing the crimes committed by his regime. Meanwhile, dozens of victims are seeking a justice they will not find in the country. The government keeps on praising the wrong ones.

UPDATE (5/25/2013): Hermann Tertsch, a Spanish journalist and son of a Nazi soldier, has written a tweet justifying the execution of Catalan President Lluís Companys i Jover. Companys flought to France when the Spanish Civil war was about to end, then Nazi authorities detained him (according to most historians, they were agents from the Gestapo who caught him, despite historian Josep Benet says he would be detained Wehrmacht), filling a complaint issued by the ambassade of Francoist Spain. He would die after an unlawful council of war at Montjuïc Castle, Barcelona, on 15 October 1940.
In his tweet, Tertsch complained about the lawsuit that Catalan party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya is about to fill before an Argentinian court regarding Companys' execution. Literally, he says: "ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya) will fill a lawsuit against the State because of the shooting of Companys. One of the few executions commited by Franco which would be praised by every democracy".

ERC se querellará contra el Estado por el fusilamiento de Companys. De las pocas ejecuciones de Franco que habría aplaudido toda democracia.
— Hermann Tertsch (@hermanntertsch) 2013 maiatza 25

Spain may be the only state in the world where such statements are unpunished. Could the execution of a democratically-elected president be praised by any democracy?

Unforgettable Gernika

It was early in the afternoon of 26 April 1937. As every Monday, it was a Market day in Gernika, so the main square of the city was busy. Up to 10,000 people, many from nearby villages, gathered there at a trade fair dedicated to cattle and crops. The fair supposed an increase in the population of the city, which had about 5,500 inhabitants then. In addition, some of the Republican and Basque troops and refugees had been stationed there on their way to Bilbao, fleeing from other parts of the Basque Country.
The alarms that warned of a possible bombing strarted ringing at about 4.30 PM. A single German Dornier Do-17 arrived there from Burgos airport, making two passes in which it dropped about 12 50kg bombs. Some of them reached San Juan church and hit the promenade area called "Paseo de los Tilos" (Lime Walk, in English). Then, three Italian Savoia-Marchetti planes appeared entering Gernika from the sea, which had the commitment to bomb Renteria bridge in order to cut off the retreat of the Republican and Basque troops. However, they failed this objective because of the heavy wind. In spite of that, some bombs reached Izquierda Republicana headquarters. Until that time, the damages significant but limited only to a few areas in the city centre and near Oka river. In fact, the artifacts used since were indicated to hit specific objectives.
The heaviest bombing came later that afternoon. A Heinkel He-111, escorted by five Fiat Cr-32 fighters, came along and tried to bomb the bridge again. At about 6.00 PM, three squadrons of Junkers Ju-52 appeared in the horizon, attacking Gernika from North to South following the railway. As many as 19 airplanes, surrounded by German and Italian fighters, dropped more than 20 tons of bombs, most of them incendiary. They caused the subsequent fire. Because of the heavy smoke provoked by the bombing, they ended up throwing their bombs blindly, which contributed to the destruction of the town.
But the worst was still to come. Once the bombing finished, some planes from the Nazi aircraft started flying at low altitude over Gernika and started strafing people who were fleeing from the bombs. After more than 3 hours of heavy bombing, the alarms stopped ringing at 7.30 PM. Almost all the buildings of the town centre and the area surrounding the railway were burning due to the thousands of incendiary bombs which had been dropped over there. Ironically, Renteria bridge, which was the most important militar objective, remained untouched, as only 1% of the buildings there. According to the latest account, there were around 250 casualties and many other wounded.

The video below shows first hand accounts from Carmen Egurrola, Lidia Abadia and Cornelio Totorikagoiena, three Basques living in Boise (Arizona) who experienced the devastation of their homes by Nazi aircraft in 1937.

Although it was not the first time that an open city had been a military objective, the destruction of Gernika acquired a special symbolism after British journalist George Steer (born in South Africa) wrote a chronicle on the bombing after visiting it on the same day. He was astonished by the scenario he found there. He published an account of everything he saw there in some important newspapers such as The Times and the New York Times. Thus his narration arrived to hundreds of readers and politicians from the United Kingdom, the United States and France, contributing to create a myth regarding the town. He also was determinant to disprove the Francoist propaganda, directed by Luis Bolín, whose aim was to claim that Gernika had been burnt by Basque militians on their retreat. Alongside Picasso and his Guernica, the chronicles written by Steer made thousands of people from all around the world be aware of what was going on in Spain and the German and Italian intervention in the Spanish Civil War.

In addition, the destruction of Gernika was symbolic because it was almost the first time that the bombs destroyed an open city, away from the front. But its greatest importance lies in the fact that it had been the place where the Batzar Nagusiak (a representative assembly which legislated and ensured that the State would respect the foral privileges) of Biscay gathered under the Tree of Gernika from the 14th Century until they were abolished in 1876. Ironically, the Parliament House and the surrounding area were the least affected and both the building and the oak tree stand in the same place 76 years after the town was devastated. 

Furthermore, it is well known that Franco himself ordered the destruction of such an important symbol for all the Basques and the Condor Legion simply did their bidding. So that, Francoist troops could not deny that they knew every information regarding those events. It was accurately planned despite the attempts to present it as a fire caused by Basque troops in order to destroy the city and thus accuse the rival faction. However, nobody in the Basque Country could believe this hypothesis.
As well as the tragedy of the bombing itself, the destruction of Gernika and the following occupation of the surrounding area  provoked the demoralisation of Basque people and opened the way to Bilbao and the metal industry. But this would not be its latest effect: three days later, Basque writer and poet Estepan Urkiaga, Lauaxeta, was detained while he was visiting the city with a group of journalists. He was a true supporter of the Basques and exercised as a political commissar for the nationalist party EAJ, which had the local authority in the Basque Country. He would be jailed and executed two months later despite the efforts to avoid his death.
The destruction of Gernika marked the recent history of the Basque Country alongside the effects of the subsequent dictatorship, but also became a symbol for everyone who was against the war and a signal which allowed people from all around the world foresee what would happen during the Second World War. That is the reason why nobody should forget what happened there 76 years ago.

Forgotten memories of the Spanish Civil War: Maravillas Lamberto and her father Vicente

Today is the 74th anniversary of end of the Spanish Civil war, which shook the Iberian peninsula for almost three years. It had started on 18 July 1936 when a group of Spanish army generals led a coup against the democratically elected People's Front government. Those military cadres, led by general Francisco Franco, initially failed to gain power in many regions but Navarre, Aragon, Castille, Galicia, Balearic and Canary Islands. After a long war in which they were supported by Germany and Italy, Francoist troops controlled the whole Peninsula and established a dictatorship which would rule Spain for nearly 40 years.

This date is a good occasion for remembering one of the most unknown stories of the repression during the war: the violation and slaughter of a 14-year old girl for being the daughter of a leftist trade-union member. Nearly 77 years after her death, the Spanish and Navarrese governments have not yet recognized the pain suffered by her and her relatives.  

Maravillas Lamberto (1922-1936) was a 14-year old girl who lived with her parents and two younger sisters in Larraga, some 40 kilometers away from Iruña-Pamplona, Navarre. His father Vicente had been affiliated at the Unión General de Trabajadores trade union during the Second Republic (1931-1936), so that a group of policemen from the Guardia Civil (a Spanish paramilitary force which supported Franco's coup) went to his home in order to detain him on 15 August 1936. When police arrived at Vicente's home, his eldest daughter insisted on accompanying her father. The policemen agreed, so both father and daughter were brought to the town hall. There, Vicente was put into prison while Maravillas was brought upstairs and repeatedly violated. After that, they were both murdered and the girl's naked corpse was given to dogs. Her remains have not been found yet.

This is a single example of the millions of victims that suffered from repression and genocide during the war and even after. In fact, the latest executions took place in 1975, months before the dictator's death, when an agonic Franco ordered the execution of two ETA and three FRAP members. In fact, Francoism began and ended slaughtering. However, those crimes have never been investigated and the Spanish government has never condemned them. We shall never forget.

UPDATE: According to Martxelo Díaz, journalist from GARA newspaper, someone has attacked the monument which honoured victims of Francoist repression in Larraga. It was settled in a space called "Parque de la Memoria" (Park of Memory), which remembers every people who was murdered in Larraga during the Spanish Civil War.
This is another example of the willingness of some to silence the tragedy and sorrow that the civil war and the  cruel repression brought to lots of innocent people like Maravillas' youngest sister, Josefina. She was only 7 years old when her sister was murdered and had to endure harassment and mistreatment regarding the tragedy that had took place within her family. After becoming a nun at a young age, the Mother Superior of her nunnery barred her from contacting other fellow nuns because of her family history. Josefina was even sent to Karachi, where she was forbidden to study any language so that she could not communicate with native people. Once Franco had died she could return to Spain, but mistreatment against her continued as she was barred from going out of her nunnery after trying to investigate what had happened to her father and eldest sister (some people thought that they were murdered because "they were likely to have done something wrong"). Unfortunately, stories like this are very common in the country.

UPDATE 2: The attack against the monument to the victims of Franco's repression has been already confirmed. Someone has painted the words "El Chato" on it. Those words refer to Pedro Díez Terés, one of the most famous tyrants of Navarre during the war. He was a captain of far-right Falange Española at that time and ordered the executions of many leftist people in the region, Maravillas' father Vicente among them. Moreover, El Chato is likely to have been involved in the violation and death of the girl.