Spanish Civil War

Introduction The early successes seemed to give Hitler confidence. In 1936 a civil war broke out in Spain between Communists who were supporters of the Republican government and right-wing rebels under General Franco. Hitler saw this as an opportunity to fight against communism and at the same time to try out his new armed forces. In 1937, as the League of Nations looked on helplessly, German aircraft made devastating bombing raids on civilian populations in various Spanish cities. The destruction at Guernica was particularly terrible. The world looked in horror at the suffering modern weapens could cause.

Historical overview Year Event
1923 Government was overthrown
1931 The economic effects of the big depression made Primo de Rivera fall and King Alfonso was banned. 1933 Azaña resigned after he had tried to start a democratic Spain and military leaders had turned against him. 1934-35 The so-called black years, Lerroux made earlier reforms undone. Loads of people went on strike, they wanted self-determination. 1936 Azaña came back as the head of the coalition government. Again there were strikes, churches were put on fire, unofficially war was declared to the hated citizen guards. Farmers took the land they had worked upon. Juli 1936 Fascists shot a lieutenant, a leader of the government was shot. Military leaders decided not to wait any longer Franco flew to an army camp in Morocco. He became leader of the army and led the into the civil war. August 1936 Great Britain and France, anxious to prevent a general European conflagration, proposed a non-intervention pact, which was signed in Aug., 1936, by 27 nations. The signatories included Italy, Germany, and the USSR, all of whom failed to keep their promises. April 1937 German aircraft made devastating bombing raids on civilian populations in various Spanish cities. The destruction at Guerníca was particularly terrible. The world looked in horror at the suffering modern weapons could cause. June 1937 Nationalists took an important harbour
Winter 37-38 Republicans took the city of Teruel
1938 Franco took the city back
January 1939 Franco\'s army took Barcelona
March 1939 Fights between communists and nationalists in Madrid. After six days it stopped into unstable peace. Madrid turned itself over. 1st april 1939 Franco declared the civil war was over
1940 Franco met Hitler, they couldn\'t cooperate so Spain stayed outside the war.

Which groups and persons are involved

International Brigades The International Brigades-multinational groups of volunteers (many of them Communists) that were organized mostly in France-represented only a small part of the foreign participation in the war. For the European democracies it was another step down the road of appeasement; and for the politically conscious youth of the 1930s who joined the International Brigades, saving the Spanish republic was the idealistic cause of the era, a cause to which many gave their lives. For the Spanish people the civil war was an encounter whose huge toll of lives and material devastation were unparalleled in centuries of Spanish history.

Germany and Italy For Germany and Italy the Spanish civil war served as a testing ground for the blitzkrieg and other techniques of warfare that would be used in World War II. From the first and throughout the war, Italy and Germany aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and other materiel. Germany sent some 10,000 aviators and technicians; Italy sent large numbers of \"volunteers,\" probably about 70,000.

Non-intervention pact Great Britain and France, anxious to prevent a general European conflagration, proposed a non-intervention pact, which was signed in Aug., 1936, by 27 nations. The signatories included Italy, Germany, and the USSR, all of whom failed to keep their promises. The Spanish republic became dependent for supplies on the Soviet Union, which used its military aid to achieve its own political goals.

Communists, loyalists, anarchists, POUM and nationalists When the electoral victory (1936) of the Popular Front (composed of liberals, Socialists, and Communists) augured a renewal of leftist reforms, revolutionary sentiment on the right consolidated. In July, 1936, General Francisco Franco led an army revolt in Morocco. Rightist groups rebelled in Spain, and the army officers led most of their forces into the revolutionary (Nationalist or insurgent) camp. In N Spain the revolutionists, under Gen. Emilio Mola, quickly overran most of Old Castile, Navarre, and W Aragon. They also captured some key cities in the south. Catalonia-where socialism and anarchism were strong, and which had been granted autonomy-remained republican (Loyalist). The Basques too sided with the republicans to protect their local liberties. This traditional Spanish separatism asserted itself particularly in republican territory and hindered effective military organization. By Nov., 1936, the Nationalists had Madrid under siege, but while the new republican government of Francisco Largo Caballero (to which the anarchists had been admitted) struggled to organize an effective army, the first incoming International Brigade helped the Loyalists hold the city. As the war progressed the situation played into the hands of the Communists, who at the outset had been of negligible importance. The Loyalists ranks were risen by factional strife, which intensified as the Loyalist military position worsened; among its manifestations was the Communists\' suppression of the anarchists and the Trotskyite Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista (POUM). On the Nationalist side internal conflict also existed, especially between the military and the fascists, but Franco was able to surmount it and consolidate his position. Gradually the Nationalists wore down Loyalist strength. Bilbao, the last republican center in the north, fell in June, 1937, and in a series of attacks from March to June, 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean and cut the republican territory in two. Late in 1938, Franco mounted a major offensive against Catalonia, and Barcelona was taken in Jan., 1939. With the loss of Catalonia the Loyalist cause became hopeless. Republican efforts for a negotiated peace failed, and on April 1, 1939, the victorious Nationalists entered Madrid. Italy and Germany had recognized the Franco regime in 1936, Great Britain and France did so in Feb., 1939; international recognition of Franco\'s authoritarian government quickly followed

Documents of volunteers The CNT as I Saw It
by Fenner Brockway (19th July 1937). Before I visited Spain I appreciated highly the part played by the CNT (the Anarcho Syndicalist Trade Union Confederation) in the fight against Fascism and for the Social Revolution; but that appreciation has been enormously increased by actual contact with the organisation and first-hand knowledge of its work. I went to Spain to do what I could to assist the POUM, following the arrest of its leaders and the attempted suppression of the organisation. I expected sympathy from the C.N.T., but I did not feel I had the right to expect more than a general assistance. After all, the C.N.T. and the POUM have a difference of social philosophy which has been historically divisive. The CNT is anarchist. The POUM is Marxist. This has led to differences in policy and even to a certain rivalry in agitation and organisation. The POUM has frequently criticised anarchist tactics and leadership. It has not refrained from seeking to enrol members within the CNT. Under such circumstances it would have been understandable if the CNT had not exerted itself overmuch in the defence of the POUM. But I found no such reservations. To the CNT it was a matter of principle and in the presence of the principle other considerations were forgotten. The POUM had proved the genuineness of its devotion to the anti-Fascist struggle. It had proved its sincerity in defence of the rights of the workers and in preparing the way for the social revolution. It was being unjustly persecuted. That was enough. The CNT did not hesitate for a moment in standing by its side and demanding justice for it. There was a fineness about this attitude which commanded admiration. It was expressed not only in words but in deeds. The Barcelona regional committee at once placed Comrade Augustin Souchy, secretary of the International Department, at my service as interpreter and adviser. It placed cars at my disposal and I travelled over 2,000 kilometres in them. The National Committee in Valencia was equally wholehearted in its support. It sent a courageous protest against the suppression of the POUM to the Government. Comrade Vasquez, the National Secretary, delivered an outspoken speech to a vast meeting at Valencia demanding justice for the POUM. The CNT instructed one of its leading members, Comrade Pabon, to act as defending lawyer for the POUM. This was all done from a sense of proletarian duty to stand for just treatment of another working-class organisation. There were no heroics about this gesture. It was done as a matter of course, as a matter of principle. I could not be other than moved by this evidence of the moral integrity of the CNT. But I learned to appreciate it more than that. I was impressed by the strength of the CNT. It was unnecessary to tell me that it is the largest and most vital of the working-class organisations in Spain. That was evident on all sides. The large industries were clearly, in the main, in the hands of the CNT - railways, road, engineering, textiles, electricity, building, agriculture. At Valencia the UGT had a greater share of control than the CNT than in Barcelona; but generally speaking the mass of manual workers belonged to the CNT. The UGT membership was more of the type of \'white collar\' worker. I was impressed by the outward signs of the power of the CNT. At Barcelona it has taken over the premises of the largest capitalist concern of the pre-July days. It is a monumental building, comparable with the vast structure which is the headquarters of the London Passenger Transport Board at St. James\' Park. At Valencia the CNT occupies the palace of a Marquis of the old regime. Both headquarters are hives of well-organised activities - secretarial, transport, defence, propaganda, organisation, publication, international departments, etc. And these are only the co-ordinating headquarters. Scattered about both cities one saw large buildings occupied by the various Unions - building workers, electrical workers, transport workers, federated in the CNT. I was impressed by the organisation of the CNT membership for full participation in the war against the Fascists - the appeal to its members to join the fighting forces, the response to the appeal to join the Column of Death to replace a regiment which had been wiped out, the literature and posters issued to stimulate the workers to give their all in the struggle against Franco. I was immensely impressed by the constructive revolutionary work which is being done by the CNT. Their achievement of workers\' control in industry is an inspiration. One could take the examples of the railways or engineering or textiles. There linger in my mind less spectacular examples, but equally significant. I think of the film institute in Barcelona. An Italian capitalist concern had decided to erect a technical centre for developing and copying films. July 19th came and the capitalists fled. The workers carried on. They completed the building and now it is working in perfect order. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever entered. The technique of its staff - all CNT comrades - is the equal of that to be found anywhere. I think of a very different example. A small town. There were seventeen separate barber shops. They have united to form a CNT collective. They have taken over a Fascists club. I visited it on a Sunday morning. In a finely panelled hall sat workmen awaiting their turn. In a large club room the seventeen barbers worked, with an equipment as efficient as you would find in a West London or New York establishment. It was wonderful to see this example of co-operation. Most of all I enjoyed my visit to the Agricultural Collective at Segorbe. I must not delay to describe it in detail; but the spirit of the peasants, their enthusiasm, the way they had contributed their stock to the common effort, their pride in it - all was an inspiration. There are still some Britishers and Americans who regard the anarchists of Spain as impossible. undisciplined uncontrollables. This is poles away from the truth. The anarchists of Spain, through the CNT, are doing one of the biggest constructive jobs ever done by the working class. At the Front they are fighting Fascism. Behind the Front they are actually constructing the new Workers\' Society. They see that the war against Fascism and the carrying through of the Social Revolution are inseparable. Those who have seen and understood what they are doing must honour them and be grateful to them. They are resisting Fascism. They are at the same time creating the New Workers\' Order which is the only alternative to Fascism. This is surely the biggest thing now being done by the workers in any part of the world. 19th July 1937.

They fought against Franco\'s fascist forces
They were to be granted Spanish citizenship. ARGANDA, Spain - Most have white hair and some walk with canes, but the international veterans of the Spanish Civil War remain as feisty and idealistic as when they volunteered for battle 60 years ago. \"We fought to defend democracy and defeat fascism,\" boomed Brooklyn-born Milton Wolff, 81, last commander of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, in which about 3,000 Americans participated. Gathered on a grassy plain along the Jarama River south of Madrid 370 former members of the International Brigades that fought General Francisco Franco gathered yester day to commemorate their arrival in Spain and pay homage to those killed in the 1936-39 war. Accompanied by wives, children and friends, the men carried pins and photographs documenting the International Brigades, which often carried the name of a patriot from their homeland. Volunteers came from most European countries, Canada, the United States, Russia, and Mexico. As a tribute, the Spanish parliament will honor the International Brigades today with a letter allowing them to become Spanish citizens. Under a sunny sky, Danes, Yugoslavs, Argentines and British embraced. Some wept. As in the war itself, the language barrier was largely overcome by enthusiasm. During the war, more than 45,000 brigadistas, many without military training, answered the call to defend the liberal government of the Republic against Franco\'s military uprising. About 16,000 of them died in the fighting. \"We always felt as if we were internationalists,\" said Romanian Mihail Florescu, 85, in Spain for the first time since the war. \"Now, we will be as Spanish as we always felt we were.\" Because of an unwritten agreement between political parties in the years following Franco\'s 1975 death, the war is a subject put aside for fear of opening deep wounds. But two elderly Spanish couples attended yesterday\'s commemoration, explaining that that they wanted to thank the international volunteers. \"It was so moving then, and it is so moving now,\" said Eugenio Celis, 84, his eyes welling with tears. \"It really was a worldwide struggle.\" In the mid-1930s, the great threat to to Western democracies was the expansion of fascism, already on display in Germany and Italy. Fearing the same fate for Spain, volunteers from more than 50 countries came to fight. The International Brigades were disbanded and allowed to leave Spain when Franco\'s forces, supported heavily by Germany and Italy, were on the verge of victory. \"That was a very sad and bitter moment,\" said Clare Forester, 81, who left Minneapolis at age 22 to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. \"But we know now that what we did was right. People wanted democracy, not fascism. We can be proud to have fought.\"

A Rebel in Barcelona: Jack White\'s first Spanish impressions (1st pub. November 11th 1936) I came out to Barcelona as administrator of the second British Red Cross Unit. Two nurses and myself came on in advance to find a site for the hospital of the Unit somewhere on the Teruel front. Unfortunately the Unit had been cancelled all except four ambulances which are now en route somewhere between Paris and Barcelona. Some of these ambulances are to go, I believe to the first Unit at Grañen. Till they arrive in any case, I am left with no-one to administrate and nothing to do, so a friend in the CNT-FAI has asked me to write my impressions for broadcast or the press. My first and deepest impression is that of the natural nobility of the Catalan people. I got that impression as early as Port Bou, where we had to spend six hours waiting for the Barcelona train. A bright sun was shining which tempted me to bathe in the bay. After undressing I left my coat, with some 80 English pounds in the pocket, on the rocks close to a frequented path with a sense of its perfect safety. Half an hour in Cataluña and a few conversations in my faulty Spanish had made me feel I was among friends, who appreciated the effort of the British workers and intelligentsia to help their cause. I would not have dared to risk such a large sum of money unguarded at any English watering place. Here I felt it was guarded by the revolutionary solidarity of Cataluña and even of the international solidarity of the working class of which Cataluña is now the bulwark. This impression of revolutionary honour and revolutionary order has been maintained by all I have seen and experienced during the week I have been in Barcelona. On one occasion after a trying morning rushing round after the necessary passes to go on to Valencia - that was before the cancellation of the unit and I wanted to go on to the front to find a place for our hospital as soon as possible - I inadvertently paid my taxi driver four pesetas more than his fare. He brought it back to me remarking \"eso sobra\". This happened as I was entering the door of the Regional Committee of the CNT-FAI, the headquarters of those terrible Anarchists of whose misdeeds we read so much in the Capitalist Press now. I am not going to enter into controversy, philosophic or political, I simply record my experiences, without fear or favour. It is a fact, that the Barcelona churches were burnt, and many of them, where roof and walls are still standing, are used to house medical or commissariat stores instead of, as previously, being used by the fascists as fortresses. I suspect their present function is nearer the purpose of a religion based by its founder on the love of God and the Neighbour. However that may be, the destruction of the churches has not destroyed love and honesty in Spain. If they are not based on the love of God, they are based on brotherliness, selflessness and self respect, which have to be experienced to be believed. Never, till I came to revolutionary Barcelona, had I seen waiters and even shoeblacks refuse a tip. Here the refusal of anything in excess of the exact bill or fee is as invariable as the courtesy with which it is done. This very courtesy makes one feel mean for having offered it, a benighted bourgeois, automatically continuing bourgeois habits and unable to grasp the self- respect of the workers now they are so largely in control. My first day taught me my lesson. I never offend now. You will have heard no doubt about the Dublin Rising of 1916. That rising is now thought of as purely a national one, of which the aims went no further than the national independence of Ireland. It is conveniently forgotten that not only was the manifesto published by the \"bourgeois\" leaders conceived in a spirit of extreme liberal democracy, but, associated with the bourgeois leaders, was James Connolly, the international socialist, who some regarded as the greatest revolutionary fighter and organizer of his day. In command of the Irish Citizen Army, which I had drilled, he made common cause with the Republican separatists against the common Imperial enemy. It is said that he threatened to come out with the Citizen Army alone, if the bourgeois Republicans shirked the issue. It was then the middle of the great war. the rising was ruthlessly suppressed by England and sixteen of the leaders were executed. Connolly himself, badly wounded in the Dublin Post Office which was shelled to ruins by a British gun-boat, was strapped in a chair and shot by a firing-squad before he recovered. Here in Cataluña, the union of the working class and nation starts off under better auspices than were possible in Ireland. In Cataluña the internal socialist reconstruction goes hand in hand with the armed fight against Spanish and international fascism. You are in advance of us in Syndico-Anarchist and Socialist construction. You are advance of us in dealing with the clerico-fascist menace. Again and again in Ireland the revolutionary Republican movement comes a bit of the way towards Socialism, and scurries back in terror when the Roman catholic Church looses its artificial thunder of condemnation and excommunication. I come of an Ulster Protestant family. There is a saying in Ulster (the north-east province of Ireland) \"Rome is a lamb in adversity, a snake in equality and a lion in prosperity\". I am glad that in Cataluña you have made Rome into a lamb. In Ireland Rome is still a lion, or rather a wolf in sheep\'s clothing. The priests inflame the mob and then pretend to deplore the mob-violence which they have instigated. Last Easter Sunday, I had myself to fight for three kilometres against the Catholic actionists, who attacked us on the streets as we were marching to honour the memory of the Republican dead who fell in Easter week 1916. The pious hooligans actually came inside the cemetery and tore up the grave rails to attack us. In Ireland, as in Spain, it was the priests who started methods of fire and sword against the people. yet they complain bitterly when their own weapons are turned against themselves. Comrades of Cataluña! In your hour of trial when you hold the barricades not only for yourselves but for us all, I greet you with the voice of revolutionary Ireland, smothered awhile but destined to regain its strength. I hold myself honoured to be among you, to serve if I can in whatever capacity I can be most useful.

What would I have done? After I read everything the volunteers wrote about the war it is hard to say what I would have done. If I would have lived in France or another Europian country and I was young, I think I would follow those who went to fight fascism. Loads and loads of people had joined the International Brigade so it would be nothing really special and if I would still doubt what to do, the huge crowds who went would convince me. They had the idea of freeing Spain. But after victory was near for Franco they were sent away. This must have been disappointing, it would be for me. After fighting for another country, they must be quite thankful. I would be thinking this if I would still be alive off course. If I had died I had became a heroin, as much as all the others who died. Dying for freedom and against fascism. If I died I hope my part in the war had helped fighting fascism. If I didn\'t die I also hope it did.