The Spanish Civil War - Battleground for Idealists (3/6)

when i see the animals and the dead people in the picture i remember that night when i went along the road to guernica after we left the airaid shelters it was full of dead animals and people covered in sacks dead i've always been filled with emotion to see that woman burning on the balcony with her arms outstretched i think she could be my grandmother picasso's painting for two survivors the town's bombing in the spanish civil war has a personal memory but for nearly 50 years it has echoed in the conscience of the world spain in the 1930s was in many ways still struggling out of the 19th century but it found itself the arena and battlefield for ideologies of the 20th men and women from all over the world fought for dreams of democracy or communism or fascism those ideas were later given a bitter new meaning by the hindsight of global conflict and the cold war do europe in 1936 hitler had been in power for three years mussolini had ruled italy since 1922. in russia stalin had begun the show tries and purges of his enemies democracy everywhere was on the defensive britain and france were fearful of a european war then came the news from spain all this turmoil in turbulent spain and the cost of political energy is death and destruction this unhappy country left into two almost equal camps illustrates all the tragedies of civil war under modern conditions innocent people lose their lives property of law-abiding citizens is wrecked and half the combatants fight half-heartedly for one cause or the other because they're forced to take sides such is the fruit of anarchy of a people divided against itself the new israels as usual had a simple explanation anarchy but in truth spain's crisis confused many an outsider to understand it they translated the peculiarly spanish issues into their own spain became europe's obsession the idea of the spanish liberalism and the spanish workers the spanish people seemed a very passionate and pure cause i remember that my oxford tutor who was a philosophy tutor said that was the only course in his lifetime in which there seemed a complete choice absolute choice between good as represented by the spanish republic and evil as represented by the francoised forces the convictions of europe's left were matched by their enemies on the right renzo lodoli was an italian fascist i thought that in spain it was necessary to defend christianity it was under siege we thought that fascism was valid as a social and political doctrine so it was our duty to go and help those who wanted more or less the same thing as we did and believe immediately both sides sought and found gestures of support from rival sponsors abroad in the liberal democratic world individuals sympathy for the plight of the spanish republic was widespread but practical help from governments was to prove a different matter the army rebels pleas on the other hand were soon answered franco was not at that time at least a fascist he was a conservative monarchist but he was immediately assisted by european dictators who were fascists and so he was inevitably identified with their kind of political despotism nevertheless there is no evidence of any international fascist complicity in the spanish general's original [ __ ] on the contrary in the summer of 1936 hitler's thoughts were far from spain he was building a war machine for his own purposes expansion in the east and the repression of his opponents inside germany hitler promised britain that germany wouldn't get involved in spain it was the first example of double talk in the civil war saying one thing and doing the opposite hitler had already sent aid two days after the spanish uprising franco had appealed to the fuhrer for help after considering the consequence of a communist influence government controlling the strait of gibraltar hitler decided to say not the few anti-aircraft guns and fighters that frank would ask for but a full squadron of juncker's transport planes to airlift the spanish army of africa from morocco one thousand five hundred of these troops were transported to seville to begin their fighting passage to madrid these crack troops of the spanish army were to play a decisive role in the war hitler said later that franco should erect a monument to the yonkers 52 the aircraft that franco had to thank for his victory hitler might have congratulated himself too his help was later rewarded with a constant supply of spanish iron ore this gave him a great advantage in his preparations for the world war that was to follow but in 1936 most people still thought that war could be avoided in 1936 mussolini had not yet become hitler's porn indeed many british hoped italy could become an ally but mussolini's conquest of abyssinian had already shown that he was preparing aggressive expansion he wanted to turn the mediterranean into what he called mari nostrum our sea another italian lake there was a natural challenge at the entrance to that lake throughout the thirties mussolini had dabbled with small-scale right-wing plots to subvert spanish democracy he had modestly financed the leader of spain's fascist party jose antonio and allowed right-wing military groups to train on italian soil in 1934 in a written though informal agreement mussolini had promised to supply arms to spanish monarchist conspirators should they overthrow the republic when the time came after the uprising he supplied twelve bombers the first foreign military hardware to arrive in spain's war while germany and italy supported the army rebels liam bloom the french prime minister of the recently elected popular front government naturally identified with the republican government of spain leon bloom feared france's isolation still haunted by the terrible french losses in the 1914-18 war and already flanked by two fascist powers france certainly did not want to be trapped in a fascist triangle bloom went to london to discuss plans for a collective security treaty with the british before he went he ordered that arms be sent to spain at this meeting with anthony eden the british foreign secretary spain was not officially on the agenda but bloom discussed it anyway on his return to paris he reported the conversation to jul mock a member of his government bloom told me of and the extraordinary non-european stance that both eden and his colleagues were ticking eden told bloom we shouldn't get mixed up in it that even if war broke out in europe over spain england who was distant from all that would remain neutral therefore since france could not count on support from england it would be wise for her to adopt the same position as the english and i think i can recall in london the british national government was worried conservative prime minister baldwin and his ministers were concerned at all cost to avoid another world war and feared it could start in spain alec douglas hume was then a backbencher if uh country out the country began to take part in the war then nobody could see the end of it and it could end up in a big european conflict mussolini was growing around in the mediterranean and making all sorts of trouble japan was restive and of course german realm was in full flood and so we were very apprehensive about getting entangled in any other situation britain's attitude didn't help the french prime minister leon bloom his plan for keeping european peace by protecting spain was also in trouble at home his policy of unrestricted military sales had threatened to split his government a mighty precipitated serious civil unrest he therefore reversed his original decision to send arms to spain and devised another policy to save his face on august 2nd the french cabinet announced that they had decided to appeal urgently to interested governments that are packed of non-intervention the british government supported at this stage by its labor opposition responded eagerly i think france and britain felt exactly the same on this issue we did not want to get embroiled and mr bloom bloom thought of the policy of non-intervention it wasn't a heroic policy at all but nevertheless it was a pragmatic policy as france closed its borders the spanish republic felt let down under international law it was legally entitled to buy arms abroad but non-intervention stopped that no one had ever claimed heroic intention for the policy it was a diplomatic stratagem a framework in which everyone could safely pursue that individual ends they will fight their battles without actually going to war no one thought it could curtail hostilities in spain or even that it should spain provided a safety valve to siphon off the political passions of europe at that time nowadays when you say fascist you think of violence or dictatorship but at that time we youngsters didn't know anything else we have been brought up and educated under fascism we were convinced that it could be a valid formula to solve social problems not all italians were so convinced giovanni pesci being brought up in france his parents have fled there to escape mussolini's italy the fight for the spanish people was also a fight against italian fascism this was the reason i came voluntarily to fight in spain now pasinaria whose real name was dolores ibarruri was a communist member of the spanish parliament her rhetoric rallied worldwide support for the republic from the french people and the french is she finished her speech by saying if spain is defeated the world will be flooded witho and so i a young very young militant of the anti-fascist movement said that i must also go to give my contribution in germany communists have been the first target of hitler's terror and so when hitler made clear his support for franco german communists knew which side they were on sale i believe that for us german anti-fascists it was more poignant than for anybody else we had tangibly experienced hitler thousands of german anti-fascists were already in prisons and concentration camps and we immediately recognized the connection between franco's the politics of economic depression spilled over from the cities of europe to a full-scale battlefield in spain it was mainly communist to travel to do the fighting frank deegan was an unemployed communist doctor from liverpool i believed that if hitler a muslim lady managed to help franco to win then this would be a defeat for the whole labour movement throughout the world we thought you know the fascists of the world were ganging together so a call went out for volunteers to help the republican government the call came from moscow the international committee of communist leaders a common turn organized an international column of volunteers stalin himself however had his doubts he was winning britain and france as allies against the nazi threat and didn't want them scared off by communist intervention in spain he held back from sending arms he did send advisers ambassadors her food when the first russian ship arrived in barcelona initial rapture gave way to disappointment when the consignment turned out to be not the guns that the republic wanted but canned milk the guns only came later meanwhile the italian foreign minister gianno made hitler a burtis garden in germany they agree that their aid to the spanish army rebels had to be increased partly to counter russian aid and partly because hitler had now decided he wanted to go over to the attack against the democracies what had previously been a reflex action a decision to supply spain on request became a concrete policy a joint front against communism a few days after jano and hitler's meeting mussolini was heard for the first time to refer to the rome berlin axes events in spain had drawn italy and germany closer together a step down the path towards the second world war i the world was very different in 1936 america was not the fulcrum of the world's foreign policy decisions still in dogged isolation from europe's affairs roosevelt ignored the spanish conflict and allowed the texas oil company to supply franco with fuel in london the non-intervention powers examined allegations of italian german and portuguese intervention the committee was chaired by the british no one wanted the charges to stick and they didn't from ribenthrop the german ambassador later joked a more appropriate name for the organization would have been the intervention committee nowhere was this intervention clearer than in a battle for madrid until october the skies were dominated by the rebels reinforced by german and italian planes the spanish republican air force was no match until soviet planes arrived just before the soviet aid arrived i had seen a demonstration of women marching along the granville the principal street madrid shaking their fists at the german and italian plains and shouting no pass around they shall not pass two weeks later there was another flight of planes over madrid this time they flew very low and dropped no bombs everyone looking up from the streets suddenly saw they were no longer germans or italians they were russian planes and the crime went up they ran right through the city some nuestras sun the westeros their hours their hours one day we were surprised to see some new machines in the sky and we saw these small ones with snap noses they flew around at a tremendous speed and shot down a nationalist plane occasionally people began to get excited started shouting long live russia they started to hug each other just 15 weeks after the start of the war the republic's capital madrid was on the front line the rest of the republic lay behind the army rebels held the territory north and west of the capital their land offensive began on november 7th with only 25 000 men the nationalists were attempting to capture a city of one million inhabitants franco had made ready lists of people to be arrested having met little resistance so far he could not have anticipated the stubborn reaction of the madrid people no pass around they shall not pass have become the slogan of madrid and indeed of all republic in spain the government on the lago caballero left the capital for the safety of valencia so did many of the population for those who stayed some preparation to defend the city had already been made one of the army officers who stayed loyal to the republic led the defense junta in charge of the overall political and military control of madrid miacca and his staff officers were joined by communist brigade commander enrique lister the population had been prepared politically to receive the enemy with boiling water with oil with anything that came to hand from their balconies the defense of madrid was more thanks to the people of madrid than to the militias people joined up at once they didn't even bother to go home they were given some hand grenades and a rifle and with her ordinary jacket and trousers they got into waiting vehicles or into a tram and went off to fight this was really striking and wonderful it was one of the most wonderful moments of the war everyone in madrid was involved loyal officers staffed the army ordinary people built defenses for the city political parties recruited men for defense militias but most of all an organized army was created however barely trained and equipped ten new brigades of the popular army of regular soldiers mixed with volunteers a naturally a more effective fighting force than the old militia columns the people's resistance was stiffened by the approach of franco's troops and by potent propaganda foreign here the spanish civil war has been remembered for the international brigades this fighting force of forty thousand men was a unique expression of international solidarity there were frenchmen greeks poles italians americans canadians irish czechs australians swedes swiss there were two thousand british 500 of them but died war was already four months old and madrid under siege by the time the first organized volunteers arrived in the city to take up positions at the front one of the first battalions was predominantly germany it was named after ernest telman the leader of the german communist party was in the nazi concentration camp at the time they treated us as if we were russians but only slowly they got to realize we were germans so far madrid had been bombed by germans the condor legion and now suddenly there were germans on their side with a background of military service a life of resistance to persecution that bred political discipline these german communists were an example to the spanish for me seeing them brought the joy of solidarity's warmth also they showed us the things we had to learn not all republicans were so happy about the volunteers in catalonia some anarchists feared their revolution was being taken over by communists they arrested a party of international brigaders arriving from france but in madrid everyone was grateful for any relief from the enemy the international brigaders were rushed up to the front to help their spanish allies resist the rebel army attack there was fighting in the casa del campo a park on the western edge of the city on november 15 1936 the rebels finally broke through madrid's defenses at the point in the university campus overlooking the park the international brigades held the line in the philosophy faculty but two days later the rebels attacked again and occupied part of the clinical hospital the term and battalion found themselves defending one floor of the hospital from the moors on the floor below in this fight there was hardly ever a real front a front which was clearly defined eventually the line stabilized and madrid held out so franco tried a new tactic the civil war became a testing ground for modern weapons it was a foretaste of what was to happen a few years later in london hamburg tokyo and leningrad but until now no city in history have been so sorely tested do so scenes like this on newsreels all over the world confirmed the sympathy that attracted so many people to the republic journalists like ernest hemingway went to report and became propagandists the original complex spanish courses of the war were distilled into the poetic certainties of right and wrong logan phillips now the only communist in the british house of lords went to drive an ambulance steven spender the english poet went with him to look we obsessed by the feeling that this is the supreme cause of our time a cause of poets and of writers the cause of freedom and that unless uh the cause of antithesis was won this fascism was defeated we wouldn't be able to exist as writers like so many british radicals spander at that time was a member of the communist party but he represented the liberal wing of english intellectual thought i think there was a later generation of john conford and julian bell who got killed in spain who felt that they want us to submerge their literature their independence of mind as intellectuals even their existence as intellectuals which was seemed subjective to them within the objectivity of marxism this was the generation of philby and mclean philby was in spain for a while working as a times correspondent with franco's forces in fact he was spying for the russians julian bella developed his marxist ideas at cambridge in the same secret society the apostles which included anthony blunt the threat of fascism had turned a generation of english intellectuals into communists the brutal realities of stalin's soviet union had not yet been made known some people like george orwell however who had gone enthusiastically to fight for the spanish republic came to appreciate in spain the danger of all pervasive totalitarian communism he joined the anti-stalinist party the poom the persecution of the poom by the official communist disillusioned many who thought the republic was a democracy most volunteers though were communists and those who weren't felt isolated i remember going to the uh the front near madrid once and meeting a young man there who's an english public school boy and he said to me well you know i came to spain and joined the international grade because i understood it to be a liberal republican organization and what i found is that it's an entirely communist organization and then he said i would spend the rest of my life every day walking up to that ridge that you wouldn't see a few hundred yards away and that'll be the end of me and he certainly was disillusioned although he accepted this and he did he was killed within six weeks but for many spaniards the soviet union's support seemed a salvation in 1937 teresa palmiers was a member of the socialist youth yes the soviet union sold guns to the government of the legitimate guns republic to barcelona and their ships it brought us this feeling of mythical togetherness which became very solid this comradely solidarity had a hard business edge all the arms were paid for spanish gold reserves have been sent to the soviet union they supply the arms political influence came with them in madrid maraud was sustained by showing epic soviet films like kronstadt celebrating the defense of the soviet revolution of 20 years earlier but the soviet influence was not revolutionary in spanish terms on the contrary the communist party's disciplined approach to fighting the war and keeping order attracted large sections of the middle classes in the republican zone they have been frightened by the rival anarchist revolutionary ambition for the republic at the end of 1936 stalin wrote largo caballero and argued in diplomatic french that the republic should collaborate with liberals and conservative peasants it is necessary to prevent the enemies of spain considering her a communist republic he said stalin remember still needed britain and france on his side they were still not his certain allies against the threat of hitler and in spain hitler's intentions were becoming clear his ambassador formally recognized the franco regime during the battle for madrid and now hitler could hardly afford to let the rebels lose germany increased its aid and sent instructors to train nationalist officers this gave franco's rebels a useful but still not decisive advantage the nationalists were holding about 60 percent of spain but they were short of troops had a stalled enough front of 1200 miles in spite of a dangerous bulge around madrid the republic was holding its ground the nationalist sponsors became impatient particularly mussolini without even consulting franco he began to send large numbers of italian volunteers to spain their first battle was at madaga it was an easy victory it shortened the front and nationalist morale the nationalists now try to encircle madrid first from the south by crossing the harama valley republican reinforcements including international brigades were rushed up to the front line after 10 days the battle has spent itself with heavy losses on both sides that immediately followed another attempt to encircle madrid this time from the north of guadalajara the italians supremely confident after their victory of malaga persuaded franco to let them fight alone on the republican side the italians from the garibaldi battalion of the international brigades took up position against their fellow countrymen headquarters was near the woods if she's there fascists were here here we're italians too giovanni pesci and his comrades had found just what they had come to spain for the opportunity to fight italian fascists to raise their hands very worried and began to cry don't shoot us we are italians too it's not our fault if mussolini sent us here they told us they were sending us to abyssinia we took them prisoner and took them to the command when the republican troops routed the italian opposition mussolini was furious he decided that no italian could return home until they'd won a victory foreign aid on both sides poured into spain at a faster rate than ever before but it was not enough to clinch the war only to prolong it and madrid was now a stalemate he remains until the end of the war two years later so the nationalists switched their offensive to the north the western part of the basque country was still republican it had been separated from the main republican zone since the early days of the war this northern region was a potentially valuable prize in account of its heavy industry and mineral wealth it was a special region in other ways here conservatives were fighting side by side with anarchists and socialists the boss gave the lie to franco's claim that his campaign was a christian crusade the region is the most devout catholic area in the country here people prayed for victory against the nationalists their opposition to franco and support for the republic came from the traditional basque yearning for the home rule of their region so distinctive from the rest of spain the liberal republic recognized that ambition but the nationalists who believed in the unity of spain were determined to crash it the attack began on march 31st the nationalist general muller threatened to raise the region to the ground he nearly succeeded but first the nationalists tried to starve the boss into submission a sea blockade of republican ports posed an embarrassing problem for britain several british merchant ships legally commissioned to deliver food supplies to the republic were stuck in the french port of san juan de luz the british government was reluctant to challenge franco's navy by supplying escorts for their merchantmen despite outcry from the house of commons eden announced that british ships would be protected only outside a three-mile limit of bilbao at the same time the british were secretly negotiating with the nationalists for the output of british-owned mines in spain on april 19 1937 a captain roberts the master of one of those ships the seven seas prey became anxious to leave san jose before his cargo rotted captain roberts defied the british order and said silva bilbao his daughter fifi was on board so 10 o'clock we darkened ship and pulled up anchor and sailed out frantic flashings from the shore and the searchlight was played on us but um father was doing a nelson actually he just shut that eye and we sailed on and there's nothing to it in spite of the warnings of the british government and the threats that bilbao harbour would be mined by the nationalists the seven seas spray arrived unscathed and sailed up bilbao river we were the first in and would tell there's only four days food left for the people everybody was cheering hooters were going it was rather like a ticker tape reception only we were coming up the river and everybody was hanging out from all the windows and waving and cheering it's quite emotional captain roberts and fifi became the bass people's heroes the seven seas spray had exposed the nationalist blockade as a myth and other british merchant ships followed with food supplies but the bars couldn't celebrate for long ten miles behind the front line was the small market town of gonica with a population of seven thousand it was the historic center of vast nationalism the tree of ganika the symbol of bars freedom stood beside the parliament building where traditionally all spanish monarchs had sworn to uphold bas liberties april 26 1937 was market day the market was held where the public gardens of guernica are now everything was normal but then the planes came in the afternoon we were in the industrial zone and over the hills opposite i saw the planes arriving first just once it circled twice but we were used to seeing it do that and fly away no no 10 or 15 minutes later more arranged and we were able to count them eight all in a line i remember them as very black and ugly over and over again i can still hear the noises and we could feel everything smoke and heat came in 43 aircraft mainly german took part in wave after wave of attacks on the small town carbon canal was a squadron leader of the condor legion which bombed the genica of my name i conducted these attacks and operations in the course of my duties as a soldier carrying out my orders without heed for my life at the time we thought we were fighting a war against communism the condor legion might have believed the catholic boss were communists but the spanish high command awarded the attack knew otherwise for both of them gennika's cultural significance was more or less irrelevant it was a military target there was a small arms factory a republican soldier retreating from the nationalist attack had to pass through the town to reach the last line of defense rambu bao the germans claimed that instructions were to bomb the bridge and crossroads at the edge of guernica in order to make the road to bobau impossible in three hours one hundred thousand pounds of incendiary high explosive and shrapnel bombs were dropped on the town little remains standing except the arms factory and the germans main target the bridge events airplanes converted into bombers that is they were equipped with what we called a pot slide underneath the plane it could be retracted during takeoff and landing and lowered during flight and the poor observer had to climb down a tiny ladder into this contraption with his goggles and his flying helmet on and there he had a primitive targeting device and rangefinder the german's excuses don't explain why they did not use acurates took stukadai bombers to destroy their objective the bridge at the edge of ganeca not the fact that they machine gun the fleeing population not the magnitude of the whole operation i can still the force of the blast of heat in my face as i came out all the buildings next to the factories were burning everything on fire the sky was red with reflections two days after the bombing fifi roberts was taken with her father to see the devastation of the town forty-five years later she returned to ganika to revisit the scene she had photographed with her own camera along the road there streams of refugees trudging along i don't think they had any idea where they were going what they were going to do they're on carts wheelbarrows anything that had a wheel that was being pushed and a few of their belongings on it it's rather heartbreaking to see and then when we got into gennika itself there wasn't a building standing there's rubble all over the place nobody to be seen except the odd soldier i think they'd be still looking in the ruins for for bodies luckily we didn't see any but the place was the absolute shambles 72 hours after the raid before the reckoning of destruction could be completed the rebel army arrived at ghanica they immediately began a propaganda offensive as well making sure of guarding the famous bastery of liberty they even tried to put the blame on the bars for destroying their own town some people were even prepared to believe this the nationalists real prize in their head to protect their rich industries the basket built a defensive wall around bilbao a ring of iron but it could not protect the city from intensive bombing with bill powell about to fall the western democracies finally felt free to help the children of republican spaying were catalogued given medical inspections labeled and transported to england france belgium america and the soviet union franco soon broke through bilbao's defenses and seized the region's industries and mines intact soon ships left bilbao with new cargos soon franco was exporting iron ore his clients included germany and britain both countries were to use the captured resources of the republic for their own rearmament program non-intervention either real or phony didn't interfere much with business or prevent the world war that was to follow hmm hmm um blah blah you

Channel: noscman1

Views: 205,127

Keywords: History, Spain, Spanish Civil War, Spanish Revolution, Documentary

Id: ibgvBxGiqp0

Length: 52min 45sec (3165 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 29 2012