I've decided to post on something which I had been researching many years ago, and have been trying to get back into again more recently, especially after having been to an exhibition in Zaragoza last year, while staying with my uncle, it was quite an experience to say the least, when I saw some of the old news films from the time of the Spanish civil war, and exactly what happened in Zaragoza (specifically) but, I'm not going to post on that just yet, but on something else that I had heard about long before, and that is to do specifically with Pais Basco, (the basque country, of north Spain) and in particular the total destruction of "Guernica" which resulted in the emergency evacuation of somewhere in the region of 25.000 Basque children, many of whom became refugees in the United Kingdom, Britain, England, and other countries around the world.
I have been getting into this period of Spanish history again lately, although it is still a touchy subject for many in Spain, but I think it is important to know about some of the kind of things that have happened to many people in Spain, over the course of it's many traumatic centuries, not just for personal reasons, but because I believe it is important to know the country that you are living in, especially if you have decided to be a permanent member of society in Spain, to live your entire life here, like this is your home forever, and there is no going back, and so I think that it is a good idea to know the people, to understand them, and their history, for me this is paramount, (a must do) to understand the psyche of some of these people, what drives them, what motivates them, what secret hidden (and bitter) resentments do they have, there are still some deep seated hatreds in Spain, mostly in the older folk, although some younger Spaniards also have picked up on and still harbor bad feelings on behalf of their older family members, who were made to suffer during some extremely bad times in Spain, and I think it is not such a bad idea to make oneself (at least) aware of some of the more recent events, and so I'm going to post something that (to me) seems to have been slightly 'covered over' in the decades since, and is not widely known about, half as much as I feel it should, and when it is studied a bit by a person, that person starts to learn something more about the Basque people, and all Spaniards of previous decades (shall we say from a while before General Franco and the outbreak of the Civil war) and then start to understand why many of them still think & feel as they do, it's a difficult subject for a foreigner or expat to understand, but not impossible.
Two days ago, on the 26th of April 2007, 70 years to the day, I was watching on British tv, a program about the whole thing, the evacuation, and subsequent repatriation of many of the children years later, because of efforts by General Franco to get them all back, and I was sad at hearing some of the stories about what went on back then, but at the same time, I heard a few happy endings as well, and many of those Basque children were able to stay in England, and now have grand children & large extended families, and are quite happy to have become part of British society.
So here are some links to some of the stories about what happened to the Basque children, and a couple of other links to related articles.
So, there you are, but note, that this is just a very small selection of links to just a few articles, there are of course many thousands of differing accounts on the many events that took place throughout that entire period, and of course Franco saw to it that much of the evidence was destroyed or covered-up in some way, as is always the case in wars, like it seems to me that the thing about the repatriation back to Franco's Spain was very quickly hushed up and forgotten about by many, but those children suffered when they arrived back, in what was a devastated Spanish country and people, and only now am I beginning to understand the Basque people a bit more.
I hope that some of you will be able to find the time to get into this a little, I know you are all busy, you have busy lives etc, and have to work, but so do I, I'm busy every day & every night, no less than you, but I still take time out to do a little research on the place that is to my 'home country' and the the home of my family, so please try and read up on some this very important piece of recent history, I know that you are going to be similarly fascinated (and disturbed) by some of the documented 'facts' and hopefully that will encourage you to do even more historical research into Spain's history, going back to at least the beginning of the Invasion by the Moors in the year 711, or perhaps take it from 1492 onwards, it's all fascinating, well most of it, some of it is pretty bloody & a little sickening, some of the wars were quite literally appalling, but still worth knowing a little about, especially as some of the fiestas in Spain are actually celebrations of Victory over past enemies.
Note: On May 12, 1999, the New York Times reported that, after sixty-one years, in a declaration adopted on April 24, 1999, the German Parliament formally apologized to the citizens of Guernica for the role the Condor Legion played in bombing the town. The German government also agreed to change the names of some German military barracks named after members of the Condor Legion. By contrast, no formal apology to the city has ever been offered by the Spanish government for whatever role it may have played in the bombing.
It was market day in Guernica when the church bells of Santa Maria sounded the alarm that afternoon in 1937. People from the surrounding hillsides crowded the town square. "Every Monday was a fair in Guernica," says José Monasterio, eyewitness to the bombing. "They attacked when there were a lot of people there. And they knew when their bombing would kill the most. When there are more people, more people would die."
For over three hours, twenty-five or more of Germany's best-equipped bombers, accompanied by at least twenty more Messerschmitt and Fiat Fighters, dumped one hundred thousand pounds of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the village, slowly and systematically pounding it to rubble.
"We were hiding in the shelters and praying. I only thought of running away, I was so scared. I didn't think about my parents, mother, house, nothing. Just escape. Because during those three and one half hours, I thought I was going to die." (eyewitness Luis Aurtenetxea)
Those trying to escape were cut down by the strafing machine guns of fighter planes. "They kept just going back and forth, sometimes in a long line, sometimes in close formation. It was as if they were practicing new moves. They must have fired thousands of bullets." (eyewitness Juan Guezureya) The fires that engulfed the city burned for three days. Seventy percent of the town was destroyed. Sixteen hundred civilians - one third of the population - were killed or wounded.
News of the bombing spread like wildfire. The Nationalists immediately denied any involvement, as did the Germans. But few were fooled by Franco's protestations of innocence. In the face of international outrage at the carnage, Von Richthofen claimed publicly that the target was a bridge over the Mundaca River on the edge of town, chosen in order to cut off the fleeing Republican troops. But although the Condor Legion was made up of the best airmen and planes of Hitler's developing war machine, not a single hit was scored on the presumed target, nor on the railway station, nor on the small-arms factory nearby.
Guernica is the cultural capital of the Basque people, seat of their centuries-old independence and democratic ideals. It has no strategic value as a military target. Yet some time later, a secret report to Berlin was uncovered in which Von Richthofen stated, "...the concentrated attack on Guernica was the greatest success," making the dubious intent of the mission clear: the all-out air attack had been ordered on Franco's behalf to break the spirited Basque resistance to Nationalist forces. Guernica had served as the testing ground for a new Nazi military tactic - blanket-bombing a civilian population to demoralize the enemy. It was wanton, man-made holocaust.
Note: On May 12, 1999, the New York Times reported that, after sixty-one years, in a declaration adopted on April 24, 1999, the German Parliament formally apologized to the citizens of Guernica for the role the Condor Legion played in bombing the town. The German government also agreed to change the names of some German military barracks named after members of the Condor Legion. By contrast, no formal apology to the city has ever been offered by the Spanish government for whatever role it may have played in the bombing.
That sickening act of cold blooded murder can never be apologized for by the German government, or the Spanish government, no apology can ever convey any true & genuine remorse, regret, sentiment, or valid meaning, for what was perpetrated on that day in 1937, any apology from any of them only serves to add insult to injury. The word "Holocaust" is not a strong enough term of reference to describe it, not even genocide, or crimes against humanity, all useless terms without any real meaning. They attempted to annihilate the entire population of Guernica, wholesale, and there is no word to describe that, there are no words to describe what they did to those poor people and their children, many of whom were destroyed, old men, women and children, without mercy.
Now are you beginning to understand something about the kind of bitterness that still exists in that country? Pais Vasco.
It's a lovely place, with lovely people, do try and go there this year, and spend some time remembering what happened 70 years ago, go to see the Plaza named in honor of Leah Manning "PLAZA DE MRS. LEAH MANNING".
Inaugurada la plaza Leah Manning en Bilbao
El alcalde de Bilbao, Inaki Azkuna, inauguro ayer en el barrio de Txurdinaga la plaza Leah Manning, denominada asi en honor a la parlamentaria laborista britanica que posibilito la evacuacion de casi 3.900 ninos, 95 anderenos, 120 auxiliares y dos medicos desde Euskadi a Inglaterra durante la Guerra Civil espanola. Manning nunca volvio a Bilbao tras la guerra. Fallecio en 1977.
