FTR #825 Generalissimo Francisco Franco May NOT Be So Dead, After All

FTR #825 Generalissimo Francisco Franco May NOT Be So Dead, After All

POSTED BY DAVE EMORY ⋅ DECEMBER 7, 2014 POST A COMMENT EMAIL THIS POST PRINT THIS POST
TAGS ARGENTINA, AUSTERITY, BND, EU, EUROPEAN UNION, EUROZONE, EUROZONE CRISIS, FALANGIST, FRANCO, GEHLEN, GERMANY, LICIO GELLI, NAZI GERMANY, ODESSA, OPUS DEI, P-2, P-2 LODGE, SKORZENY, SPAIN, SPANISH FASCISM, UNDERGROUND REICH


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Listen: MP3

Side 1 Side 2


General Francisco Franco and Mentor


Franco Supporters in November of 2013

Introduction: Years ago, comedian Chevy Chase intoned on Saturday Night Live’s news broadcast parody that “Generallismo Francisco Franco is still dead.”

That analysis may not apply to his political legacy.

Economically beset Spain has been making aggressive moves toward British-governed Gibraltar, using that principality’s “fiscal irregularities” as justifying Spain’s posture vis a vis the nation’s “EU obligations.”

At the same time, Argentina is making angry noises again about the Falklands Islands, which they claim as their own.

Before delving into the two countries’ coordination of their efforts against Gibraltar and the Falklands, some background discussion is in order.

In a previous post, we discussed the “deep fifth column”–a fascist constellation existing over decades, rooted in the fascism of World War II and perpetuated by the political inertia inherent in powerful political/economic elites.

In the context of the “deep fifth column,” we have also spoken of the Falange, the international fascist organization based in Spain under Francisco Franco and catalyzed as a German-controlled power political entity in the run-up to the Spanish Civil War.

Applying geo-politics to their plans for world conquest, the Nazis saw Spain as the key to their plans for expansion. (See excerpts below from the description for Falange–the Secret Axis Army in the Americas by Allan Chase, as well as the text excerpts from the book itself.)

As Chase wrote: ” . . . By controlling Spain, the Nazis felt they could control both Europe and Latin America. Geographically dominating the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic and “flanking” France, Spain also wielded tremendous influence in Latin America through the strong cultural and economic ties between the Spanish and Latin American aristocracies. In addition, the profound Catholic influence in both Spain and Latin America, augmented Spanish clout in that part of the world. . . .”

Under Francisco Franco, Spain remained an overt fascist dictatorship in Europe through 1975. Although Spain was “officially” neutral during World War II, it was, in reality, an Axis non-combatant, loyal to the forces of Hitler and Mussolini that had elevated Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Prior to, and during, World War II, Argentina was a major Reich outpost, with the most direct, profound connections to the Nazi governmental structure itself. The relationship was so profound, that members of the Argentine Nazi Party members were considered as actual members of the NSDAP! (See The Nazis Go Underground by Curt Riess and text excerpts below.)

For years, Argentina under Juan Peron and later under the junta dominated by Argentinian members of the P-2 Lodge, that country was not only overtly fascist but a major haven for Nazi expatriates and flight capital controlled by the Bormann network.

Both Franco’s Spain and its heirs and Argentina formed key aspects of what Danish journalist Henrik Kruger called “The International Fascista.”
Spain and Argentina are coordinating their efforts and this raises a number of interesting considerations, to be weighed against the very real possibility that we are looking at a “deep falange” in action.

Program Highlights:

Like the other PIIGS countries, Spain has experienced grinding social conditions as a result of German-dictated EU austerity in the wake of the collapse of Spanish real estate and the 2008 financial meltdown. Poverty and deprivation make people more desperate. Mariano Rajoy himself has been fending off corruption charges. Might we be seeing a “let ’em eat nationalism/fascism/aggression gambit by Rajoy?
Rajoy’s rationalization for his actions concerns Spain’s “EU obligations” with regard to financial irregularities. (See text excerpts below.) Might this be German-dictated? Are we looking at a German hand in the “deep Falange glove,” so to speak?
Spain and Argentina are considering a coordinated effort on Gibtaltar and the Falklands. (See text excerpts below.)
Spain is going to sell Argentina some Mirage jets, which might menace the Falklands. (See text excerpts below.)
Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party evolved from Franco’s Falange. (See text excerpts below.)
Rajoy himself appears to have been influenced by his father, a Franco jurist. (See text excerpts below.)
The People’s Party does not appear to have completely cast off the fascist nature of the Falange. (See text excerpts below.)
The continued honors bestowed upon the Blue Division, that fought in World War Ii with the armies of Hitler.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, Franco’s former Minister of Sport for many years, headed the International Olympic Committee for many years. More than half of its current members are his proteges and the Committee retains his personal “stamp,” so to speak.

Program Highlights Include:

1. Years ago, comedian Chevy Chase intoned on Saturday Night Live’s news broadcast parody that “Generallismo Francisco Franco is still dead.”

That analysis may not apply to his political legacy.

Spain is among the most economically and socially beset of the Southern Eurozone countries, with very high unemployment, especially among the young.

Spain has been manifesting an aggressive stance against the British territory of Gibraltar, scapegoating it (in part) for Spain’s fiscal malaise.

Throughout the Eurozone, the German-imposed austerity doctrine has created social conditions fertile to the rise of fascist groups.

In addition to the scapegoating of ethnic minorities for social ills, dire economic straits also facilitate hyper-nationalism–both are staples of the fascist agenda.

It remains to be seen how much of the developed world succumbs to a “Let Them Eat Fascism (and/or Xenophobia and/or ultra Nationalism)” political ethic.

In that context, the political heritage of Mariano Rajoy and his People’s Party are important to bear in mind.

In essence, Rajoy’s PP is a vehicle for the political resuscitation and resurrection of Franco’s fascist Falange.

As can be seen in the article below, the heartbeat of Franco’s fascism remains, long after his has stopped. It is also worth remembering that Spin was the epicenter of a Third Reich government-in-exile in the postwar period.

“Franco’s Legacy Rattles Spain” by Matt Moffett and David Roman; The Wall Street Journal; 12/2/2013.

A series of headline-grabbing incidents in recent months has prompted soul-searching among Spaniards over dictator Francisco Franco’s enduring legacy—and the disruptive potential for extremism to flare at a time of deep economic distress.

Over the summer, several Spaniards posted pictures of themselves holding fascist flags or giving Nazi salutes on social-media sites. In September, a self-described fascist group assaulted a cultural center in Madrid representing Catalonia, a region that was repressed by Franco and is now home to a growing political movement seeking independence from Spain.

A week later an Argentine judge sought the arrest of some Franco-era security officials for alleged crimes against humanity. That was a marked contrast to the passive approach of Spain’s own judiciary, which has left the Franco regime’s abuses unpunished in the interest of preserving the country’s peaceful transition to democracy.

Now some Spaniards worry that the failure to thoroughly confront Spain’s authoritarian past—what has been dubbed “the Pact of Forgetting”—has left the door open to an emergence of extremism in a new generation devastated by years of economic crisis and 50% youth unemployment.

“In these moments of crisis and disappointment with politics, this creates a Petri dish for extremist movements, as they provide simple answers to complex problems,” said Jordi Rodriguez, professor of politics at the University of Navarra.

Esteban Ibarra, president of a group called Movement Against Intolerance, said Spain was experiencing its worst wave of far-right extremism since the mid-1990s, during a previous economic and political crisis. . . .

. . . . In 1977, Spain’s parliament passed an amnesty law that protected officials of the dictatorship and those involved in Civil War-era crimes, including supporters of anti-Franco forces, from prosecution.

Since then, many Spaniards who were sympathetic to Franco were absorbed into the conservative PP, and began to embrace more-centrist positions. That has had the effect of draining the potential membership pool for extreme-right parties, analysts say. . . .

. . . . But the absorption of the Franco legacy into the political mainstream has created some contradictions that bedevil Spain and the PP to this day.

Monuments to Franco and his followers still dot the Spanish landscape, despite a 2007 law that prodded officials to start removing them. “This is the only country where you can be a democrat without being an anti-fascist,” said Rafael Escudero Alday, a law professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University.

That paradox was evident in the recent flurry of photos of young PP activists offering fascist homages. In one of the photos, a small town PP councilman posed at Franco’s burial place holding a fascist banner. In another, a local leader of a PP youth organization is shown making a Nazi salute. . . .

2. Spain continues to honor veterans of the Blue Division, which fought on the Eastern Front with Hitler’s armies.

“The Spanish Government’s Delegate in Catalonia Pays Tribute to Hitler’s Soldiers”; Catalan News Agency; 5/17/2013.

María de los Llanos de Luna, from the People’s Party (PP), gave a diploma of honour to a brotherhood of soldiers and supporters of the ‘Divisón Azul’, a division of Spanish volunteers who fought in the Nazi army on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. De Luna is the top representative of the Spanish Government in Catalonia and she is known for her Spanish nationalism and anti-Catalan identity stance.

The ‘Blaue Division’, the 250. Infanterie-Division of Nazi Germany’s Wehrmacht, represents the main collaboration between Franco’s dictatorship and Adolph Hitler, as well as the Condor Division – which bombed Gernika – and the arrest of Catalonia’s President Lluís Companys by the Gestapo. The 12 members of the brotherhood who attended the diploma ceremony were wearing the Falange uniform, which was the only party allowed during Franco’s Fascist dictatorship, created before the Spanish Civil War. This Fascist party is still legal in Spain. . . .

. . . . The ceremony was commemorating the 169th anniversary of the Guardia Civil (the Spanish Gendarmerie) and took place in one of its barracks in Greater Barcelona (in Sant Andreu de la Barca). The anniversary of the creation of the Guardia Civil, which has historically been a corps linked to Spanish centralist power and the imposition of order – sometimes brutally – had not been celebrated in Catalonia for many years. However, De Luna decided to commemorate this anniversary again in 2013, half a year after 1.5 million citizens peacefully and democratically demonstrated in Barcelona’s streets asking for Catalonia’s independence from Spain. . . .

. . . . The Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party denounced the fact that the Spanish Government has given a €3,500 subsidy to this Fascist brotherhood this year. Alfred Bosch, ERC’s Spokesperson in the Spanish Parliament, asked for a law banning the celebration of any event recognising people linked to the Nazi regime. . . .

3. Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party evolved from Franco’s Falange:

“People’s Party”; Wikipedia.


The People’s Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People’s Alliance (Spanish: Alianza Popular, AP), a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of the Interior and Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. The new party combined the conservative AP with several small Christian democratic and liberal parties (the party call this fusion of views Reformist centre). In 2002, Manuel Fraga received the honorary title of “Founding Chairman”. . . .

. . . . The party has its roots in the People’s Alliance founded in 9 October 1976 by former Francoist minister Manuel Fraga. Although Fraga was a member of the reformist faction of the Franco regime, he supported an extremely gradual transition to democracy. However, he badly underestimated the public’s distaste for Francoism. Additionally, while he attempted to convey a reformist image, the large number of former Francoists in the party led the public to perceive it as both reactionary and authoritarian. . . .

4. One of Rajoy’s influences appears to have been his father–a Franco-era jurist.

“Mariano Rajoy”; Wikipedia.


. . . . While on the campaign trail in 2011, Rajoy published an autobiography, En Confianza (In Confidence), in which he recalled his studious and quiet youth, following a father who was climbing the ranks of Francisco Franco’s judiciary. . . .
5. An area of residual Franco influence is the International Olympic Committee, which was headed for many years by Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was Franco’s minister of sport. More than half of its current members are Samaranch proteges, including his son.

“Meet the IOC, Ideal Candidates for a Perp Walk” by Andrew Jennings; The Nation; 2.10/2014.


Remember that publicity shot from the Usual Suspects with Kevin Spacey in the lineup? The photo above is an update, snapped late last year in the boardroom of the International Olympic Committee, in a marble palace on the banks of Lake Geneva. This lineup has thirteen men, most past middle age, in business suits and ties, and two women—the big cheeses expecting the best seats in Sochi. Dead center is the new IOC president, Germany’s Thomas Bach. We’ll come back to him, but for now, know that Bach, 60, was a protégé of Horst Dassler, the German businessman who bribed more sports officials than most of us ever heard of. Dassler’s family owned Adidas and a marketing company that laid out $100 million in kickbacks to acquire TV and marketing rights to the soccer World Cup, the world track and field championships—and the Olympics.

At Bach’s right shoulder is the Swiss boss of world soccer, Sepp Blatter. For decades, Blatter didn’t notice hefty bribes being trousered by his colleagues in return for giving World Cup contracts to Dassler companies. Accused of handling a $1 million bribe intended for Joao Havelange, former president of FIFA (the international soccer federation) and doyen of the IOC, Blatter hired investigators who reported that there was a misunderstanding and that he was no more than “clumsy.”

Havelange resigned in disgrace from the IOC in December 2011. Blatter survived—despite losing eight of FIFA’s twenty-three executive committee members to scandals in the past three years. An FBI-organized crime squad, now digging into FIFA’s embedded corruption, has a cooperating witness in Miami and probably another in New York. Blatter, scheduled to be played by Tim Roth on the big screen later this year, might not make it to Sochi.

At Bach’s other shoulder is Lamine Diack from Senegal, president of the IAAF (the International Association of Athletics Federations) and also on the Dassler gift list. I disclosed these bribes for the BBC program Panorama in 2010, and a year later the IOC rebuked Diack. But the Lords of Lausanne forgive and forget, so he’s back at the heart of Olympic idealism.

Looming over the diminutive Blatter, smiling broadly, dark curls tumbling around his shoulders, is Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, kingmaker for Thomas Bach. Fahad is the 50-year-old stripling of the group, a past chair of OPEC, a Kuwaiti royal and by far the richest. Committee members seemed unconcerned by a 2008 US embassy cable, disclosed by WikiLeaks, saying he was “widely perceived as being corrupt.”

Next in line and another attentive supporter of the sheik is Patrick Hickey, 68, who has risen from an unremarkable background in north Dublin, his reputation guarded by a sharp-tongued lawyer. In private correspondence in 1991 with one of the bribe payers on the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics bidding committee, Hickey revealed that some IOC members were selling their votes for $100,000 to rival wannabe Olympic hosts from Nagano. At the time, he was gunning for membership in the IOC, but said nothing to its officials. It has done him no harm that he never snitched.

Hickey gets cozy with people many of us wouldn’t invite home to meet our loved ones. Seeking a wealthy patron in Europe to pay for a regional Olympics to mirror the Pan-American Games and not finding any takers among reputable leaders, Hickey turned to the president of the national Olympic committee of Belarus, whose day job is being Europe’s last dictator. Ignoring Belarus’s unenviable doping record, Hickey presented the thuggish Alexander Lukashenko with a plaque commending his “Outstanding Contribution to the Olympic Movement.” But Lukashenko is broke, so Hickey pursued the oil-rich president of the Azerbaijan Olympic Committee, another head of state. A noted kleptomaniac and jailer of reporters, Ilham Aliyev has reportedly offered millions to fund the event in 2015.

A step away—listen up, NHL people!—is a former dentist, René Fasel, now the Swiss boss of international hockey and one of the biggest cheeses in Sochi. Three years ago, the IOC’s Ethics Commission reprimanded Fasel for a curious deal involving the payment of 1.9 million Swiss francs ($2 million) by a Swiss marketing company to a former school pal for “advice” on acquiring winter sport contracts. Fasel vigorously denied palming a slice but admitted “a case of poor judgment.” The CEO of that marketing company, which obtains massive contracts from FIFA, is Sepp Blatter’s nephew Philippe Blatter. The company uses the offices once occupied by the Dassler company.

Thomas Bach, who won a fencing team gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, spent a couple of years working for Dassler’s quaintly named “international relations” team. Days before the vote that elevated Bach to Olympic leadership last September, German TV station WDR aired allegations that Bach was involved in—or at least aware of—cheating in the years when he competed (apparently, if fencers held a wet glove to their electric scoring jacket, their opponents’ strikes didn’t register). Bach refused to comment, but his spokesman denies everything.

On elevation to the Olympic presidency, Bach resigned his chairmanship of Ghorfa, a German-Arab business group that emphasizes its boycott of parts made in Israel to ensure its lucrative exports to the Arab world. An Amnesty International official has criticized Ghorfa’s considerable involvement in arms sales to the region, saying it is “not interested in promoting fundamental human rights.”

After the photo lineup at IOC HQ, Bach sped to the UN and talked up the Olympic Truce, an IOC fantasy that claims its sports extravaganza spreads world peace. Global warriors, take note that combat is forbidden off-piste during February. If this delusion ever came to pass, it would depress Olympic “partners” like General Electric, whose engines power death-dealing F-16 fighters and Apache helicopters.

President Bach is at ease with the likes of GE. From the early 1980s, before joining the IOC, he lobbied for the end of amateurism, the starting point for the privatization of the Games. He became a favorite of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, once sports minister in Franco’s Spain and a thirty-seven-year loyal fascist. I attempted to ask Samaranch why his right arm was more muscular than his left. That got me a seven-year ban from IOC press conferences.

Half of the current 107 IOC members—eight of them princes or princesses—were chosen by Samaranch. His final appointment was his son, Juan Antonio Jr. New members are initiated in a bizarre ceremony, halfway between the style of the mob and the Masons, overseen by the chief of protocol, who used to be Pal Schmitt. He stood down as Hungary’s president in 2012 after being accused of plagiarism and stripped of his doctorate. The IOC removed him as chief of protocol, but he remains a member. The ceremony involves the chief of protocol holding a huge Olympic flag. He swings it down to waist level and the initiate, grasping a corner, swears he (or she) will respect “the decisions of the IOC, which I consider as not subject to appeal on my part.”

Off-camera are other Olympic Committee members: France’s Guy Drut, convicted of fraud but amnestied by former French President Jacques Chirac; Lee Kun-hee, the Korean boss of Samsung, who was convicted of evading $39 million in taxes—but Samsung is an Olympic sponsor and so Lee was forgiven. Then there’s Russian member Shamil Tarpischev, once Yeltsin’s tennis coach. He has problems traveling to the United States: for the past two US Games, in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, his visas were delayed, and then his travel was restricted to the area of the event. In Russia, Tarpischev has been accused of mafia associations—which he denies. It has not helped that he has been photographed with Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, the Russian mobster accused by the US government of fixing the ice dance medal at Salt Lake City. And Princess Nora of Liechtenstein’s secretive family bank has long been the choice of tax felons and money launderers.

6. Perhaps implementing a policy of “let ’em eat fascism (or nationalism),” Spain is rattling sables at the tiny British territory of Gibraltar, accusing it of “tax irregularities.”

“Spain Threatens Escalation of Gibraltar Row” by Damien McElroy; The Telegraph [UK]; 8/4/2013.


Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, Spain’s foreign minister, said a row over fishing rights around Gibraltar would force Madrid into new punitive measures.

The Spanish authorities have already provoked the British territory by imposing crossing restrictions at the border on successive days last week.

After long queues last week, the Foreign Office called in the senior Spanish diplomat in London who was given a dressing down.

In the wake of that meeting, Madrid said it would toughen its stance yet further.

“The party is over,” Mr Garcia-Margallo told ABC newspaper as he unveiled proposals for a €50 (£43) border crossing fee and tax investigations of thousands of Gibraltarians who own property in Spain.

Mr Garcia-Margallo said the Spanish tax authorities would investigate property owned by around 6,000 Gibraltarians in neighbouring parts of Spain, as part of its EU obligations to control “fiscal irregularities”.

Spain was also considering closing airspace to planes heading for the airport in Gibraltar and changing rules to wring taxes from online gaming companies based in Gibraltar. . . .

7. More about the Spanish pressure on Gibraltar:

Spain to Take ‘All Necessary Measures’ to Defend Gibraltar Interests” by Steven Swinford and Ben Farmer; The Telegraph [UK]; 8/9/2013.


Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Spain will take “legal and proportional steps” after Britain sent a rapid reaction force of warships to visit the island’s waters.

Mr Rajoy’s comments appear to echo the language of the United Nations Charter, which uses the phrase “all necessary measures” to authorise the use of military force.

Tension between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar’s sovereignty have intensified following a row over fishing rights and the imposition of punitive border checks.

Britain is sending a force of nine vessels, led by the helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious and including two frigates, to sail for the Mediterranean on Monday for the start of a four month deployment. Three of the ships, including HMS Westminsters, will actually dock in Gibraltar. . . .

8. Argentina and Spain may be joining forces in pressuring the UK over both Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.

“Gibraltar: Spain considers joint Diplomatic Offensive with Argentin­­­a over Falkland Islands” by Fiona Govan; The Telegraph [UK]; 8/11/2013.


Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo will use a trip to Buenos Aires next month to raise the possibility of forging a joint diplomatic offensive with the South American country over the disputed territories, sources told Spain’s El Pais newspaper.

Spain’s foreign ministry was also discussing whether to take its complaints over Gibraltar to the United Nations, the newspaper reported on Sunday.

The sources did not specify whether Spain would ask the UN to back a request for Britain to give up sovereignty or just adhere to certain agreements.

It could take its petition to the Security Council or take up the matter with the UN General Assembly.

Spain is also considering the option of denouncing Gibraltar to the International Court of Justice in the Hague for its “illegal occupation” of the isthmus – the strip of land connecting the peninsula to the mainland that was not included in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. . . .

9. As part of the joint Spanish/Argentine pressure on the Falklands and the UK, Spain will be selling Argentina some Mirage combat jets.

“Falklands Alert as Argentina Strikes £145 Million Deal for 20 Mirage Warplanes” by Nick Dorman ; The Mirror [UK]; 8/4/2013.


Argentina has launched a new round of sabre-rattling against Britain by buying a squadron of warplanes to be based within striking distance of the Falklands, the Sunday People has revealed.

President Cristina de Kirchner – who wants the UK to hand over the disputed islands – personally agreed the £145million deal to buy 20 second-hand Mirage F1 jets from Spain.

The 1,453mph aircraft carry a fearsome array of weaponry including smart bombs.

Argentina’s move could force the Ministry of Defence to bolster Britain’s presence in the south Atlantic, even though its budget is to be slashed by £875million in 2015.

Senior officers believe Argentina could now begin a campaign of ­“pester patrols” – flights towards the Falklands to test RAF responses.

Kirchner is thought to be trying to boost her nation’s military capability in a show of strength before elections which are due in 2015.

But last night a senior RAF source said: “If the Argentines start playing games and escalate the tension, we will see more RAF aircraft being deployed to the Falklands.” . . . .

10. Argentina was a critical outpost of Nazism, with Argentine Nazis being, in effect, members of the NSDAP–the German Nationalist Socialist Workers’ Party.

The Nazis Go Underground by Curt Riess; Doubleday, Doran and Company, LCCN 44007162; pp. 143-144.


. . . . All of the more than 200,000 Argentine Nazis are members, not of an Argentine suborganization of the Nazi party, but of the German party itself, and hold membership cards signed by Robert Ley, leader of the German Workers’ Front— which means, quite obviously, that Berlin considered, and still considers, Argentina not so much an independent foreign country as a German Gau. . . .

. . . . Main points of support in the long-range Nazi strategy in Argentina are the countless German schools there. These schools have the same rights and privileges as Argentina’s. In them the children of German immigrants not only learn the German language but are taught Hitlerism pure and simple. The books used in these schools are “donated” by the German Embassy. Hitler’s picture hangs in every classroom. “Heil Hitler” is the obligatory greeting. The pupils are forbidden to speak to Jews. They are told that the Germans belong to a race superior to other races; that they have been chosen to dominate other nations; that the National Socialist culture is superior to all other cultures; that democracy is a lie; that—and this may be the most important of all—every German must stick to the National Socialist idea “whether it wins or loses.”

These schools have been in operation for ten years now. They number among their former pupils a great many of the most active Nazi agents in South America today. And the teachers do not restrict their activities to German schools. They also teach foreign languages in Argentine state schools, and thus command an influence over the cultural life of the nation from which the Nazis have profited and from which the Nazi underground will profit. All these Nazi teachers must, in fact, be regarded as full-fledged agents. So effective has been their influence that some of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Argentina have for some time been sending their children to German schools because, they say, the latter are so much better than the state schools. . . .

11. The program details analysis of the decisive role the Falange played in German and Third Reich geopolitics:

Falange–The Secret Axis Army in the Americas by Allan Chase; (Book description and text excerpts)


In 1936, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering—one of Hitler’s top aides and the head of the Luftwaffe—observed that “Spain is the key to two continents.” Goering was enunciating a key principal of German and Nazi geopolitics. By controlling Spain, the Nazis felt they could control both Europe and Latin America. Geographically dominating the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic and “flanking” France, Spain also wielded tremendous influence in Latin America through the strong cultural and economic ties between the Spanish and Latin American aristocracies. In addition, the profound Catholic influence in both Spain and Latin America, augmented Spanish clout in that part of the world. (In FTR#532, we examined the Vatican’s involvement with fascism. The Vatican/Fascist axis was another major contributing factor to the influence of the Falange throughout the Spanish-speaking world.)

In order to utilize Span’s geopolitical influence as a tool for Nazi imperial designs, the Third Reich turned to General Wilhelm von Faupel and his Ibero-American Institute. Von Faupel was a bitter opponent of the Weimar Republic, and readily accepted the Nazis as the antidote to German democracy. Known as an “I.G. General” for his links to the I.G. Farben company, von Faupel also maintained close ties to the powerful Thyssen interests which, like Farben, were the powers that backed Hitler. (The Bush family were also closely linked to the Thyssens.) During the 1920’s, von Faupel had served as a general staff adviser to the Argentine, Brazilian and Peruvian military establishments and was famed throughout Latin America for his skills as an officer. Because of his Latin American ties and his links to the corporate interests that backed Hitler, von Faupel became the Reich’s point man for the fascist takeover of Spain and subsequent construction of a Fifth Column throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

In 1934, von Faupel assumed control of the Ibero-American Institute, an academic think tank originally founded as a legitimate scholarly institution. Under von Faupel, the organization became a front for organizing the Nazi infiltration and conquest of Spain. Rejecting royalist and Catholic sectarian rightist parties, von Faupel and the Nazis settled on the Falange as their chosen vehicle for gaining dominance over Spain. After arranging the assassination of General Jose Sanjurjo (a royalist rival for the leadership of Spain after the overthrow of the Republican government), the Germans and their Italian allies installed Franco as head of the fascist Falange.

” . . . General Jose Sanjurjo, wearing a peacock’s dream of a
uniform-the London-made gift of Adolf Hitler-boarded
a Junkers plane in Lisbon and ordered his pilot, Captain
Ansaldo, to take off for a secret landing field in Spain. But
on July 17 the old general was actually headed for another
landing field his Nazi comrades had chosen without his
knowledge.

A few remarks he had let slip to intimate friends in Estoril
earlier that year had, unknown to Sanjurjo, reached certain
Berlin ears. On April I 3, 1936, for instance, Sanjurjo had
complained, “They want me to start a revolution to serve
the bankers and the speculators, but I won’t do it.” Two
weeks after saying this, he made another trip to Berlin. He
remained in Germany for only a few days, and on his return
he went to work in earnest on his plans for the pending
revolt. What happened in Berlin while Sanjurjo conferred
with von Faupel is of little moment now. His fate had already
been sealed before the visit.

Very shortly after Sanjurjo’s plane took off from Lisbon,
a German time bomb planted in the baggage compartment
exploded. The blazing fragments of the Junkers monoplane
became the pyre of the Anointed Chief of the Spanish Revolution.
Jose Sanjurjo had the dubious honor of being the
first of the Nazis’ million victims of the Spanish War. . . .”

Falange; pp.20-21.

Von Faupel then proceeded to direct the construction of the “Falange Exterior” as the fascist Fifth Column movement throughout the Spanish-speaking world (including the Philippines).

Author Chase describes the Falange Exterior on page 31 of Falange:

“. . . . On the surface, von Faupel had—in the Falange Exterior—delivered to the Third Reich a remarkable network, extending from Havana to Buenos Aires, from Lima to Manila. This network, according to its creator, was capable of concerted espionage, political diversion, arms smuggling, and anything that any other Fifth Column in history had accomplished. It remained only for the Wehrmacht to give von Faupel’s instrument the tests which would determine whether the Auslands Falange had been worth all the trouble its organization had entailed. The answer was soon provided by a number of Falangists—among them one Jose del Castano. . . .”

12. The profound relationship between the postwar Nazi underground and the Spanish intelligence services is exemplified by the influence of ODESSA kingpin Otto Skorzeny on the DGS. It is in this context that one should view Siaisa’s relationship with Spanish intelligence. (For more about Skorzeny, his relationship with the Reinhard Gehlen spy outfit and the postwar Nazi underground, see—among other programs—FTR#558.)

The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence and International Fascism; by Henrik Kruger; South End Press [SC]; Copyright 1980 by South End Press; ISBN 0-89608-031-5 [paper]; p. 205.

“ . . . Gehlen sang to the tune of more than one piper, having remained in touch with the old Nazi hierarchy, relocated in Latin America, whose coordinator, Otto Skorzeny, was in Spain. Skorzeny had infiltrated the Spanish intelligence agency DGS, and effectively controlled it single handedly. .

http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-825-generalissimo-francisco-franco-may-not-be-so-dead-after-all/ 

. .”

La 'Capilla Gitana' de Helios Gómez, semilla de un museo de arte político en La Model

Oculto en una celda cerrada y bajo una capa de pintura, la prisión del Eixample alberga el único mural que queda del artista, impulsor del cartelismo catalán

La cárcel Model de Barcelona ocupa tres hectáreas y equivale a dos manzanas del Eixample Àlex Garcia

MERITXELL M. PAUNÉ | 

Coordinadora de les seccions locals i redactora de BCN

"No sé porqué Barcelona no quiere a Helios", suspira su hijo. "Quizá porque era gitano. O quizá porque sus carteles son demasiado vigentes", remacha.



Cartel de Helios Gómez 'Es lebe 1.Mai' (1933), sobre el Día del Trabajo, realizado en Moscú Del libro 'Helios Gómez, la révolution graphique', de ACHG / Association Mémoire Graphique.

Empieza el lento vaciado de la Model de Barcelona
El cierre de La Modelo empezará en 2015 y la nueva cárcel estará al sur de Barcelona
Trias descarta Trinitat Vella para alojar una prisión
Trinitat Vella se niega a acoger el centro abierto de la Modelo
"La cárcel Modelo ha superado con creces su fecha de caducidad"
Arte después de la guerra
El cartel, un patrimonio cultural español que pierde fuerza
Fallece Carles Fontserè, el último exponente vivo del cartelismo republicano

El cierre de la prisión Model ya está en marcha, aunque no esté claro el calendario ni el futuro uso de esta enorme parcela del Eixample. Tras el anuncio de la nueva fecha de clausura, vuelve a aflorar la reivindicación de convertir una de las seis galerías en un museo de arte social o político, que tendría como joya central la obra completa de Helios Gómez (Sevilla 1905 - Barcelona 1956). La Capilla gitana, como se la conoce popularmente, es el único mural que ha sobrevivido de este controvertido artista de los años 30 y 40, impulsor del cartelismo republicano en Catalunya y España. La obra, un encargo del párroco de la prisión, resiste precariamente en una celda cerrada, escondida bajo una capa de pintura blanca desde 1996. Apenas media docena de los trabajadores penitenciarios de la Model conocen su existencia.
La Asociación Cultural Helios Gómez reclama al Ayuntamiento de Barcelona dignificar y abrir al público este legado y promete ceder gratuitamente toda su colección si la capital catalana habilita al fin un espacio de exposición para el cartelismo catalán. Ya recibió una oferta para trasladar y exponer el fondo en Madrid, que rechazó por la vinculación profesional y sentimental del artista con la ciudad. "Hemos expuesto la obra de Helios en ciudades de media Europa, pero en Barcelona no hay manera, no lo entendemos", se queja Gabriel Gómez (Barcelona, 1943), presidente de la entidad y único hijo del autor.
En la actualidad no hay ningún equipamiento en Barcelona centrado en divulgar las mejores obras y autores del cartel propagandístico catalán y español, una producción de sobrado reconocimiento internacional y que tuvo una notable influencia artística y política durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la Guerra Fría. Quizá el más especializado sea el modesto archivo-biblioteca que la UB tiene en el Pavelló de la República, en Vall d'Hebron, donde pueden verse una veintena de carteles de la época –uno es de Helios Gómez– y que almacena una importante colección gráfica. Pero, como reconocen sus responsables, "es un edificio pequeño, sin espacio para realizar exposiciones".
"La Model, por su simbolismo y versatilidad arquitectónica, es el mejor sitio para exponer las obras de este periodo y además es una oportunidad para el turismo cultural", sostiene Gabriel Gómez, que es interiorista de profesión y ha comisariado numerosas muestras sobre su padre. Apunta que así la ciudad ganaría "un nuevo espacio y un nuevo tema en el circuito expositivo", situado entre Montjuïc y el centro, "con el aliciente de una historia tantos años escondida". Por ello, ofrece a las autoridades catalanas realizar una exposición para testar si un museo de arte político-social suscitaría suficiente interés: "Sólo pido a los señores Mas, Mascarell y Trias que nos dejen un local en condiciones para exponer una selección de la obra de Helios Gómez, ya verán como la visitan muchísimos barceloneses y también turistas, habría cola para entrar". La selección que mostraron el año pasado en el Saló del Còmic de Barcelona tuvo muy buena acogida.
GénesisEl museo que plantean no surge de la nada. A finales de los 90, la amenaza de la venta del terreno para edificar pisos activó una notable oposición ciudadana. La reivindicación concreta de habilitar un museo nació en círculos intelectuales próximos al Ateneu Barcelonès, sumó la pericia de la asociación SOS Monuments –capitaneada por Salvador Tarragó– y cristalizó en las protestas de la plataforma La Model per la Cultura –que cortaba la calle Entença cada semana–. Contó con el apoyo de numerosas personalidades catalanas, como Antoni Tàpies, Joan Manuel Serrat, Josep Maria Huertas Clavería, Lluís Permanyer, Abel Paz, Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira o Teresa Pàmies.
Los ánimos se apaciguaron en mayo del 2000, cuando el Ayuntamiento se comprometió a conservar la estructura panóptica de la cárcel para darle un uso cultural y derribar los muros y edificios no originales para convertirlos en unos Jardines de la Libertad. Con el paso de los años y al encauzarse la vía institucional, la reivindicación se diluyó. La actual generación de jóvenes activistas apenas la recuerda y desconoce por completo la obra de Helios Gómez.
La cuarta galeríaEl proyecto de museo, que incluso cuenta con dossieres y esbozos, imagina la reconversión de toda la cuarta galería de la Model –unos 1.400 m2 repartidos en tres plantas y con acceso desde los jardines– en un centro de exposición y documentación. En su interior está la Capilla Gitana (1950) –que sería restaurada–, pintada por el autor libertario-comunista durante su última estancia en la Model (1948-54), cuando fue encarcelado sin juicio bajo la acusación de asociación y propaganda ilegal. Ya había estado en la prisión del Eixample en 1930, a raíz de una detención masiva de activistas políticos de la ciudad, estancia durante la que entabló amistad con el futuro presidente Lluís Companys.
El espacio mostraría las obras y permitiría almacenar en buenas condiciones la numerosa documentación (prensa, fotografías, efectos personales, manuscritos…) recolectada por la Asociación Cultural Helios Gómez. "Aportaríamos todo el fondo de Helios Gómez y empezaríamos la recuperación de la producción dispersa del resto de cartelistas del Sindicato de Dibujantes Profesionales (SDP)", explica Gabriel Gómez. "No pretendemos ningún beneficio, sólo queremos que no se pierda este legado que costó tanto rescatar y que sirva para explicar a nuestros hijos y nietos la historia social del país", añade.
El culebrón del cierre de La ModelSegún el calendario oficial, la Model será clausurada en 2016, tras un vaciado que empezó en marzo de 2014 y prosigue con gran discreción. Los últimos en irse serán los presos preventivos –1.262 actualmente–, que deben permanecer en Barcelona ciudad o proximidades por los continuos viajes ala Ciutat de la Justícia. El principal obstáculo para que se cumpla la fecha es la incierta construcción de los dos centros penitenciarios –uno en la Zona Franca y otro cerca del Besòs– que relevarán a la Model y que aún no tienen terreno asignado.
El actual Ayuntamiento de Xavier Trias (CiU) no secunda la lista de equipamientos que Jordi Hereu (PSC) pactó con los vecinos del Eixample en 2009, pero no parece nada dispuesto a abrir este debate en los ocho meses que quedan de mandato. "Yo tengo mi idea de qué debe ir en este terreno, que no tiene nada que ver [con la hoja de ruta de 2009], pero no lo explicaré todavía", reconoció el propio alcalde hace un año a LaVanguardia.com. Preguntados este septiembre, portavoces municipales se limitaban a responder que "está todo muy abierto", que de momento la prisión "es propiedad de la Generalitat" y que cualquier propuesta "se consensuará con los vecinos". Sobre la Capilla gitana se acogen a la casilla No sabe / No Contesta.
"Consiguió que la historia les olvidara"Nombres hoy aclamados internacionalmente como Carles Fontseré o Max Aub quedarían cojos sin la influencia estética e ideológica de Helios Gómez, que impulsó el cartelismo político catalán como fundador y primer presidente del Sindicato de Dibujantes Profesionales (SDP). Sin embargo, su huella ha quedado completamente difuminada. En la Model de forma literal. "El Franquismo silenció de tal forma a aquella generación de artistas comprometidos que consiguió que la historia les olvidara por completo, incluso en democracia", lamenta Gabriel Gómez. Él mismo conoció la trayectoria artística de su padre en los años 80, gracias a lo que le contaron artistas clandestinos e intelectuales que le conocieron de jóvenes.
Santi Barjau, responsable de la sección de Gráficos del Arxiu Històric de Barcelona yespecialista en cartelismo catalán, subraya el valor artístico del creador sevillano, sobre el que asegura que "hay un consenso académico claro": "Fue uno de los dibujantes políticos más importantes de la época, porque su estilo era muy particular, muy vanguardista; viajaba mucho y estaba en contacto con las nuevas corrientes de los años 30 en Alemania, Austria, Bélgica, Francia…". "Por eso la primera monografía sobre él la publicó una investigadora alemana, Ursula Tjaden", añade. "La mayoría de sus dibujos son a una tinta [en blanco y negro] y se publicaban en la prensa de la época, aunque también publicó algunos álbumes de ilustraciones", explica Barjau.
Elaboraba viñetas y cabeceras para periódicos y revistas, escribía poesía, diseñaba panfletos sindicales y portadas de libros y realizó las decoraciones murales del Jazz Colón y la Residència Sant Jaume [ambas desaparecidas]. También diseñó la puesta en escena del multitudinario funeral de Durruti en 1936. Barjau, que es doctor en historia del arte, lamenta que "las instituciones no hagan caso a alguien que les propone una exposición así" y advierte que "hay docenas de cartelistas de los años 30 aún más olvidados que Gómez".

Dónde ver obras de Helios Gómez

- En el CRAI - Pavelló de la República (Vall d'Hebron): entre los carteles expuestos en la biblioteca hay uno del autor. Dos más están en depósito pero son consultables.
- En el MNAC: posee una treintena de obras de Helios Gómez. A partir de octubre de 2014, lanueva presentación de las salas de Art Modern alargará la barrera cronológica del museo hasta 1950 y permitirá ver tres piezas del autor: el cartel L'Opinió (1936), el libro Viva Octubre! integrado por 24 grabados y la pintura Evacuación (1937), que formó parte del pabellón de la República Española en la Exposición Universal de París de 1937, junto al Guernica de Picasso. En el almacén quedarán dos pinturas más y un dibujo.
- En la estación de tren de Granollers: un muro lateral acoge una composición de grandes dimensiones, Días de tinta y pólvora. Obra de Ricard Geladó, sintetiza varios dibujos que formaban parte de la serie Días de Ira.
- En el Museu de l'Exili de La Jonquera, hasta el 9 de noviembre: exposición monográfica temporal sobre el autor y su obra. Con numerosos dibujos tamaño cartel de sus series más destacadas y proyección de los documentales del IVAM de Valencia (sobre Helios Gomez) y de lacampaña en defensa de la Model.

Barcelona | 08/09/2014 - 00:06h | Última actualización: 12/09/2014 - 17:24h

conscience and conflict british artist and the spanish civil war

The Spanish Civil War (1936–39) was one of the most significant European conflicts of the twentieth century. Stretching far beyond an internal political clash between the Republicans and General Franco's Nationalists, it united a generation of young writers, poets and artists in political fervour. In aesthetic terms the artistic response crossed boundaries between Surrealists and abstract artists such as Barbara Hepworth and SW Hayter, and figurative artists such as Ursula McCannell and James Boswell. This exhibition focuses on the impact of the Spanish Civil War on British visual artists such as Edward Burra, Wyndham Lewis, Henry Moore and John Armstrong, examining them alongside international artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. The Spanish Civil War (1936−39) was one of the most significant conflicts of the Twentieth Century. It went beyond being an internal conflict between the left-wing democratically-elected Spanish Republicans and General Franco's Nationalists on the right to being a battle-ground for ideas in the years before the Second World War.Described by Stephen Spender as 'the poets’ war', the Spanish Civil War inspired memorable accounts by writers such as W.H. Auden, Laurie Lee, and George Orwell but until now the extraordinary response of British artists has been largely untold. This is the first exhibition to explore how a generation of British artists in the 1930s were drawn to engage in the complex political issues of the conflict, some by travelling to Spain to join the fight against Fascism, others by designing posters for relief campaigns, or creating powerful and moving visual commentaries on the humanitarian situation created by the war. It united artists working in a variety of artistic styles from realism to abstraction, from the Bloomsbury Group to the Surrealists, and this exhibition accordingly presents artworks in all media: painting, design, printmaking, photography, textiles and sculpture. It also considers the impact of iconic works by international artists on British art, such as Pablo Picasso’s celebrated anti-war painting ‘Guernica’ which was exhibited in Britain in 1938-9 This exhibition marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and features loans from a range of public museums and private collections in Britain and abroad, including works that have not been seen in public for many years. We are hugely grateful to all the lenders, sponsors and supporters of this exhibition. The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of talks, events, performances, poetry recitals and creative workshops and will tour to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from March to June 2015.A catalogue written by the exhibition’s curator Simon Martin, with a foreword by Professor Paul Preston, is available from the Pallant Bookshop.

The Spanish Civil War as an Inspiration to Later Artists

The Spanish Civil War as an Inspiration to Later Artists

R.B. KITAJ (1932–2007), La Pasionaria, 1969, Oil on canvas, Private Collection

In 1939 the British Government formally recognised General Franco's Nationalist Government in Spain. Franco established an autocratic dictatorship, Francoist Spain, a totalitarian state of which he remained leader until his death in 1975, at which point the Spanish monarchy and democracy were restored. The philosophical and political issues raised by the Civil War continued to fascinate artists in the decades following the conflict.

The American artist R.B. Kitaj was a regular visitor to Catalonia in the 1960s and 1970s and created a series of paintings and prints investigating themes and subjects from the Civil War, such as his painting 'La Pasionaria' of the Republican heroine and orator Dolores Ibárruri whose slogan ¡No Pasarán! ('They Shall Not Pass') had become famous after the Battle of Madrid. Kitaj produced a number of screenprints featuring the covers of books published during the Spanish Civil War. Others such as the artist Ron King have returned to the imagery of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ to explore modern conflict and political situations.

Helping them to Forget: Spanish Refugees and Prisoners

Helping them to Forget: Spanish Refugees and Prisoners

• 
  

ANNE ACLAND, Help them to Forget: Poster for the Basque Children's Committee, 1937, Off-set lithograph on paper, Courtesy of the People's History Museum  

Following the bombing of Guernica and other Basque cities in May 1937 the steam ship Habaña arrived at Southampton carrying 4000 Basque children and their teachers who were housed in tents in a refugee camp at North Stoneham in Hampshire. The lives of these children were memorably recorded in the photographs of Edith Tudor-Hart, a pioneer in British documentary photography. Groups of the Basque children were accommodated in hostels across the South of England including at Worthing, Hove and Lord Faringdon's home at Buscot Park in Oxfordshire. Over 400 remained in Britain after the war ended and stayed permanently.

After the victory of the Nationalists in April 1939, over 500,000 Spanish refugees fled over the border into France and were interned in camps. These inspired moving paintings of refugees by the child prodigy Ursula McCannell who had visited Spain in the months before the war broke out in 1936. Seeking to raise funds for the refugees and prisoners Henry Moore produced a screenprint called ‘Spanish Prisoner’. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the print was never editioned or sold. However its imagery had a clear impact on his later work as one of the leading Official War Artists in the wider European conflict.

Amongst the Ruins: Guernica and the Threat of Bombing

Amongst the Ruins: Guernica and the Threat of Bombing

• 

ANONYMOUS What are you doing to prevent this?, November 1936- May 1937, Half- tone, lithograph on paper, Manuel Moreno  

The bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937 by the German Condor Legion on behalf of Franco's Nationalist forces led the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso to paint his iconic painting 'Guernica' within a few weeks of the atrocity. Without doubt the most famous artwork to emerge from the Spanish Civil War, it was exhibited first at the Spanish Republican Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition from July 1937, where it was visited by many British artists, and subsequently exhibited with the preparatory studies at the New Burlington Galleries in London in October 1938, and at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in January 1939 and then a car showroom in Manchester. The British exhibition was in aid of the Joint Committee for Spanish Aid and was organised by the Surrealist artist Roland Penrose, who had purchased the visceral 'Weeping Woman' directly from Picasso.

Picasso's powerful depiction of the terror of war provoked much discussion and had a profound influence on the imagery of British artists such as paintings by Merlyn Evans and sculptures by F.E. McWilliam and Henry Moore. The bombing of civilians in Spanish cities caused considerable concern amongst many in Britain. The artist John Armstrong depicted the ruins of bombed domestic buildings,  whilst in 1937 the German émigré Walter Nessler expressed his fears about  the bombing of London in his painting ‘Premonition’. These fears about aerial bombardment also led to the increased activities by the Air Raid Precaution organization (ARP) in the lead-up to the Second World War.

We Ask Your Attention! The British Surrealist Group Takes Arm

We Ask Your Attention! The British Surrealist Group Takes Arms





Photograph of the Surrealist artists Roland Penrose, James Cant, Julian Trevelyan and T.Graham wearing masks of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made by McWilliam in the May Day Procession, 1938The celebrated International Surrealist Exhibition took place in London in June 1936, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The history of the British Surrealist movement was subsequently closely linked with the conflict. In October 1936 the artist Roland Penrose travelled to Catalonia with the editor Christian Zervos and the Surrealist poet David Gascoyne to report on efforts to preserve Catalan art. Through his friendship with Pablo Picasso and other continental Surrealists Penrose played a central role in mobilising British artistic responses to the Civil War.

Although their artworks featured more subtle and dreamlike imagery when compared to the directness of the posters and paintings by their realist contemporaries, the British Surrealist Group issued a number of directly political Declarations on Spain calling for arms for the people of Spain (a criticism of the British Government’s non-intervention policy) and calling on people to ‘INTERVENE IN THE FIELD OF POLITICS, INTERVENE IN THE FIELD OF THE IMAGINATION’. At the 1938 May Day Procession in London, a group of Surrealist artists marched wearing masks of the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain that had been made by the sculptor F.E. McWilliam in order to protest British appeasement of the fascists. The artist S.W. Hayter, who ran the Atelier 17 in Paris served as a direct link to many European Surrealist artists and helped to arrange print portfolios to raise funds for the Republican cause, such as ‘Solidarité’, which featured British and European artists including Picasso, Joan Miró, André Masson and John Buckland Wright.

La Guerra Civil española en el espejo británico

PABLO GUIMÓN Londres 1 DIC 2014 -








Cartel de Joan Miró que puede verse en la exposición.


El verano de 1936 la artista británica Felicia Browne emprendió un viaje en coche del que nunca regresaría. Atravesó Europa con su amiga Edith Bone para asistir a la Olimpiada Popular que no llegó a celebrarse en Barcelona. Allí les sorprendió el alzamiento militar que dio origen a la Guerra Civil.


El 3 de agosto, cuando tenía 32 años, Felicia Browne se alistó en la columna Carlos Marx que salió de Barcelona en dirección al frente de Aragón. “Dices que me evado de las cosas al no pintar ni hacer escultura”, escribió Browne a una amiga. “Pero solo puedo hacer lo que es válido y urgente para mí. Si la pintura y la escultura lo fueran más que el terremoto que está sucediendo en la revolución, o si las demandas de las unas no entraran en conflicto con las del otro, pintaría y haría escultura”.


En Tardienta (Huesca), preparando un sabotaje en la línea de ferrocarril, fueron atacados por fuerzas fascistas en agosto de 1936. Un miliciano italiano resultó herido. Felicia Browne acudió a su rescate y los dos murieron bajo el fuego de una ametralladora. La artista fue la primera, de los cerca de 2.500 milicianos británicos que lucharon en el bando republicano, que cayó en el campo de batalla. La lluvia de plomo impidió a sus camaradas recuperar el cuerpo de la artista. Pero alguien rescató su mochila, donde guardaba el cuaderno en el que retrató por el camino a milicianos y paisanos. Aquellos dibujos acabaron expuestos en Londres en octubre de ese mismo año y su historia conmovió los artistas de un país que, junto con otros 26 Estados europeos, firmó el pacto de no intervención en la contienda.


La española fue una “guerra de poetas”, en palabras de uno de ellos, Stephen Spender. “El ensayo general para la inevitable guerra europea”, como la definió Ernest Hemingway, fue narrado desde el terreno por decenas de célebres escritores, muchos de ellos británicos, de George Orwell a W. H. Auden. Pero la lucha de sus compatriotas artistas, desde el frente o desde sus estudios, es menos conocida. Por eso resulta tan relevante la exposición Conciencia y conflicto: los artistas británicos y la guerra civil española, en la Pallant House de Chichester, al sur de Inglaterra.


“Todo el mundo conoce el Guernica de Picasso, pero si preguntas por la influencia del conflicto en los artistas británicos nadie sabe nada”, admite Simon Martin, director artístico del museo, que acoge una importante colección de arte británico el siglo XX. “Y el hecho es que sí marcó a toda una generación que se implicó, política y humanitariamente, en lo que pasaba en España y en lo que aquello significaba para Europa”.


Ahí está colgado el retrato a lápiz que hizo Felicia Browne de una campesina española, rescatado de la mochila sujeta a su cuerpo ya muerto. Desprovisto de todo sentimentalismo o ambición propagandística, como destacaría la reseña del New Statesman sobre la exposición donde se mostró el año de su muerte en Londres.


Aquella muestra la organizó la Artists International Association, y la siguieron numerosas exposiciones y campañas para recaudar ayuda humanitaria. En un intento de llegar a un público menos elitista que el de las galerías, muchos artistas británicos diseñaron carteles, pancartas y murales. Su naturaleza efímera, a diferencia de las duraderas obras de los escritores, es una de las razones de la comparativamente menor trascendencia de ese legado artístico. Pero algunos de esos documentos han sido rescatados para la exposición.


Cuando partía en dirección a España para conducir ambulancias en el bando republicano, el poeta W. H. Auden expresó un temor: "Solo espero que no haya demasiados surrealistas allí". No consta que los encontrara, pero sí los hubo. El lenguaje surrealista se reveló como un eficaz instrumento artístico para responder a los horrores de la guerra. De ello dan fe El prisionero español y El casco, un cuadro y una escultura de Henry Moore, o el Paisaje antropófago, de S. W. Hayter, que recurre a la destrucción de Numancia como parábola de la guerra moderna.


La muestra también rinde homenaje a la labor de agitación de los surrealistas en Reino Unido, documentando con fotografías y una máscara original la performance protagonizada en la manifestación del 1 de mayo de 1938 en Londres por los artistas FE McWilliam, Roland Penrose y Julian Trevelyan, que marcharon disfrazados del primer ministro Chamberlain realizando el saludo nazi. El propio Penrose, que viajó a Cataluña a finales de 1936, jugó un papel clave al ayudar a traer el Guernica a Londres, donde se exhibió a principios de 1939. Él mismo adquirió el cuadro Mujer que llora, del artista malagueño, una respuesta visceral a los horrores de la guerra que, cedida por la Tate, constituye otra de las joyas de la exposición.


Lo que trata de desmontar la exposición es el tópico del aislamiento de los artistas británicos en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Es el único ejercicio hasta la fecha de abordar con ambición el papel de los artistas de las islas en un conflicto que enseñó a una generación que el orgullo puede convivir con la derrota. Como resumió Albert Camus, “fue en España donde mi generación aprendió que uno puede tener razón y ser derrotado, golpeado, que la fuerza puede destruir el alma, y que a veces el coraje no obtiene recompensa”.

L’Affaire Reconquista de España » n’est pas une fiction

Nombreux documents d'archives, cotes et sources citées
http://espana36.voila.net/produc/LaffaireRE.html
Bibliographie complète et index

Sur demande : possibilité de conférences sur la Guerre d'Espagne, Exil et Résistance des Républicains espagnols en France

En 2009, près de 40 sessions ont déjà eu lieu
partout en France et en Espagne

contacter charles.farreny@wanadoo.fr

« L’Affaire Reconquista de España » n’est pas une fiction. C’est une histoire vraie, inédite, reconstituée ici à partir, principalement, de l’analyse d’archives policières et administratives méconnues ou inexploitées pendant deux tiers de siècles.

« L’affaire Reconquista de España » n’est pas un titre sorti de l’imagination des auteurs : ce fut l’appellation donnée par différentes autorités vichyssoises à une vaste opération répressive, qui éclata au grand jour en Lot-et-Garonne, au début de juillet 1942, à la suite de plusieurs mois d’investigations policières autour des réfugiés républicains espagnols.

Deux mois plus tard la répression rebondissait en région toulousaine et s’étendait à divers autres départements. L’affaire connut des prolongements importants pendant deux ans. Près de200 Espagnols y furent impliqués. Pendant de longs mois ils connurent la détention, la prison ou les camps. Une centaine furent déportés par les Allemands.Les auteurs Issus d’une famille de républicains espagnols, Charles et Henri Farreny agissent depuis des années au sein du mouvement associatif pour la récupération de la mémoire de l’exil républicain et notamment de la Résistance espagnole en France.

Would Kennedy say “I am a Catalonian” today? by Otto Ozols

Opinion: Would Kennedy say “I am a Catalonian” today?  

(2) Otto Ozols Thursday, November 6, 2014 

In thinking about European values and ideals, I wish to address all Europeans and particularly their political leaders. I particularly am addressing high-ranking politicians in Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I hope to touch their conscience and their courage. © AP/Scanpix Half a century ago, the distinguished American president John Fitzgerald Kennedy stood alongside the newly built and frightening Berlin Wall to speak prophetic words: “Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. 

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’.” In his speech, Kennedy passionately defended the democratic principles and ideals of the free world, also harshly denouncing everything that was symbolised by the terrible wall. The Iron Curtain divided Europeans into two parts. Behind the wall were those who were imprisoned and whose freedom was lost. Those who remained on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall fell under the sway of Orwellian monsters. Doublespeak, which we know from George Orwell’s prophetic novel “1984” became the norm. Another objectionable Orwellian principle – this one from “Animal Farm” – also prevailed to the East of the Berlin wall – the idea that all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. 

The EU and Russia - how to obtain independence legitimately New ambassador of Spain presents letters of credence to Lithuanian president Today, half a century after Kennedy’s speech, there is reason to ask whether Europeans are building a new Berlin Wall. 

Is it not the case that political Doublespeak is once again floating across the continent as a terrible and poisonous fog, with people loudly proclaiming democracy, but in truth only observing it if it is advantageous for the political elites? As was the case in “Animal farm,” Europe today proves to be a continent on which “all nations are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Very recently Great Britain recognised the right of self-determination of the Scottish nation, allowing it to hold a democratic referendum to decide their future. 

Nearly all European leaders lauded this as a great achievement and triumph of democracy. Great Britain proved its wisdom, courage and trust in fundamental values of democracy. The Scots were recognised as a fully-fledged nation, one that has the same rights as other European nations do. At the same time, most European politicians choose cowardly silence when the same is demanded by Catalonians – an equally ancient, respected and large nation. 

It suddenly turns out that a principle that applies to one nation is not applicable to another. Once again – all are equal, but some are more equal than others. Less educated European politicians are making the base excuse that Scottish rights are based on special “British legislative traditions”. Apparently they have forgotten that the right of self-determination of nations is a long-standing, fundamental and universal principle of modern democracy. Indeed, it is the fundament of fundaments. 

European leaders have harshly denounced Putin’s brutality and cynicism, but when it comes to the Catalonians, they sink to the same level of cynicism. At the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, Vladimir Putin told surprised George W. Bush: “You have to understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a country.” In speaking about Catalonia, many European politicians have proven to be literally read to quote the neo-imperialist from the Kremlin. 

Similarly to poorly educated Putin, many politicians raise their eyebrows and wonder whether the Catalonian nation, which consists of more than 7.5 million people and has its own unique language, culture, identity and thousand-year culture, can really be seen as a “real” nation or country. 


With this attitude, they are literally pushing the Catalonians behind a 21st century “Berlin Wall,” with lovely words about fundamental democratic principles and nothing more than beautiful fiction. As was the case in the Orwellian Soviet Empire, defenders of democratic principles suddenly prove to be “criminals” and “fomenters of unrest.” Many people understand that this attitude is unfair and unjust. This is particularly comprehended by those politicians whose countries were born specifically because the principle of self-determination for nations – Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and many other countries. Otherwise they would be unhappy denizens of empires today – people to whom the fundamental principles of democracy do not apply. For this reason, I would like to pose this question the respected and democratic prime minister of Norway, Erna Solberg: Would you be the leader of a self-respecting country today if Sweden had used military force to take away the right of Norwegians to self-determination? Spain today is threatening Catalonia precisely in the same was as Sweden threatened Norway in the 19th century. 


Am I wrong in saying that the fundamental values of democracy apply to Norwegians at a level of 100%, while the Catalonians are not worthy of such principles? Madam prime minister, please answer these questions honestly! I would similarly like to pose a question to Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Alexander Stubb: Have you forgotten what Germany and Sweden told the new Finnish nation in 1917? 
They told you to talk to Russia first and foremost. Sweden didn’t care about what the Finns thought. 

Instead they awaited the decision of the new rulers of the old empire. You are keeping silent today. Are you not demonstrating equal levels of cowardice? It is not important what you Catalonians want. Go and talk to big Spain first. 

I wonder whether Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs, who has recently said that “Catalonia is an internal matter for Spain,” is not bring shame upon his predecessor – Latvia’s legendary first foreign minister, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics. In the early 20th century, Meierovics struggled for Latvia’s de iure recognition in the world, and often he was faced with the question “Latvia? What is Latvia? It is an ancient part of Russia, and it is an internal matter for Russia.” 


Must Latvia’s foreign minister be equally haughty when talking about the Catalonian right to self-determination today? I would ask Estonian President Toomas Henrik Ilves where his courage and openness have gone. In 1993, his legendary predecessor, Lennart Meri, was in Paris, where he spoke these words: “Asking any nation to refuse its right to self-determination is a slap in the face of its self-assurance.” Today Ilves is silent in watching how Spain is doing precisely that in relation to the Catalonians. The world admired Estonia because of Lennart Meri, who was a noble, courageous and talented thinker and defender of democracy. 

Today Ilves just watches as Spain shamelessly slaps the Catalonians and Ilves pretends that he is not seeing that. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė: Can you be as courageous today as little Iceland was back in 1991 in recognising Lithuania’s right to self-determination without fearing the Soviet Empire? It is ironic that back then the Soviet leader was saying precisely the same thing that Spain is saying today – Lithuania’s right to self-determination is illegal. 


I might pose similar questions to the chairman of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, or to the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, but it does seem that they are deaf. When Martin Luther King delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, there were some 250,000 protesters in his audience. Quite recently nearly two million Catalonians joined hands to demand their right to self-determination, but European Union leaders remained deaf and apathetic. The dream of equality has been written into the smokestack of history. Apparently today’s leaders have nothing of the idealism and courage of men such as Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, who destroyed the shameful “Berlin Wall”. They believed in democracy and renewed a truly free Europe – a Europe in which millions of other Europeans, including Angela Merkel from East Germany, also regained their freedom. 

On November 9, Catalonia will be holding a referendum on self-determination. Fully in line with the nauseating traditions of Orwellian Doublespeak, Spain has banned it. The Catalonians have called the referendum a survey, but it, too, has been banned. In 21st-century Europe, 7.5 million Europeans have lost their fundamental democratic freedoms. 

I believe that if there were a truly courageous politician in Europe today, then he or she would appear in Barcelona and, like John F. Kennedy, courageously declare: “I am one of you, Catalonians!” A self-respecting Europe has no room for double morals, cowardice and open betrayal of democracy. By betraying the Catalonians, the Europeans are betraying the holy principles of democracy that are the cornerstone of all Europe. 

This betrayal will be a crack in the glass, and once the glass is cracked, nothing can stop it becoming more unstable. If only I could change this situation by telling the Spanish government to put me in prison, but let the Catalonians have their vote! I have no real hopes when it comes to the prime minister of Norway, the president and prime minister of Finland, the presidents of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, and leaders of other countries to stand with me. Apparently they believe that the privilege of an independent country with the right to self-determination rests only with a few elect nations. 

Just like in Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. Otto Ozols, writer, Latvian, European.

Read more: https://en.delfi.lt/politics/opinion-would-kennedy-say-i-am-a-catalonian-today.d?id=66310078#ixzz3IGuRWiPl