- 2 weeks ago
Category
đź“š
LearningTranscript
00:00the river Ebro was where the Spanish Republic's fate was to be sealed July 28th 1938 in the
00:17Ebro Valley the Republic now close to desperation launched its greatest offensive much of the
00:23Republican army was thrown into the battle a fight not just for ground but supremely for time
00:30when they green the Prime Minister knew that European war against Hitler was now close if
00:36only the Republic could hang on it might be rescued by the anti-fascist allies in that war
00:43the Ebro was the most costly battle of the civil war but for the Republicans it came at the end
00:50of two years of bitter unsuccessful fighting two years which to transform Republican hopes into
00:57memories of failure
01:20now failure was behind them the soldiers of the Republic who crossed the river that day were
01:27excited to be on the offensive again this was great that we were crossing the emerald and going to the
01:34other side to have a go at them and push them back and obviously we were hoping to chase them quite a
01:41just and chase them all together on that front anyway this optimism defied the experience of two years of
01:49defeat once again the popular army was attempting to match the enemy in conventional warfare which
01:56would lead to a battle of attrition in which the Republic stood no chance the attack across the Ebro was
02:04probably doomed before it began
02:34so
02:36so
02:37so
02:41you
02:43you
02:45you
03:04The nationalists now held over two-thirds of Spain.
03:09They had split the Republican zone into two.
03:13Valencia was under threat.
03:15The all-out offensive across the Ebro was meant to ward off this danger.
03:23The idea came largely from Juan NegrĂn,
03:26the enigmatic Prime Minister of the Republic,
03:29a right-wing socialist and a distinguished professor of medicine.
03:33NegrĂn mirrored many of the contradictions of the Republic.
03:37He believed that the only way to fight the war was to halt the revolution
03:40and bring the army under disciplined, central control, with himself in command.
03:48In this, NegrĂn was closely supported by the Communists.
03:51They were tough.
03:53They took orders ultimately from Moscow.
03:56Their vision of democracy was a world away from NegrĂn's.
03:59Yet he was committed to working with the Communists,
04:05not least because the Republic needed Soviet aid.
04:11NegrĂn was a subtle, unreadable person.
04:15No one knew his real mind.
04:17At the same moment that he was secretly initiating peace-feelers to Franco,
04:21he was also organising the supreme offensive of the war.
04:29At first, the Nationalists were taken by surprise.
04:33The Republican thrust drove them back in hasty retreat.
04:36The hills overlooking the small town of Gandessa,
04:43twenty-five miles inside Nationalist territory,
04:46now became the new front line.
04:50General Franco rushed forward reinforcements pulled out of other battlefronts.
04:54In huge, prolonged battles like this,
04:58Franco's army had the advantage.
05:00It was more mobile,
05:01and in the Nationalist army orders were more efficiently communicated.
05:06It benefited from German and Italian aid,
05:09while the Republic's foreign aid had diminished
05:12with the renewed closure of the French border.
05:16Determined not to yield another yard of ground,
05:19Franco took personal command.
05:22The Ebro attack was halted
05:23and turned into four months of slogging,
05:27static battle,
05:28the largest and most savage conflict of the whole war.
05:38Hill 666
05:40was one of the Republic's most advanced positions.
05:44It became a focus of Nationalist counter-attacks.
05:48Bill Bailey and other international brigaders
05:50were helping Spanish Republican troops to defend the hill.
05:54And that was one case where we prayed,
05:57literally prayed for the darkness to come
05:59so we could at least get up and stretch a leg,
06:02move around.
06:03And the bastards, when night time came,
06:06they threw more shells at us.
06:08And then it was a question of watching blazing rockets,
06:12bursting in air as it would hit the mountainside,
06:15throw tons of rock at you.
06:16And it wasn't so much the artillery hitting you,
06:19it was down the splinters of rock,
06:21splashing all over the place.
06:23And I have to say that
06:25it was one of my most bitter experiences.
06:28And I'll speak truthfully and say
06:30that there were many times when I figured
06:32I would never get off this rock.
06:37In the end,
06:38the Republican troops were forced off Hill 666,
06:42leaving its slopes littered with their dead.
06:44Now began the retreat,
06:48a retreat which was only to end
06:50with the end of the war.
06:54Enrique Liste was a Republican Corps commander
06:57at the Battle of the Ebro.
06:58We found ourselves in a situation
07:08where we couldn't give up any of our positions.
07:12So it was a battle of attrition,
07:14in which we were losing our best troops,
07:16but we had no choice.
07:21By now,
07:22there was no choice.
07:24Once again,
07:25the Popular Army had attempted
07:27to match the enemy
07:28in regular combat
07:29and failed.
07:34Just as it had at Brunetti,
07:37Belchitti,
07:38Teruel.
07:40The Popular Army found
07:41it could not defeat the enemy
07:43in conventional fighting
07:44for defended positions.
07:46The Republic had put down
07:48the revolution behind its own lines.
07:51This meant that the government
07:52also avoided revolutionary military tactics.
07:56Guerrilla war,
07:57invented in Spain
07:58as a people's answer
07:59to regular armies,
08:01was never seriously attempted
08:02in the civil war.
08:03As it had done before,
08:09the Popular Army fought with courage.
08:12But once again,
08:13in a battle of attrition,
08:15it could not prevail
08:16against the superior weight
08:17and professionalism
08:18of the Nationalists.
08:29Once again,
08:30the Republican forces
08:32were hammered into retreat.
08:34Behind them,
08:35they left
08:36vast quantities
08:37of precious equipment.
08:43Failure in battle
08:45hardened Negreen's resolve
08:46to save the Republic.
08:48One strategy
08:49was negotiation.
08:52The previous May,
08:53he had published
08:53a moderate 13-point declaration
08:56for victory.
08:57In reality,
08:58a hint
08:58that the war could be ended
08:59by mediation.
09:01Horrified by the sum
09:02of death and destruction,
09:04Negreen nonetheless
09:05remained determined
09:06that a democratic Spain
09:07should emerge
09:08from the ruins.
09:10His second strategy
09:11pursued the same
09:12democratic aims.
09:14If peace
09:14could not be negotiated,
09:16he would fight on
09:17in the hope
09:18that a greater war
09:19between democracy
09:20and fascism
09:21would explode in Europe,
09:22a war which would engulf
09:24Spain's own conflict.
09:25But Franco would have
09:29no compromise.
09:31Total victory
09:31was within reach.
09:33He wanted
09:34nothing less.
09:44It was an ugly paradox
09:46for Negreen
09:47that as he saw it,
09:49only Hitler,
09:50Franco's ally,
09:51could save him.
09:51For it was Germany's
09:53continued expansionism
09:55which he hoped
09:55would touch off
09:56war in Europe.
09:58Then Negreen hoped
09:58that Britain and France
09:59would welcome
10:00the Spanish Republic
10:01as an ally.
10:03In 1936,
10:04Hitler had occupied
10:05the Rhineland
10:06with troops.
10:07In March 1938,
10:09the Germans marched
10:10into Austria.
10:12Now in September 1938,
10:14it was Czechoslovakia's turn.
10:17At Munich,
10:19the statesmen
10:19of Britain and France
10:21met Hitler and Mussolini
10:22to see if the peace
10:23could be saved.
10:28For the British
10:29and French governments,
10:31non-intervention
10:32in Spain
10:33had been one way
10:34of trying to postpone
10:35a conflict with Hitler.
10:37In spite of the blatant
10:39foreign aid
10:39to both sides
10:40in the civil war,
10:41they were still clinging
10:42to this policy.
10:44Now came the news
10:45of the democracies
10:46packed with Hitler.
10:52Once again,
10:53the Western democracies
10:54had chosen
10:54the path of appeasement.
10:57While Neville Chamberlain,
10:59the British Prime Minister,
11:00told cheering Londoners
11:01that it was peace
11:02in our time,
11:03Negreen faced the truth.
11:05Time was against him.
11:07When the Second World War
11:09came,
11:10it was to be too late
11:11to save the Spanish Republic.
11:14Munich also lost
11:15the Republic
11:16its only effective ally,
11:18Stalin.
11:19The Soviet leaders
11:20decided to change
11:21their whole strategy.
11:26Munich destroyed
11:27Stalin's policy
11:28of building
11:28an anti-fascist alliance
11:30in which the Western
11:31democracies would stand
11:32together with Russia
11:34to block the expansion
11:35of Germany
11:36and Italy.
11:40Now Stalin
11:41saw himself isolated.
11:43To gain time,
11:44he was eventually
11:45to sign the Nazi-Soviet
11:46pact with Hitler.
11:48Now,
11:49as his anti-fascist
11:50alliance plan collapsed,
11:52Stalin's support
11:53for the Spanish Republic
11:54was abandoned.
11:56Hitler must not
11:57be provoked.
11:59Soviet aid to Spain
12:00dwindled.
12:01Hitler's policy
12:07towards Spain
12:07changed too,
12:09but in the opposite
12:10direction.
12:11Realizing nothing
12:12he did there
12:13would cause Britain
12:13and France
12:14to go to war,
12:15he dramatically
12:16increased his aid,
12:17now keen to end
12:18the Spanish war
12:19as quickly as possible.
12:21There was a huge
12:22increase in German
12:23military aid
12:24to the nationalists.
12:25Franco has sent
12:26an urgent request
12:27for more weapons
12:28to clinch
12:28the Battle of the Ebro.
12:30In return,
12:31he agreed to grant
12:32Germany generals
12:33mining concessions
12:34in Spain
12:34and he promised
12:36to pay the costs
12:36of the German
12:37Condor region.
12:46But Mussolini
12:48decided to reduce
12:50his aid to Franco.
12:52He accepted
12:52the proposal
12:53of the non-intervention
12:54committee
12:55to withdraw
12:56foreign volunteers
12:57fighting in the
12:57civil war.
12:59Ten thousand Italians
13:00near half the total
13:01in Spain
13:02now embarked
13:03for home.
13:04Those who stayed
13:05continued fighting
13:07with the nationalist
13:07army at the Ebro.
13:12Negrin
13:13also agreed
13:14that the foreign
13:15volunteers on the
13:15republican side
13:16should be withdrawn.
13:18He was hoping
13:19that non-intervention
13:20by foreign powers
13:21might at last
13:22become a reality.
13:23The last grim stages
13:26of the Battle
13:27of the Emperor
13:27were still being fought
13:29when,
13:30on October 29th,
13:32the International Brigaders
13:33took their farewell.
13:35The Nordstrom
13:48was still laughing
13:48when,
13:49and had to be
13:49a while.
13:50The ál
13:51was still
13:52wearing
13:53the
13:53of the
13:53the
13:54modern
13:54group.
13:55That's a good
13:55way.
13:56The
13:57German
13:57was still
13:57and
13:58being
13:58all
13:59and
13:59being
14:00a
14:00better.
14:01Even
14:01while
14:01they
14:02were still
14:02dying
14:02in the
14:03The people of Barcelona showed their gratitude
14:18to the survivors of the 40,000 foreigners
14:21who had left their homes to fight for the Spanish Republic.
14:29Their passionaria spoke proudly to the crowds.
14:33These men reached our country as crusaders for freedom.
14:38They gave up everything, their country, home and fortune,
14:43fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters and children.
14:46And they came and told us, we are here.
14:50Your cause, Spain's cause, is ours.
14:53It is the cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.
14:58The departure of foreigners hardly affected the Republic's fighting strength.
15:03They had mattered in the first days through their discipline and their message of solidarity.
15:07But they had not been militarily decisive.
15:11By now, the brigades were mostly manned by Spaniards.
15:15Most volunteers went home.
15:17Only brigaders from fascist countries had no home to go to.
15:21But the war went on.
15:24By mid-November, Franco had reconquered the ground he had lost to the Republic
15:29in the first two days of the Ebro offensive.
15:32Just before Christmas 1938, the Nationalists crossed the Ebro into Catalonia.
15:37The fresh aid from Germany had arrived and was proving decisive.
15:42The Nationalist advance was now meeting little resistance.
15:45By mid-January 1939, Tarragona had fallen.
15:49By the end of January, Franco was nearing Barcelona.
15:52The only party utterly united in determination to fight on were the Communists.
16:03They used much-needed warplanes to shire leaflets on Barcelona,
16:07urging the population to continue the struggle.
16:10But Negrin was playing a double game.
16:13Outwardly, he went along with the Communists.
16:15He had little choice.
16:16In secret, he pursued a search for a negotiated peace.
16:20But the whole political fabric of the Republic was beginning to fall apart around Negrin.
16:27Many resented his apparent sympathy with the hard Communist line.
16:32The anarchists, whose dreams of revolution were dead, were still fighting.
16:37But they were fighting for a Republic they didn't believe in.
16:41So were the Catalan nationalists, whose treasured autonomy
16:44had been eroded by the government's centralist line.
16:47The Republic was no longer what it had been.
16:53The power of the Catalan government had been wiped out by Negrin.
16:57To such an extent, that at one point I began to ask myself
17:01if I was doing the right thing to continue taking part in the fighting at all.
17:04While the Communists were trying to boast a public morale,
17:17others used their most brutal means to destroy it.
17:21For months now, Barcelona had been the target of bombing raids.
17:25The previous march, Italian bombers had battered the city in waves that kept coming for 48 hours.
17:32The port and the city centre had been particularly badly damaged.
17:37The air attacks had continued ever since.
17:41But those march raids stayed in Barcelona's memory as the most terrifying.
17:46If I tell you that more than half of Barcelona fled to shelter in the hills and woods around Barcelona,
17:53you'll understand what the bombings were like.
17:56I was assigned to the casualty post in the Calle Sepulveda,
18:00and whenever there was a raid, which was about every three hours,
18:03we were told where to go to pick up those not seriously wounded.
18:05Sometimes, while we were doing this, we were caught by the next bombing,
18:10so we had to start all over again.
18:12A lot of people from the Red Cross,
18:13plus a lot of those whose cars had been commandeered for this,
18:16were killed in those attacks.
18:19The bombing of Barcelona came after the air raids on Madrid, Durango and Guernica.
18:25But the bombing of Barcelona went on for months.
18:29Aimed at cowing the civilian population by its destructive power,
18:40it generated a sullen hatred.
18:42Não éitos funcionando a sullenha neném.
18:56MĂşsica
18:56MĂşsica
18:58MĂşsica
19:01MĂşsica
19:07MĂşsica
19:08MĂşsica
19:09MĂşsica
19:10MĂşsica
19:11MĂşsica
19:11Since the Republicans then had been cut in two, there were fewer refugees coming into Barcelona.
19:34Those who did, travelled on north as fast as possible.
19:38But they had all told the same story.
19:41A story of what took place when the nationalists had captured and occupied their villages and towns.
19:47A story of death and persecution.
19:51The closer the nationalists got to Barcelona, the more these stories terrified the population.
19:59By January 24th, the nationalists were less than five miles away.
20:05In Barcelona, people realised that all was lost, in spite of some talk of setting up a line of resistance.
20:12No one believed it, because they really just wanted the whole thing to be over.
20:16And you'd hear people say, it doesn't matter how it ends, only let it end soon.
20:20I heard that quite often in my neighbourhood.
20:27It doesn't matter how it ends, only let it end soon.
20:30The Catalans joined the refugee torrent.
20:37Many struggled up the high mountain passes of the Pyrenees.
20:41France meant safety.
20:44They travelled by day and night.
20:47It won't.
20:48The Catalans joined the people's civil country.
20:49Here we go.
20:54They're going to live with the place.
20:56They went to the country.
20:57The nationalists were quite well, and they're not like them.
21:02They went to the country.
21:03It was empty for quite a while.
21:04They were just here.
21:04Let it end, mate.
21:05The nationalists were quite well because they were not.
21:05They didn't have to be afraid of the country.
21:06The people were too busy.
21:07They were too busy.
21:08They were 15 years ago.
21:08They spent the fois in a long time.
21:09They were very busy.
21:10They were too busy.
21:11They're still a very busy day.
21:12They were too busy.
21:12So they were too busy.
21:13Barcelona, on the morning of January 26th.
21:28From all sides, the nationalist forces moved in.
21:32The tanks rumbled down the diagonal.
21:34The infantry marched down the slopes above the city.
21:37A few communists tried to build barricades.
21:40They soon gave up.
21:43The fascist soldiers were already coming down the hillside.
21:52It was a very sunny day in Barcelona.
21:55One of those very radiant days,
21:57and the bayonets of their rifles glinted menacingly in the sunlight.
22:04That vision was terrifying, but the truth is that they didn't scare us.
22:09But we knew we had to run.
22:10We ran and ran as fast as we could.
22:14We left the cobblestones by the side of the tramline.
22:17Of those who stayed, many now welcomed the nationalist columns led by General YagĂĽe.
22:27For them, it was a joyous moment.
22:29The hour of rescue.
22:31The end of a revolutionary nightmare.
22:34Free to practice their religion openly for the first time in nearly three years,
22:38they praised God and Franco for victory.
22:44Some of the Catalan middle class were much less certain.
22:49Long tired of the war, they must now have feared the future.
22:53Often liberals, they had no sympathy for Franco's regime.
22:56I knew very well he had none for Catalan autonomy.
22:59And the prospect was bleak for communists, anarchists, and socialists still in Barcelona.
23:06The revenge killings were about to begin.
23:12Near the French frontier, and the fortress of Figueres,
23:17Negrin called a secret meeting of the Cortes.
23:19Held at night, in the subterranean vaults,
23:26this was the last session of the Republican Cortes on Spanish soil.
23:31One of the few foreigners present was the British journalist, Willie Forrest.
23:37Well, Negrin got up first to speak,
23:41and started by reading from a prepared text.
23:45But as he proceeded, he sort of threw his script aside
23:50and started walking up and down,
23:52and some sort of fire came into his voice.
23:56Negrin announced that the 13 points of the government's programme
23:59were being cut to three.
24:01It was the last point, which now mattered most.
24:06Franco must give a guarantee, a cast-iron guarantee,
24:10that after the war, there would be no reprisals
24:13by the victors against the vanquished.
24:24The victors were now sweeping northwards towards the French border.
24:30One week, Arthur Negrin left Figueres.
24:32They took the town.
24:34They were a mere 20 miles away from the frontier.
24:36For the Republicans, it was no longer retreat, but flight.
24:48Negrin and his ministers left Spain.
24:53Out of them pour the remnants of the Republican army in Catalonia,
24:57packed together with half a million refugees.
24:585,000 human beings crossed the border every hour.
25:10On the other side lay only the misery, hunger,
25:14and overcrowding of French internment camps.
25:16The nationalists reached the last border post
25:36and closed it.
25:38Catalonia had fallen.
25:49For these people, the war was over.
25:57But Madrid,
25:59and more than a quarter of Spain,
26:00was still Republican.
26:01Negrin was still Prime Minister.
26:05He knew he must go back to Spain
26:07to save what could be saved by war
26:09or compromise.
26:12But Franco had no intention
26:13of accepting Negrin's latest peace initiative.
26:17He wanted only
26:18unconditional surrender.
26:21March,
26:23March 1939
26:52Moroccan tribesmen
26:54the Moors were among the nationalist
26:56troops who have been besieging Madrid
26:58for over two years
26:59the Moorish
27:04trenches have become almost a North
27:06African village
27:07to the east they can see the
27:10rooftops of Madrid
27:11in the city itself nationalist support
27:14has had for two and a half years been trying to
27:16live unnoticed
27:17Enrique Moret Magdalena
27:20had taken refuge in the Paraguayan embassy
27:23During those two and a bit
27:26years we always spoke in whispers
27:28and kept the blinds drawn so nobody would know
27:30how many people were inside the one flat
27:31there were between 50 and 60 of us
27:3450 and 60 people living on a floor
27:36For the Madrid population
27:39Republicans and secret nationalists
27:41the like hunger was now the worst torment
27:44Even vegetable roots became a precious form of food
27:47People stood all day in queues ready to buy anything
27:50which arrived in the denuded shops
27:52Hunger and sheer exhaustion of wartime life
27:56were sapping the will to fight on
27:59Negrin the Prime Minister
28:03had flown back to Spain
28:04surrounding himself by communists
28:07whom he promoted to a series of vital military commands
28:10he established himself near Alicante
28:13in what was left of the Republic
28:16there were still four armies adding up to half a million men
28:19The army commander in Madrid
28:24Colonel Casado
28:25believed that Negrin's reliance on the communists
28:28was a major stumbling block to winning peace concessions
28:31He had put out his own peace feeders to the nationalists
28:34Now to back this he launched
28:36what was in effect
28:38a coup d'etat in Madrid
28:40Negrin and his colleagues were at dinner near Alicante
28:43when they heard Casado attacking them over the radio
28:46Willy Forrest was there
28:49There was a telephone in the dining room
28:51and Negrin went over to it
28:53and asked to be put through to Casado
28:55He had to hang up for a minute and wait
28:57but then the phone rang
28:59Negrin went over
29:01it was Casado on the line
29:02What's going on?
29:06were the first words that I heard Negrin say
29:08I couldn't hear of course Casado's replies
29:11but from what Negrin said afterwards
29:14it was quite clear
29:15because what Negrin said was
29:16You've rebelled?
29:18Against whom may I ask?
29:21Against me?
29:23Then consider yourself relieved of your command
29:26and with that Negrin slammed down the telephone
29:29and turning to his ministers
29:31he asked them to follow him upstairs
29:33for another cabinet meeting
29:34It was to be a crucial night for Prime Minister Negrin
29:38a night that settled his fate
29:40and the fate of the Republic
29:42Clearly Negrin's political position was collapsing
29:45The communist leaders decided not to organise resistance to the Casado coup
29:50Whether this reflected Stalin's current disinterest in Spain
29:53and whether this clinched Negrin's decision to flee remain open questions
29:58At three in the morning
30:01Willie Forrest watched
30:02as Negrin and his government filed out of their last meeting
30:06Well that, as I said, was the end
30:09We were there, didn't need to be told of the government's decision to quit
30:13We saw the ministerial bags being packed
30:16We saw Senor Garthes, the police chief
30:20going through his dossiers and tearing up papers
30:23and we knew that Cisneros, the air force chief
30:27had gone off in great haste to an airfield at Monova
30:33about 20 miles from where we were
30:35to organise a couple of planes for the government's escape
30:38As Negrin left Spain for the last time
30:42chaotic shooting broke out inside Madrid
30:45Casado's supporters fought communist units
30:48who did not know or couldn't believe
30:50that their leaders had decided not to resist the Casado coup
30:53Once again, the Republic was tearing itself apart
30:58For two weeks, Casado attempted to negotiate an honourable peace
31:03His efforts were to prove as vain as Negrin's
31:07Franco broke off contact with him
31:09Casado now had no choice
31:12He ordered the Republican armies to raise the white flag and surrender
31:16The nationalists, in the end, never had to fight to capture Madrid
31:21I'm opposed, they walked in
31:24I woke up and I heard shouts
31:29and I thought somebody's gone mad
31:31and now we're going to be in real trouble
31:32just when the war is about to finish
31:34And then I came out and I heard shouts
31:36Viva España, Viva España
31:38And I said, what are you shouting for?
31:41You've all gone crazy
31:42They replied, no, no, Madrid has been liberated
31:46The war is over
31:47And then we all jumped from the balcony into the street
31:51I took my brother with me
31:54and we went out to see what was happening in the streets
31:56I reckon that even some of those who'd taken part in the events of the 14th of April 1931
32:04were now the ones who climbed onto laurels
32:06I think they were more or less the same people
32:09Or at least, there were just as many of them
32:11and they were equally enthusiastic
32:13As Franco's soldiers trudged into the streets of Madrid
32:19Palenque supporters poured out of hiding
32:22Republicans, trying to escape from nationalist vengeance
32:34headed for the port of Alicante
32:36on the southeastern coast
32:38chosen as the main evacuation point
32:41On March 28th, as Madrid fell
32:44this British ship left Alicante
32:46On board were some 500 Republicans
32:49mostly leading figures
32:51Left behind were about 20,000 refugees
32:55who were swarming into the harbor area
32:57hoping desperately for ships to rescue them
33:00For these three survivors
33:04Nartiso Julian
33:06Eduardo de Guzman
33:08and his sister-in-law Encarnatium Bueno
33:10what followed is an indelible memory
33:14Well, we were looking out towards the horizon
33:18We could see a few lights
33:20Some people were saying that they were harbors
33:23that they were getting nearer
33:25This was the worst torture of the harbor
33:31the torment of hope
33:33thinking you were going to be saved
33:35when there was no salvation possible
33:38I remember every single moment
33:42Each was more terrible than the one before
33:44Every minute that passed without the boats arriving
33:47made me believe less and less in boats, in anything
33:50My son was saying, you'll see, mum
33:52You'll see, we'll get away
33:54But when the hours passed and no boats came near
33:56I stopped believing in anything
33:59By March 30th
34:03Italian troops had occupied the fortress
34:05overlooking the harbor
34:07The republicans crowded along this quay
34:12were at their mercy
34:14The last boats had gone
34:20Now there was no hope
34:22Only fear
34:24I was sitting there
34:28My son next to me
34:29We were talking
34:29We knew already that the boats were not coming
34:32Along came a man of about 40
34:34Strong, good-looking
34:36A man who looked in really good health
34:38He came quite close to me
34:39I didn't realize what was happening
34:41I heard a shot
34:42He shot himself
34:46And fallen down right there
34:48I totally lost my calm then
34:50My son was saying
34:52Don't be frightened, mother
34:53Don't be scared
34:55You'll see a lot more of this here
34:57But don't be frightened
34:58But of course I was scared, Steve
35:00I don't know what I thought
35:02Perhaps that they would bring out machine guns
35:05and finish us all off
35:07Nationalist troops moved into Alicante
35:13to reinforce the Italians
35:15The hopeless masses in the harbor
35:18knew that they would be rounded up
35:19the following day
35:20For the anarchists amongst them
35:23One question remained to be settled
35:25in the last hours of liberty
35:27And we spent the whole night
35:30discussing what we should do
35:31from a revolutionary viewpoint
35:33Without giving ourselves any false illusions
35:35about escaping death
35:36But what was the best thing
35:39for the cause we had all defended?
35:40Should we give ourselves up
35:41or kill ourselves?
35:44This was the last minute dilemma
35:46What we were debating that last night
35:48These were the two points of view
35:50Emil said
35:52This was a comrade called Mario Emil
35:54He said
35:55I'm not sparing them any crimes
35:57If they want me dead
35:58they'll have to kill me
36:00Nobody on the quayside slept that night
36:04Through the darkness of March 31st
36:07This macabre debate was argued to its conclusion
36:10Many agreed with Guzman's friend to stay alive
36:15and let the enemy take the ultimate guilt
36:17But others made suicide packs
36:20Eduardo de Guzman recalls the last two to die
36:24After that last discussion
36:26when we were about to leave
36:27they took each other by the hand
36:28and saying
36:29This is our last protest against fascism
36:32They raised their pistols to each other's heads
36:34and shot each other
36:36As we were leaving the port
36:37somebody said
36:38We'll soon be envying the dead
36:40And I thought
36:41No
36:42We'd better start envying them now
36:44Few today remember
36:47that Alicante port
36:48was the place of the Republic's last agony
36:50Nearly three years after the army insurrection
36:54the war was over
36:55The guns fell silent
36:58The church bells began to ring
37:10Over the radio
37:13a nationalist announced
37:14to deliver Franco's final war communique
37:17In the day of today
37:18Cautified and disarmed
37:20the Red Army
37:21have reached the national troops
37:24their last military objectives
37:27The war has ended
37:30April 1st of 1939
37:34The year of the victory
37:36General Franco
37:39April 2nd 1939
37:53The day after the war's official end
37:55was Palm Sunday
37:57In Madrid
37:59Generalissimo Franco
38:01went to lay a sword of victory
38:02in the church of Santa Barbara
38:04It was the first of many triumphal occasions
38:08in which Franco and Spain
38:10celebrated the nationalist victory
38:12During this in the country
38:13No no no no no no yes
38:14The National LouisŃŹŃ‚Ăłw
38:18Not all
38:19until the revolution
38:22will rise
38:24The antecapac slide
38:24Mayego
38:26A
38:31it
38:32The
38:33the
38:34the
38:35the
38:36the
38:36the
38:37the
38:38What would Spain be like under Franco?
38:47The fighting was over, but the so-called National Crusade had a long way to run.
38:53Spain was to be transformed, but into an image of the past.
38:57Out of the turmoil of the Republic, the Spain of history was to be resurrected,
39:01ruled once more by the Church, the oligarchy, the great landowners.
39:05There was to be a fatherland at once new and ancient,
39:10a nation united, obedient, purged of evil.
39:15Franco decreed, retroactively, that all who had opposed the Nationalists would be answerable.
39:21Even pre-war political opponents were not to be spared.
39:26He saw the main threat in the working class, once triumphant, now prostrate.
39:31Here the purge must be most harsh.
39:34It began at once, among the new hordes of his captives.
39:40Nobody suspected of Republican sympathies was safe.
39:43Concentration camps all over Spain were swamped by hundreds of thousands of prisoners.
39:48The captives from the harbour at Alicante were brought here, to this barren place,
39:58which was then the concentration camp of Albatera.
40:01It is said that Franco personally ordered that there should be no photographs of the camp.
40:07When it had served its purpose, every trace of it was cleared away.
40:11All that remains today is an old hut used by the guards and a path once trodden by 30,000 arriving prisoners.
40:21But the camp can never be clear from the memories of those who survived Albatera.
40:26The repression began right from the start.
40:32We were never considered human beings.
40:35That's the way it was under Franco.
40:37We were always considered as things, never as human beings.
40:41Albatera was not just an internment camp.
40:48It was also a camp where people awaited selection for execution.
40:53Through the gate which used to stand here, the visitors arrived.
40:57These were the moments of terror.
41:00For these visitors were members of the Falanque, who came to identify their enemies.
41:05They were looking for people from their towns, or anyone else of note.
41:09Anyone who'd been a volunteer, or fought in the Republican Army.
41:12Or anyone who'd been mayor, or any other official in any Republican town in Spain.
41:17And they picked these people out right there and then.
41:20This one.
41:21This one.
41:21This one.
41:22And without more ado, just took them off.
41:25They took them away to their respective villages.
41:27Most of the time, these prisoners never reached their destination.
41:30What usually happened was that we heard the shots from here.
41:35And that was the end of the war.
41:39There were also executions within the camp.
41:42The prisoners were forced to watch them.
41:47I remember the first executions.
41:50I'd been locked up in the punishment area.
41:52There were three lads they shot.
41:55They'd lined us up at machine gun point.
41:56And one of the lads, a commissar, said to everyone, keep calm, comrades, don't make a move.
42:01They'll use it as an excuse to kill us all.
42:03And they shot him right there in front of us.
42:08Nobody knows how many of the 30,000 who went into Albutera perished.
42:13By execution.
42:15Or just callous neglect.
42:20Most people know what the Nazi extermination camps were like.
42:24They've seen films of them.
42:31I think that the Albutera camp was in many ways like those extermination camps.
42:38Except it was less systematic.
42:44Everything here was less organized.
42:46In the concentration camps, persecution was still haphazard.
42:53But soon, the policy of systematic repression began.
42:57The prison population increased by over 200,000 people.
43:01There were token trials, rapid sentences, executions.
43:04The terror lasted at this pitch for more than four years.
43:08Longer than the war itself.
43:09Many, like Nathisa Julián and Eduardo de Guzman, suffered for much longer.
43:16Both were sentenced to death.
43:19Eduardo de Guzman spent nine years in prison.
43:22He and Nathisa Julián, like many others,
43:25waited to be executed for over a year,
43:28never knowing if the next day was to be their last.
43:33Nathisa Julián was to spend 25 years in prison.
43:38This part of the prison yard, the JĂ©sarĂas,
43:42still holds special memories for him.
43:46In 1945, he met his daughter there.
43:48In 1965, 20 years later,
43:56he met his granddaughter in the same spot.
44:02But for nationalist families,
44:04the suppression of all dissent meant unity.
44:08Tomás Garricano Góñe,
44:09later one of Franco's ministers,
44:11found a solid logic in Franco's persecutions.
44:14The repression was aimed at
44:18preventing any possible reaction
44:20from any communists or socialists
44:22still at liberty in Spain
44:23or living abroad in exile
44:25in case they returned to Spain
44:26to turn the situation on its heels
44:28and take power again.
44:30As the corpse of José Antonio Primo de Rivera
44:44was carried from Alicante to Madrid,
44:46Republican supporters in villages along the road
44:49were shot without even the hearing
44:52the 15th century Inquisition had given its victims.
44:55Franco was hammering Spain
45:07into a political monolith
45:09without opposition.
45:12The Falanche, which had stood
45:13for a revolutionary fascism,
45:15had already been forcibly integrated
45:17into an ultra-conservative one-party state.
45:20But the dead José Antonio,
45:22a charismatic leader of the Falanche,
45:24executed by the Republicans,
45:26was now appointed patron saint
45:28and martyr of the new Spain.
45:39Francisco Franco, El Caudillo,
45:42could safely share the leadership of Spain
45:44with a dead man
45:45who could not contradict the myth imposed on him.
45:48All other political movements were forbidden.
45:53Regional autonomy and diversity were obliterated.
45:58Such was Franco's version of national unity.
46:02And many in the Spanish middle class
46:04greeted it with rapture.
46:06There was an extraordinary boom in processions,
46:14holy week processions
46:16and processions for just about every saint.
46:18They were packed with people marching along.
46:25There was a revival of all this sort of thing
46:27that had disappeared under the Republic.
46:29These things seemed important to us then.
46:36They gave us the impression
46:37of recovering something that we had lost.
46:39The religious values,
46:51patriotic values,
46:53the values of order.
46:55All these were restored.
46:57There was an absence of freedom,
47:06but logically,
47:07those of us that had well-ordered lives,
47:10those of us who were professionals
47:11and saw things from the personal viewpoint only,
47:15we felt very much at ease
47:18and happy.
47:20And happy.
47:27In this ruined Spain,
47:30the first years of peace
47:32were even harder in their way than the war.
47:36The country lost hundreds of thousands of refugees
47:39who were forced to remain in exile.
47:41And in Spain,
47:42to the physical destruction
47:44were added famine,
47:45mass unemployment,
47:47impoverishment.
47:48Many thousands died of starvation.
47:51Thousands more were shot.
47:53For there was no magnanimity in Franco,
47:55no gift of reconciliation.
47:58And nationalists everywhere,
48:00at every level,
48:00became infected with their leaders' lust for revenge.
48:06What happened in masterless matters
48:09happened throughout Spain.
48:11The Molinere family had worked
48:12this plot of land for many years.
48:16One Molinere was a young man in 1938.
48:19He and his family were socialists.
48:25When the nationalists swept into AragĂłn,
48:30they had fled with other refugees towards Valencia.
48:32And when the war finished,
48:39Franco said we shouldn't be afraid
48:40to return to our villages.
48:42And of course,
48:42since we weren't guilty of anything,
48:44we came back.
48:48When we arrived here,
48:49they arrested us.
48:50They wouldn't even let us out of jail.
48:52Molinere's father was imprisoned
48:58by the local Falanque,
48:59who now controlled masterless matters.
49:02Juan was never to see his father again.
49:05Forty years later,
49:07the memory of his death
49:08still pains him.
49:11Of course I remember.
49:13Those were very critical moments.
49:29Crucial moments.
49:35I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
49:38On top of it all,
49:39one has to live with those people
49:41knowing that they had killed him.
49:43But you had to go on living with them
49:46without saying a word.
49:52After every civil war,
49:54hatred is the real survivor.
49:57Stifled behind closed doors,
49:59hidden in neighbours
50:00who avert their faces
50:01on the village street,
50:02the poison trickles down the years.
50:05So it was in Spain,
50:07where almost every family
50:08had a hatred to nurse.
50:10And yet,
50:11as time passed,
50:12locked minds began
50:14timidly to open again.
50:20As my children grew up,
50:22they used to chide me
50:23because I'd been a Franco supporter.
50:26Mum, how on earth
50:27could you support Franco?
50:28I think that he saved us.
50:30How can you say that?
50:31And then they began bringing me books
50:35and books
50:36and more books
50:37and I started to realise
50:38that it had been terrible,
50:40that there had been
50:41as many monstrosities
50:42on this side
50:43as there'd been
50:44on the other side
50:45because I already knew
50:46about the other side.
50:48But I didn't know
50:49what had happened here.
50:50And so,
50:58gradually you evolve
51:00and you realise
51:02that there is neither good
51:03nor evil,
51:05as they used to tell you.
51:06That you can think
51:08for yourself.
51:10That something you do not like,
51:12someone else may think is fine.
51:14that you are in no position
51:17to judge others.
51:20That someone can think one way
51:22while you think another.
51:25And he could be
51:26just as good a person as you.
51:30That is what my children taught me.
51:44that you have to be
51:59or in the in-game
52:00or in-game
52:02that you are in no position
52:03or in-game
52:04or in-game
52:05or in-game
52:06or in-game
52:07or in-game
52:08or in-game
52:10or in-game
Be the first to comment