13 de gener 1939 #Franco #Tortosa

Avui fa 75 anys que Franco va ocupar Tortosa. Segons  l'excel·lent exposició que vam visitar ahir al Museu de Tortosa, va ser despres de 9 mesos de bombardejos, amb tota la gent fugida a les muntanyes i la ciutat destruida. Mirant les fotos i els numeros, sembla ser que tota la ciutat va quedar afectada i un 15% dels edificis totalment destruides. L'anecdota del video que vam vore és quan expliquen que fins i tot un dels bombardejos més feroços va passar el dia del Divendres Sant - per part de gent que despres rebrien el recolsament de l'esglesia.

La guerra civil encara durari uns mesos més - o per l'incompetencia de Franco o per les ganes de Franco de fer patir al maxim els seus oponents i la gent inocenta, i aixi assegurar un futur amb la gent (que havia sobreviscuda) callada i atemorida.

Poca cosa més puc afegir, a abanda de la tristesa i desconcert que vam sentir en sortir del Museu. La primera cosa que veus és el riu, amb el Monument que Franco hi va posar, encara en peu - 38 anys despres del seu mort.

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75 years ago today, 13th January 1939, Franco took Tortosa after a 9-month siege.

 The so-called Spanish Civil War was in fact a military uprising and/or (deliberately?) incompetent coup d'etat. Franco rose up against the democratically elected government of Spain on 17th July 1936 and it dragged on into a civil war which continued until April 1939 with thousands of deaths on each side, and especially of innocent people who didn't even realise they were on anybody's side. Some believe that Franco deliberately fought a slow war so that the deaths and suffering would be drawn out as a reprisal (for what?) and as a lesson which Spaniards would not forget - shown through Franco then enjoying a long dictatorship before dying at home in bed in 1975.

Anyway, yesterday by coincidence we went to Tortosa's local museum to see an excellent exhibition relating to the battle for Tortosa. Photos, objects, and a video of survivor's recollections all gave a very clear idea of this "battle". Basically Franco's troops worked their way up through the Spanish peninsula and eventually arrived to the south of the river Ebro in mid 1938, but did not cross immediately to take Tortosa. Instead both sides dug in while Franco ordered his German and Italian planes (kindly lent by Hitler and Mussolini as a test run for their own future plans) to bomb Tortosa to bits. Most local citizens fled to the mountains, living in caves and make-shift shelters for 9 months while a few republican soldiers tried to hold the fort. The bombs destroyed Tortosa - apparently 75% of buildings were affected with 15% being completely flattened. When Franco finally decided to cross the Ebro, little opposition did he find here. The following short video is a fascinating English news reel from those days.

The war had already dragged on. Apart from Franco's slowness, there had been a lot of fighting around the Ebro further inland. In July 1938 the Republicans had foolishly/bravely crossed the Ebro further upriver which led to the infamous Battle of the Ebro. While they tried to hold their positions in the hills, Franco bombed them to pieces - many conscripts as young as 15 years old as all the older generations had already been called up. The mountains where this battle took place are a 30-minute drive away from Tortosa and offer a tragic picture. A wonderful countryside, but still scattered with bones and shrapnel - you can't imagine that just 75 years ago thousands of people died meaninglessly here. Anyway, Franco won the Battle, and eventually crossed the Ebro in Tortosa in January 1939, before going on to "win" the war in April 1939. The world would soon forget about Spain as that year it had other things on its mind, but Franco's dictatorship led to more hardship, cruelty, repression and deaths all the way up to 1975 - in the heart of Europe. 

Not much else I can add, except the feeling of bewilderment when we come out of the museum and the first thing we see is the monument Franco erected in the middle of the river to celebrate his victory. 2014 and the monument still stands - for more info see my previous rants!

                                                                                Photo in the exhibition.

                                                                Franco's monument - still standing.

(1) International Brigade / Fight for Democracy / Rewriting History

Tots els experts ens diuen que l’Historia és subjectiva i que sempre ens ho conten els guanyadors. OK, hi estic d’acord, però també estic convençut que hi ha uns fets indiscutibles.

Tornem a l’any 1936. Segons a qui escoltes, el govern espanyol, elegit democràticament, eren uns inutils, el demoni banyut, uns idealistes, gent en ganes de estirar Espanya fins al segle 20 d’una vegada per totes, gent en ganes de construir una república moderna i demòcrata, o gent amb ganes de vendre els seus bebes a Stalin per a fer caldo .... però, trobo que hi ha un fet que no es pot discutir. Era un govern elegit democràticament.

Segon fet; Franco va començar un cop d’estat, el qual, per la forma que ell actuava, es va convertir en una guerra civil.

Tercer fet; vist que els governs aliats miraven per l’altre costat, per motius politics, molts voluntaris d’arreu del món van anar a Espanya a lluitar a favor de la democràcia. Eren els Brigadistes Internacionals.

Quart fet; va guanyar Franco i Espanya va viure 40 anys de dictadura.

Ara que han passat els anys, i Espanya ha fet una “transició” cap a la democràcia, hi ha veus diferents sobre com s’hauria d’actuar amb aquest bagatge. Que si oblidem, que si no remenem, que lo fet està fet etc ... suposo que es pot parlar de totes les opcions mirant com altres països han actuat amb referència al seu passat fosc.

Però els fets continuen sent fets.

 A gairebé totes les ciutats d’Espanya, i moltes de Catalunya (Tortosa sense anar més lluny), encara hi ha monuments o recordatoris a la victòria dels copistes, amb debats publics sobre la convivencia o no de retirar-los. A Madrid resulta que tenen l’Arc de Triumf de Franco. I un petit monument recordant les Brigadistes que va posar l’Universitat – ni el govern ni “el estat”. Ara resulta que és aquest monument que molesta, un petit record de la gent que va venir fins aqui i va morir en nom de la democràcia, és el seu record que molesta – i, segons aquest article, van a retirar-lo. No tinc paraules. Passen coses molt grosses a la peninsula cada dia, però aquest m’ha deixat bocabadat! A gairebé totes les ciutats del Regne Unit o Irlanda tenim plaques recordant els morts, però aquí molesten (mentre gasten una fortuna restaurant el Valle de los Caidos).

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Ever since I was a lad, I’ve heard the one about History being a subjective issue, and that History is always written by the victors. However, I still believe that a fact is a fact.

Let’s go back to 1936. Spain has a newly elected democratic government. Some say they were a bunch of idiots, some say idealists, some say they’d set up a republican democracy worthy of the 20th century, others say they couldn’t have organised a piss-up in a brewery – geniuses, back-stabbers, the devil incarnate willing to sell babies to Stalin to make his soup with ... who knows? But, Fact One, they were democratically elected.

Fact Two. Franco staged a coup d’etât which evolved (either deliberately or through incompetence) into a civil war.

Fact Three. As most foreign governments turned a blind eye it was up to politically conscious volunteers to come from all around the world and fight on the side of the democratically elected government. The International Brigades.

Fact Four. They lost. Franco won and Spain suffered a 40-year dictatorship.

Years later, and Spain is still trying to come to terms with this historical burden. 35 years after their “transition” into a democracy and there is still public debate about what’s best – whether to sweep all this under the carpet and pretend it never happened or to make an attempt at a public acceptance and explanation of this dark past, following the example of other countries. Who knows what’s best. Again, a political, psychological, and personal debate.

However, facts are still facts.

Most towns in Spain, and Catalonia (Tortosa being a prime example) retain monuments and street signs celebrating the victory of Franco and his coup. Madrid even has its own huge Arc de Triumf apparently, not to mention the infamous monument/tomb built for Franco – el Valle de los Caidos – which has just been restored for a few million €uros. Turns out there is also a small monument commemorating the International Brigaders in Madrid, on the University Campus. Turns out, according to this article, that the Franco “Theme Park” that parts of Spain resemble, does not annoy the government and is not under debate. Turns out that the monument to lives lost fighting for democracy does. And they are going to pull it down.

Luckily there are many more such monuments in cities and towns all over the UK, Ireland, USA etc, but even so, a sad sad day for Spain.
UPDATE: since I wrote this I have found these two more serious and interesting opinions on this matter and the general question of how to approach history. One by historian Richard Baxell and Two by Sheffield University PhD student Matthew Kerry.