»Passages« – An Homage to Walter Benjamin

At the beginning of the 1930s, Spain was marked by deep divisions between republicans - including the socialists - and monarchists supporting a traditional, Catholic society. The country was also unsettled by the independence campaigns of various regions, including the Basque region and Catalonia. In 1936, the political violence that had been brewing in Spain since the mid 19th century spilled over into a bloody civil war of international dimensions following the election victory of the »Frente Popular« (People’s Front) composed of socialists, left-liberals and communists. Nazi Germany and the Italian fascist regime supported the anti-republican forces during the Spanish Civil War, which were led by General Francisco Franco (1892–1975) from October 1936 onwards. The »Condor Legion« of the German Luftwaffe provided military support and bombed a number of towns. In turn, the republican government troops were supported by the International Brigades, which were volunteer corps of foreign communists and left-wing socialists. Franco announced his victory on April 1, 1939. Following the outbreak of World War Two, thousands of republican refugees entered the sphere of influence of Nazi Germany in neighbouring occupied France and were deported to concentration camps. Over 5,000 Spaniards died in the camps. Spain was not involved in the Second World War. However, volunteers and army members fought on the side of the Wehrmacht as »División Azul« (Blue Division) during the campaign in Russia. The Franco regime pursued a contradictory policy towards the Jews. Jews, like Protestants and other non-Catholics, were not allowed to practise their religion once Franco had come to power. At the same time, Spain permitted between 20,000 and 35,000 Jewish refugees from abroad to cross the country in order to leave Europe. In 1944 some 3,500 Jews from the Hungarian capital Budapest were spared deportation by the German occupiers thanks to generous Spanish provisions granting safe passage. Franco remained in power until 1975. His regime was initially ostracised by the international community but later brought into the western community of states. Whilst the regime lasted it was impossible to confront the persecution of republicans in Spain and in the German sphere of influence. Attempts to establish small sites of memory at places associated with the Civil War were partly tolerated and partly blocked by officials. A critical national confrontation with the 1936-39 Civil War only started to emerge in the 1990s. A memorial centre was established in 1998 in Guernica, which had been completely destroyed in bombing raids by the »Condor Legion« in 1937. In 2005 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (*1960) became the first Spanish Prime Minister to visit a concentration camp memorial site when he commemorated the Spanish political prisoners who died at Mauthausen. In December 2006 the »Memory Law« was passed to rehabilitate the victims. This law officially denounces the dictatorial regime, which was responsible for countless executions and hundreds of thousands of expulsions. A national memorial dedicated to the »memory of the Jews, Spaniards, gypsies and other groups murdered in the extermination camps« was unveiled in Madrid in 2007.