Silences from the Spanish Civil War by Jane Duran

Author:Jane Duran [Duran, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Enitharmon Press
Published: 2014-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Franco’s dictatorship would be the institutionalisation of his victory. He had deliberately fought a slow war of attrition, with horrific purges in each piece of captured territory, as an investment in terror to underpin his future regime. By 31 March 1939, all of Spain was in Nationalist hands. About 350,000 people were killed in the course of the war. At least 50,000 people were shot by the Francoists between 1939 and 1943. Prisoners numbered nearly one million and some were forced into ‘work battalions’ to be used as cheap labour in the construction of dams, bridges and irrigation canals. The most infamous fruit of their labour was Franco’s great mausoleum for the Nationalist war dead, the Valle de los Caídos near El Escorial. About 400,000 Republicans went into exile, most never to return. The emotional cost of exile for all of them was incalculable. Most also suffered considerable material privation. Only a small minority who had funds or skills secured a decent living, most often in Latin America. Others nearer Spain usually found themselves forced into the French Foreign Legion, German labour brigades or concentration camps. The need to learn new languages and find work in a hostile environment meant that most exiles had little time to devote to Spain. For those who stayed behind, fear was made a way of life. The population was demoralised. In town and country, informers abounded. Curfews and a system of safe-conducts were in force. Between 1939 and 1944, the so-called Ministry of Justice admitted to a figure of over 190,000 executed or died in prison. Many released from jail were seriously ill or else demoralised by the fear of being arrested again. Hunger and the virtual impossibility of getting work diminished the combative capacity of the Republicans. Conditions in working-class districts were appalling: people in rags searched for scraps, many lived in caves; there were no medical services.

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