The now infamous entry in Spain’s recently published biographical dictionary describes General Francisco Franco as a courageous figure who set up an “authoritarian, but not totalitarian” regime. Written by 86-year-old historian Luis Suárez, the entry paints Western Europe’s longest-serving dictator in a favourable light, extolling his military prowess. This account of Franco’s reign differs sharply from that outlined by British historian Paul Preston in his latest book, The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination during the Civil War and After. In fact, Professor Suárez makes no mention of Francoist atrocities at all. The furore sparked by Suárez’s dictionary entry is … [Read more...] about Spain’s conflicting memories refuse to fade
Spanish Holocaust
The Spanish holocaust
Even to this day, when asked about the slaughter and repression carried about by General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War and in the years that followed, the standard reply from many Spaniards is that atrocities were committed on both sides. But in this relentlessly harrowing read, British historian Paul Preston provides, page after page, factual, documentary accounts of the systematic policy introduced by Franco early on in the war to rid the country of the red menace and to install a reign of terror among the few that might still contemplate resistance. This was accomplished through disappearances, and in many cases, the murders of entire families, along with theft of young … [Read more...] about The Spanish holocaust