Posted on 10/21/2011 12:16:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Spain may dig up the remains of late Fascist dictator Francisco Franco to move them from a sprawling mausoleum to a cemetery, according to a local news report.
A commission of experts hired by the Spanish government is reviewing options on how to deal with the Valley of the Fallen, the burial place near Madrid where Franco is buried and is a controversial pilgrimage destination for Fascist sympathizers.
Franco died in 1975 after emerging as the victor in the three-year Spanish Civil War which ended in 1939.
The Valley of the Fallen holds the remains of more than 30,000 people. It is part of a Catholic basilica. Its construction was Franco's idea and it is said that it was meant to symbolise an act of of national reconciliation.
(Excerpt) Read more at adnkronos.com ...
Franco fought for God and country, defeated the communists and refused to support Hitler during WWII. I believe history will smile on him someday.
It’s probably a stretch to call Franco a fascist. Unlike Mussolini, his support came from a coalition of different groups ranging from Fascists and Monarchists, to fringe groups like Carlists.
He was not an angel, but was a better option than the Republicans who were on the road to creating a communist state.
The neat thing about an autopsy is that if the guy isn't dead at the start he sure will be by the end.
The Republicans were also a coalition of widely different groups (by no means were they all commies), but you are probably correct about where they would have wound up without the resistance of Franco and his guys.
I remember reading a post-Franco article about Spain, probably in Newsweek; one of the quotes was from a 30-something, who said, in all of Europe, only in Spain was Communism defeated on the battlefield. The “republicans” of the Spanish Civil War were just communists, and like all communists everywhere throughout the past bloody century, they aren’t interested in tolerating dissent, or even free speech.
He saved Spain....and he wasn’t a Fascist.
Franco got help from the Luftwaffe, and the volunteer [sic] Kondor Legion; but he also met Hitler, and being a smart guy, must have realized that he wasn’t going to get ‘er done. Spain was a poor and backward country when he took it over, and it made far more sense to remain neutral — no matter what the outcome, Spain (and Franco) would be secure in postwar Europe.
During the entire war, especially after 1942, the Spanish borders were more or less kept open for Jewish refugees from Vichy France and Nazi-occupied territories in Europe. Spanish diplomats, acting outside of Franco's authority, extended their diplomatic protection over Jews in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the Balkans. Spain was a safe haven for all Jewish refugees and antisemitism was not official policy under the Franco regime. In 1940 alone, roughly 40,000 Jewish refugees found safe haven in Spain. Overall, per some estimates, during World War II, Franco's policies saved the lives of almost 200,000 European Jews.
Thanks livius.
(Francianity) ?
LOL, Valiant fight to stay dead, very good!
And wasn’t Garcia-Lorca also involved in a similar struggle?
Mira, Espana, let the dead stay buried, RIP and all that rot as we Anglophones say.
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