Posted on 10/13/2019 7:16:33 AM PDT by marshmallow
ROME - After more than a year-long legal battle over the burial location of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s remains, on Friday the nation’s famed ‘Valley of the Fallen’ was officially closed ahead of the exhumation of the former general’s body.
The Oct. 11 closure of the Valley took place a day ahead of Spain’s national day, Día de la Hispanidad, and the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, Spain’s national patroness, both of which are celebrated on Oct. 12.
Built upon Franco’s orders in the mid-20th century, the Valley of the Fallen is now a monument to some 34,000 who fell during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. Anonymous mass graves throughout the country are estimated to hold at least 114,000 additional victims of the war.
The monument in the Valley is also home to the Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen and the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen, whose monks are dedicated to praying for the repose of those who died in the war and for peace.
It is located just under 30 miles north of Madrid in the Spanish town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a historical residence of the King of Spain. Atop the basilica is a 500-foot-tall stone cross, visible from miles away.
Franco was buried inside the massive basilica, which serves as El Escorial’s cathedral, shortly after he died in 1975, and his entombment there has been a constant source of controversy among those who argue that the deceased should not be disturbed and those who say the dictator’s presence in the basilica after the fall of his dictatorship is inappropriate and glorifies the winners of the war, rather than honoring victims.
(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...
Been there. Seen it. Very impressive.
Along with God, Franco was the protector of Spain. He staved off the communists at a time when the communists were making inroads everywhere. Without Franco, Spain would have been a much worse place.
Sadly, today Spain is going through its own "woke" revisionist spasms of denial
Francisco Franco is still dead.
:(
Had Franco lost, the communists would have taken Spain. Then Hitler would have rolled in after France fell. And that would have prolonged WWII by another year, because the allies would have had to fight through Spain as well as France.
By then, what weapons might Germany have developed?
Without Franco, Germany would probably have won the Second World War. It's not just that Franco stayed neutral; think about what a communist Spain would have done in 1939 and 1940, when Hitler and Stalin were allies and the western democracies were the common enemy. Does anyone think that a communist Spain would have allowed Britain to retain control of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean? Of course not. Stalin would have insisted that Spain do what it could to undercut the Brits.
In related news, the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show is still canceled.
> Had Franco lost, the communists would have taken Spain. Then Hitler would have rolled in after France fell. And that would have prolonged WWII by another year... <
Maybe more. As you noted, Hitler probably would have invaded Spain. And then he would have taken Gibraltar as well. That would have closed the Mediterranean to the Allies.
Franco’s maneuvering to stay neutral during WW II was quite impressive. Hitler even met with Franco once to try to convince him to join the Axis. Franco dodged and weaved. Hitler later remarked that he’d rather have three or four teeth pulled then talk with Franco again.
Side note: Franco was warned by his friend German admiral Wilhelm Canaris that Germany was going to lose the war. So did Franco stay neutral because he knew Hitler was a bad guy, or did he just not want to be on the losing side?
Spain and Cambodia make the list of the 2 countries with the highest number of unmarked mass graves in the world. When I
I first read about that I didn’t really understand what it meant. Does it mean that Russia and China mark their mass graves? They don’t waste time burying their people after they murdered them? Both of those countries slaughtered people by the millions yet neither gets mentioned.
Your post is the only reason I clicked on this thread.
I just knew someone would beat me to it. :-)
I kind of think otherwise. Germans had not yet taken large areas of France. They would have needed to cross the Pyrrenees which would have made them less mobile when they reached the plains. It is also likely the Republicans would have entered the war on the Allied side just to defend their recent victory. Stalin would have found a way to support them as th he longer the war in the west went on, the better for him. Churchill would have dealt with the devil against Hitler so there would have been support from the Brits. Cool idea though. Something Harry Turtledove could flesh out
Francisco Franco is still dead but the Spanish Civil War is still not over.
So is Chevy Chase's career.
You mean they are afraid Generalissimo Francisco Franco might NOT be still dead? (/Chevy Chase)
> So did Franco stay neutral because he knew Hitler was a bad guy, or did he just not want to be on the losing side?
Spain stayed out because they had just gotten out of an exhausting and divisive civil war where about 3%-5% of the population died. There was still lots of internal dissent. Also, much of their food came from the United States with Germany having nothing significant to spare - that includes oil. They were exhausted and could be useful to the axis in other ways, like evading the British blockade.
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