The termination of the war. The collapse of the Popular Front follows a sad but inevitable trajectory. Once the Nationalists were able to reach the east coast and split the Republican army in two, there remained few positive results left for the revolutionaries. As with all wars in the twentieth century, the final months of the war were filled with their fair share of atrocities committed by the victors while refugees attempted to escape and continue surviving in the midst of devastating poverty and the loss of their homes and homeland. The ones who were able to cross the Pyrenees and make it into France had only refugee camps awaiting them—little different from the concentration camps that were the destination of those deemed "enemies of the state" who were rounded up in Spain. A main difference, I guess, was in the camps in Spain there were still thousands of political executions waiting to happen throughout the next several years. Referred to as the "White Terror," these actions by Franco's Nationalists when added to the extrajudicial killings during the war would result in an estimated 200,000 of their fellow countrymen murdered for their beliefs.
Such a sad chapter in history that is not so far removed from modern times. This series of documentaries does an incredible job of preserving the accounts of real-life witnesses who experienced the stories being recounted for posterity.
No comments:
Post a Comment