tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post6054464968202990973..comments2023-05-15T07:11:30.874+02:00Comments on Leherensuge: Fascist genocide of Basques among most brutal in EuropeMajuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post-3420261952232945432009-03-31T00:43:00.000+02:002009-03-31T00:43:00.000+02:00The 1 million figure is from memory and I don't ha...The 1 million figure is from memory and I don't have time right now to research. Anyhow .5 or 1 million is not that different considering both are estimates. <BR/><BR/>Southern Navarre in particular, as well as neighbouring La Rioja were, like all the Ebro basin, very much leftist. Country workers were certainly not for fascism at all - and they were decimated. <BR/><BR/>As for the rest, it's a complex history: the proto-nationalist Basque rebellions were the Carlist Wars, in which Basques (including the four provincial governments, so it was something official) supported the ultra-conservative pretender to the Spanish throne, D. Carlos and his descendants (also named Carlos). They did so because of two reasons:<BR/><BR/>1. Religious brainwashing (it was our Taliban period, so to say)<BR/>2. Most importantly because the ultraconservative pretenders promised to perpetuate the wide autonomy Basques had enjoyed since the Castilian invasions, with our own law and parliaments, with no military service but for the defense of the provinces and our own tolls (looking to Castile, not to the sea or our brothers of the north). The Liberals wanted to destroy all that and did to a large extent. <BR/><BR/>So Basques manned the Carlist armies but they were virtually excluded from the deision centers. In fact there were two Carlist parties: the Navarrese (Basque), that provided the manpower and the money, and the Apostolic (Spaniard) that controlled the movement from the exile. At some point in the first war, famous General Zulmakarregi was offered by the Navarrese party the Crown of Navarre, what would have displaced the Carlist leaders totally. He rejected but soon after, he was slightly injured while besieging Bilbao and the pretender insisted in that he was treated by his own personal physicians. He "mysteriously" died soon after (was obviously murdered) and Basques negotiated a peace (the famous embrace of Bergara) that was not ratified by the Spaniards. <BR/><BR/>So some decades later there was a second Carlist War (some call it "third" but the second, not supported by Basques, was just a minor faled uprising) that also ended in a never fulfilled peace agreement. <BR/><BR/>This Carlist anti-Jacobine tradition fed the rise of Basque nationalism in the late 19th century, which had a more modern style but that was still also very deeply lagged by the Christian traditions (that's why the Basque banner has so many crosses and the Basque national day is Resurrection Sunday, enfin). But also persisted as a force of its own especially in the areas where Basque language was being lost (Navarre and Araba particularly). They were mobilized by the fascists certainly but soon were forced to apply genocidal practices anyhow, much to the disgust of some of their leaders. <BR/><BR/>Franco applied some minor Carlist policies, allowing limited self-rule to Navarre and Araba (but not to Biscay and Gipuzkoa that were called "traitor provinces") and integrating the loyal Carlists into his fascist single party that added the term "Traditionalist" to the already long one of "Falange EspaƱola y de las Juventudes Obreras Nacional-Socialistas"). The Carlist banner (the Burgundy Cross, known here as St. Andrew Cross) was usd by the fascists all the time, what basically just killed the remnants of Carlism.<BR/><BR/>The late evolution of the Carlist Party, less and less relevant, was to become an odd leftist monarchist party that was among the first to challenge fascism in Navarre. For that reason many of their members were murdered by death squads before the passivity of the Spanish police in the massacre of Montejurra/Oriamendi in the late 1970s. <BR/><BR/>I doubt it can be claimed that every single Navarrese was mobilized for fascism. No doubt that many were but many were also against it and, as mentioned, many many were murdered. In any case you had no choice: either you fought for the side you fell in or you sought some pretext (my grandfather worked in a ship first and then in a mmunitions manufacture, while his brother in law risked his life with violent combinations of drugs and excercise to pretend he was ill) or you were sent to the front in a punishment batallion (another granduncle of mine died in one of them). In war you have not so many choices and Navarre fell to the Fascists since the very first day of the coup.Majuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369840391933337204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post-54590454683723807182009-03-30T14:59:00.000+02:002009-03-30T14:59:00.000+02:00Oops, when I meant "Basque" I wanted to say from "...Oops, when I meant "Basque" I wanted to say from "Euskadi (Araba, concretely)". Navarre people are obviously Basque.<BR/><BR/>RosendoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3563811638411839784.post-49828832865024628082009-03-30T14:57:00.000+02:002009-03-30T14:57:00.000+02:00The "1 million deaths" has to be a typo. From what...The "1 million deaths" has to be a typo. From what I have read the maximum would be 500 000. Anyway, what are the sources which claim this toll?<BR/><BR/><BR/>As for Navarre, I remember a Basque old man once said to me "<I>during the war, if there were 4 sons in a house, all of them went to fight for Franco</I>". This obviously means a huge commitment. I can imagine what would have happened to those who did not want to support the fascists: your 1,5 %.<BR/><BR/>Cheers<BR/><BR/>RosendoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com