I have this awful feeling that a Republican victory would mean Germany would invade Spain during WWII. Without a potentially friendly Fascist government in Spain, Hitler would probably decide to invade in order to seize Gibraltar - both for strategic reasons, and also to get revenge on Spain's "red" government for embarrassing him.
No Mas Caudillo- A Spanish Civil War TL
- Thread starter Napoleon IV
- Start date
Aftermath
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Someday Communism will fall and Spain will be ours again- Juan Yague
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Inside the camps the only thing that was truly yours was the few centimeters in your skull- Tres Anos sin Sol.
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The Spanish Civil War had left Spain in ruins. With the exception of cities on the east coast like Valencia or Barcelona every city was damaged. Some cities (most promiently Burgos, Almeria, and Bruente) were almost completely destroyed and uninhabitated. The land was scarred by craters and cut open by trenches and other fortifications. In addition the ruins of tanks and planes, rotting corpses, and unexploded bombs and shells could be found lying out in the open. Much of Spain's roads, bridges, and railroads were gone. To top it all off thousands of farmers had been forced to leave their fields to fight and when they came back their fields were often destroyed. This meant that Spain could not feed itself.
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The physical damage paled in comparison to the humanitarian damage. An estimated 475,000 people were killed and around 483,000 people fled. Portugal and France were overflowing with refugees, many of whom were placed in hastily set up interment camps. In additon Argentine President Roberto Maria Ortiz helped around 15,000 Nationalist refugees move to Argentina. Others did not escape. Around 345,000 soldiers had been taken prisoner after the Nationalist surrender; joined by 80,000 civilians. A branch of the Servicio de Inteligencia Militar, called the Division de Seguridad Interna (English: Internal Security Divison) was set up to deal with these prisoners. Prisoners were divided into two groups: reformable and non-reformable. In the non-reformable category were placed Falangists, Carlists, those who were known to have committed atrocities, and soldiers ranked lietenaut-colonel or above. On this subject General Juan Modesto (who was given command of the DSI) wrote: "In order to ensure that Fascism and Counterrevolution are removed in Spain it is necassary to liquidate all men in the non-reformable category." There were around 75,000 men declared non-reformable; only 302 survived (mainly escapees).
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It was no picnic for the "reformable prisoners" either. A few months prior to the end of the war a series of camps had been set up to deal with the inevitable influx of prisoners. The camps were very Spartan, often just a command center, a series of shacks that the prisoners were crammed into, and a few guard towers. Raul Tejos, a prisoner who escaped, wrote in his book Tres Anos Sin Sol (Three Years Without Sunshine) "in the summer the barracks would be over 32 degrees [Celcius] and in the winter men would freeze to death in their beds." Only guards had access to most amenities, even simple things such as running water or meat. Prisoners subsisted on a diet of thin gruel, bread, and any food they could scavenge; they also used trenches near the fence as bathrooms. All of this, plus the primitive medical care provided, meant that thousands died of diseases such as dysentary, malaria (in some places), typhoid, and tuberculosis. But the prisoners didn't just sit around. From dawn until dark the men would leave the camp and, under the watchful eye of the guards, work. They did jobs such as clearing ruins, scaveging material from broken tanks and planes, and even removing and disarming unexploded bombs. When it got dark the prisoners went back to camp for indoctrination. Raul Tejos wrote that "we would be forced to stand stiffly at attention for hours; chanting slogans about the virtues of socialism and democracy. Any man caught with bad posture or not chanting loud enough would be savagely beaten." Once a week there were sessions of self-critiscm and denuciation. Prisoners were encouraged to inform and spy on their comrades. After these sessions men who were denounced or failed to give adequate self-criticism were beaten and tortured.
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Some of the Nationalists continued fighting. These men were roughly divided into 3 groups: Fal Conde and the Carlists in the north; Yague, Fernandez-Cuesta[1] and mostly Falangists in Portugal, and Munoz Grandes and the remnants of the Army of Africa in Morocco. Of these perhaps the most feared were the Carlists. Ever since the fall of Pamplona they had been fighting, launching hit and run attacks on the Republican forces. "They didn't fear death," one Republican captain recalled, "in fact they seemed to welcome it. They would shoot at forces 10 times their strength. I even saw men run under tanks clutching a grenade." Between the fall of Pamplona and the surrender of the Nationalists Carlist militants killed around 5,000 Republican soldiers and destroyed 25 tanks. Meanwhile, on July 28th Yague's militants launched their first attack. Near Zafra there was a prison camp that held 8,500 ex-Nationalists. At night around 80 militants moved on the camp, armed with grenades, submachine guns, and anti-tank rifles. Due to an oversight the camp's guards had been issued submachine guns, rifles, and pistols but had only been issued pistol ammuntion. The attack was over in 15 minutes. Anti-tank rounds tore through the guard towers as the barbed wire fenceposts were destroyed by grenades. Thousands of men escaped, dozens of guards were killed, and the militants got dozens of weapons. In the aftermath security was increased at all the camps, and the 2,380 prisoners who had to misfortune to be recaptured were shot. The other major effect was a massive increase in attacks across the country.
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[1] Upon hearing the news of the Nationalist surrender a sympathetic prison guard had released Fernandez-Cuesta, who made his way to Portugal.
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Rebuilding and the First Limpieza
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We will rebuild. We will overcome. We will rise again- PSOE Slogan
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It may be an ugly business, but it is necessary to cleanse a house of rats.-Santiago Carrillo
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As the war ended the task of rebuilding began. To that end the government created the Three Year Plan. According to the Plan by 1941 Spain would bring agricultural output back to pre-war levels, mining output would doubled what it was pre-war, and heavy industry output (particulary steel, smelted copper, and cement/concrete) would increase to 150% of pre-war levels. Factories sprung up across the nation, while miners and workers put in huge amounts of effort; in many areas the average workday was 15 hours. The forced laborers were sent to do backbreaking work clearing some of the more damaged mines, draining swamps, and laying miles of railroad track to transport the materials. In the agricultural sector there were more problems. Pre-war Spanish agriculture (particularly in Andalusia) was dominated by massive estates known as latifundia. The rich, conservative latifundia owners had overwhelmingly supported the Nationalists, and many had fled or been killed. Their workers had been forced off the land by war and often were constripted into both armies. Do to this and ideological reasons collectivization seemed like the obvious answer. But Stalin was afraid that large scale collectivization would create a Red Scare in Britain and France; who he was trying to get into a united front against the Nazis. So instead a mixed system was set up where private landowners in Republican areas were able to keep their land and the latifundia were divided into both private farms for workers and small scale collective farms.
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The other major step in rebuilding was restructuring the army. A series of meeting was organized between War Minister Indalecio Prieto, Head of the Army Jose Miaja, Chief of Staff Vincente Rojo Lluch, and several generals. At the meetings it was decided that out of the 500,000 men in the army only 150,000 were needed on active duty. Another 100,000 were put int the reserves and the rest were discharged. All of the armies were disbanded and reorganized into 3 commands: The Northern Command (headed by Enrique Lister), the Southern Command (headed by Julio Mangada), and the Moroccan Command (headed by Valentin Gonzalez). The Northern Command was in charge of all territory north of Madrid and the Southern Command all territory south. The International Brigades were all disbanded and all member who could return to their home countries were sent back. Those who couldn't return (such as Germans or Italians) could either enlist with Spanish units or retire with a small pension. Several Soviet advisors and International commanders were recalled to Moscow. For example both Generals Kleber and Lukacs were recalled, arrested, and sent to the Gulag. To celebrate the last International Brigade leaving the Nationalist leaders were executed. Ramon Serrano Suner, Francisco Gomez-Jordana, Miguel Cabanellas, and Gonzalo Queipo de Llano were marched in front of a firing squad in the bullfighting arena in Barcelona. One of the executioners remembered that "all of the men went quietly." The only visible reaction was a look of shock on Serrano Suner's face as he saw the body of Cabanellas being dragged away. The bodies were cremated and the ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean.
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While all of this was going on there was still the question of the Fifth Columnists. When the Nationalists first attacked Madrid Emilio Mola had declared that he had four columns attacking the city and a "Fifth Column" of secrete supporters inside the city. With the fall of the Nationalists the government had captured documents detailing spy rings, sabatoge, and other acts of treachery. These documents were the basis of the First Limpieza (Spanish for Cleansing). While many of the Fifth Columnists had died or fled many more were still living in Spain. Soon prisons around Spain were filled with suspected Fifth Columnists. To add to the problems many documents only listed the paternal name [1]. Once arrested suspects were brutally tortured until they confessed and gave up others. After the confessions were signed the suspects would often be executed. So many death sentences were handed down that it often weeks or months went by between the signing of the confession and the execution.
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The First Limpieza quickly expanded due to industrial accidents and Communist invervention. To meet the goals of the Three Year Plan factories organized long shifts and lowered the standards for quality. On June 3rd a coal train going from Santander to Madrid went off the track, killing 4 and spilling coal everywhere. An investigation concluded that a section of rail had been weakened by a massive amount of impurities and broke under the weight of the train. Rather than acknowlege that their industrialization policy was to blame the government declared that it had been an act of sabatoge. A few days later the Cortes passed a bill making "wrecking" illegal and set the punishment at anywhere from 10 years forced labor to death. "We lived in fear of making a mistake and being dragged to prison or the gallows" one steelworker confessed. The Limpieza also expanded to include Anarchists. Many of the policemen and their commanders were Communists, and they began forging documents implicating their Anarchist rivals. The most infamous forgery was the "Rodriguez Letter," which showed Melchor Rodriguez, the Anarchist director of prisons in Madrid, offering to help Mola inflitrate the CNT with spies and protect Nationalist prisoners in exchange for $100,000. Someone tipped off Rodriguez and he hung himself before the police could get to him. In the aftermath the Anarchist Minister of Justice, Juan Garcia Oliver, resigned and was replaced by Santiago Carrillo. Under Carrillo's rule thousands of Anarchists were arrested. Catalonian prisons filled to the point where cells designed for 4 people would hold 10. One guard later recalled "About every week we would make room for new prisoners by choosing 1 or 2 men from each cell on each blocks and taking them to the prison basement, where we shot them." For the Anarchists it was a time of terror. Almost everyone knew someone who had been arrested and many feared that they would be next. Hundreds fled Spain to escape the terror and others joined the PCE or PSOE. A few, given the derisive nickname Confederacion Nacional de los Traidores, informed on their comrades.
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By October the First Limpieza was running into problems. The arrests were starting to effect the economy and hurting production. So many people were in prison that the police were forced to let criminals like robbers and exhortionists go free. In additon many top government figures like Prieto and Azana hated the violence and saved suspects from the prisons. But it was international events that finally killed the First Limpieza. On September 29th the British, French, and Germans signed the Munich Agreement. This disturbed Stalin, who had been trying to form a united front against the Nazis. Even though he kept working to make this dream a reality he worried that the British and French might work with the Nazis to destroy the USSR and Spain. In a letter to Ibarruri Stalin told her "We must prepare for war with the Fascist-Imperialist powers." To that end it was decided that all wreckers and Anarchists not sentenced would be released and put back to work. In additon almost all of the Fifth Columnists had been arrested and membership in the CNT had fallen from 1.5 million to 500,000, effectively breaking the organization's power.