It is of course consonant with the amiable relationship between non-Hitlerian Spanish fascism (leftist progressivists too, but perhaps less) and the ~1492 diaspora – see Primo de Rivera, Ernesto Giménez Caballero, and the dictatorial decree of December 20 1924 which enabled the heroic labours of Ángel Sanz Briz. But there’s an amusing hypothesis that it is simply a counter to desperate Catalan attempts to gain international support for secession using a supposed Tel Aviv -> Washington -> Brussels chain of influence. And, unlike the entire population of the Rif (whose ancestors beheaded or otherwise did in one of Margallo’s at Annual) dusting off its keys to Granada real estate, there’s very little potential down-side.
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Spanish fascism was deeply ingrained with antisemitism (e.g. the frequent calls to smash the ‘Jewish, Masonic, Marxist conspiracy’, the lists drawn up of prominent Jews, etc) but once the death camps were revealed, went into overdrive to create a ‘we saved the Jews’ myth.
Maybe Franco himself wasn’t that bothered but if Hitler had won, I’m fairly sure that the Jewish refugees who made it safely to Spain would have been put on trains to France and Germany eventually.
But it wasn’t, any more than other branches of socialism were, until the Nazi and Catholic Action cults developed here – and as long as there was any prospect of Hitler winning the older, more racially and culturally tolerant remnants of fascism/falangism were not exactly bon ton. Bloody Ian Gibson makes the same (profitable) error of reading 20s & early 30s culture through glasses tinted red by the late 30s and 40s.
Anyway, you’re my commenter of the month, so a year’s free sub is yours!
It was. So there. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_y_los_jud%C3%ADos#El_antisemitismo:_la_conspiraci.C3.B3n_judeomas.C3.B3nica
I think the point is that later on, when Franco shaped his dictatorship into ‘just’ an ultra-Catholic (and who heard of an ultra-Catholic movement that wasn’t intrinsically antisemitic?) authoritarian parasite state that had less to do with fascism, it was much easier for the regime to say “look how many Jews we didn’t kill”, and never mind the fact that the main reason was because they hardly had any. Gímenez Caballero may not have been but he weren’t the be all and end all of Spanish fascism, in my humble.
Thanks for the sub. I may walk from CdV to Fòrum tomorrow. It’s meant to be quite a relaxing stroll.
Castellón de Valencia to Barcelona is a long way in a day. Mind the Ebro – it’s quite full.
The link is mainly about the period where I acknowledge that regime propaganda was explicitly anti-semitic, but I’m talking about earlier, when fascism was more of a literary than political phenomenon, and thoroughly atheistic and progressive. I’ve already cited the philosemitism of Giménez Caballero, who was the principal publicist of early fascism, and there’s lots of other nonconformism with subsequent dogma. Samuel Ros, later editor of the lavishly produced philo-Nazi journal Vértice, wrote a short story around 1932 which is as masonic as anything you’ll find elsewhere. If you were to include Lorca and arrange this curious trio from left to right, Lorca, with his racial obsession, would probably be on the same side as the sun tomorrow morning when you start making your way up the coast.
After the defeat of the Serrano Suñer faction Barcelona Jews were allowed to start holding informal religious services, and official permission for the synagogue came in 1946. My impression is that Protestants were regarded as far more dangerous, and the Methodist church here was sacked as late as 1947.
I may bump into you in the Forum (were Roman fora dedicated to skateboarding and raves?) as I rattle my way to Alcampo to launder the morning’s proceeds.
As expected, my walking plans were scuppered and we did the castle circuit in Cerdanyola instead.
Re: the Methodists – interesting, I’d never heard about that.
Shame – I was hoping you’d discover if the guy at that end with the flock of sheep was still there. The subsidies were cut and he was on the verge of eating the buggers, the last time I saw him.