White Terror (Spain)

Not to be confused with the White Terrors in France, Bulgaria, Russia, Hungary, China, Taiwan, Finland and Greece.

Content Warning: This article contains extensive discussion of mass murder, rape and child abuse

The White Terror or Francoist Repression was a white terror by the Nationalist Faction in the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship in Spain against political opponents. Including republicans, anti-fascists, socialists, anarchists, protestants, freemasons, intellectuals, and nationalists who supported an independent Galicia, Catalonia and Basque Country. Between 58,000 and 200,000 were killed during the repression. It is frequently compared to and contrasted with the Spanish Red Terror, which as death estimates of between 38,000 to 115,000 people.

After the War

When Heinrich Himmler (the main architect of the Holocaust) visited Spain in 1940, a year after Franco's victory, he claimed to have been "shocked" by the brutality of the Falangist repression. In July 1939, the foreign minister of Fascist Italy, Galeazzo Ciano, reported of "trials going on every day at a speed which I would call almost summary... There are still a great number of . In Madrid alone, between 200 and 250 a day, in Barcelona 150, in Seville 80".

Anti-Feminism

Women's and LGBT rights were lost in the new regime as patriarchy was violently enforced. Around 5,000 gay people were arrested and executed in concentration camps. Divorces were made illegal and divorced couples were forced by the state to remarry. Women now needed the permission of their husbands to take a job or open a bank account.

Women were legally classified as minors who were under the guardianship of their husbands, with no legal authority over their children nor equal rights to joint property. Women were imprisoned for committing adultery; by contrast, men who committed the same offence were not jailed.

In addition, honor hillings were legalized, where it was legal for the head of the household to kill his wife or daughter if he felt that she had "dishonored" him or the family name.

Women who opposed the regime faced brutal repression, being paraded naked through the streets, being shaved and forced to ingest castor oil so they would urinate themselves in public. Sexual harassment and rape of dissident women was performed by police and soldiers. In many cases, the houses and possessions of widows of republicans were confiscated by the government, forcing many into prostitution just to survive, leading to:

"The increase in prostitution both benefited Francoist men who thereby slaked their lust and also reassured them that 'red' women were a fount of dirt and corruption".

Censorship

Books, poetry, songs, plastic arts, film and theater that were critical of the regime were all banned and anyone caught distributing it would be arrested. Several schools of art, writing and music were banned as they were seen as too close to communism.

Concentration Camps

Spain had approximately 367,000 to 500,000 prisoners who were held in 50 concentration camps or prisons. In 1933, before the war, the prisons of Spain contained some 12,000 prisoners, just seven years later, in 1940, just one year after the end of the civil war, 280,000 prisoners were held in more than 500 prisons throughout the country. Often holding poor sanitary conditions and a lack of food, causing thousands of death, with 15,000 dying alone in 1941. Many prisoners were enslaved to build damns, highways, coal mines, prisons and canals.

In addition, horrific medical experiments were carried out in these camps by Antonio Vallejo-Nájera, who wished to "establish the bio-psych roots of Marxism", proposing a link between belief in leftism and "mental retardation". Vallejo Najera also said that it was necessary to remove the children of the Republican women from their mothers. Thousands of children were taken from their mothers and handed over to Francoist families. Many of the mothers were executed afterwards.

Purges

The Francoist Dictatorship carried out extensive purges among the civil service. Thousands of officials loyal to the Republic were expelled from the army. Thousands of university and school teachers lost their jobs (a quarter of all Spanish teachers). Priority for employment was always given to Nationalist supporters, and it was necessary to have a "good behavior" certificate from local Falangist officials and parish priests. Furthermore, the Francoist Dictatorship encouraged tens of thousands of Spaniards to denounce their Republican neighbours and friends.

Repression

Julián Casanova Ruiz, nominated in 2008 among the experts in the first judicial investigation (conducted by judge Baltasar Garzón) against the Francoist crimes estimate 50,000 dissidents. were executed under the dictatorship. Political parties and trade unions were forbidden except for the government party. Hundreds of militants and supporters of the parties and trade unions declared illegal under Francoist Spain, such as the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, Communist Party of Spain, Workers' General Union and the National Confederation of Labour were imprisoned or executed. Other Iberian languages, including but not limited to Basque, Catalan, Galician, Asturleonese and Aragonese had their public use forbidden, and the statutes of autonomy of Catalonia and the Basque Country were abolished.

References

Wikipedia - White Terror (Spain)