On 17 July 1936, a group of right-wing generals stage a coup against the progressive Spanish government. The coup is only partially successful. Led by General Franco, the insurgents (Nationalists) conquer large parts of north and north-west Spain, but the center and south, like Catalonia, remain loyal to the republic.
The result is a nearly three-year civil war. In October 1936, a People’s Army is created on the republican side, in which all hitherto separate leftist militias become part. Part of that army is the International Brigades, formed by some 32,000 foreign volunteers who came to the government’s aid. Among them are also 700 Dutch nationals.
Despite this support, the Nationalists are slowly but surely gaining ground, and when Barcelona falls into their hands in January 1939, it breaks Republican resistance. After taking Madrid in late March that year, the Nationalists declare themselves victorious. Until 1975, Franco remained autocratic in Spain.
Casualties: 246,000 Nationalist civilians and soldiers and 387,000 Republican civilians and soldiers. To date, 114,000 Republicans are still missing.
‘Spain monument’
Inscription: “They’ll never get through”
Location: the Netherlands, Amsterdam-North, Plein Spanje 36-39
Design: Eddy Roos
Unveiling: 1986
Photo: Eddy Roos
The International Brigades are part of the Republican People’s Army fighting General Franco’s Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The unit consists of about 32,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries. They are members or sympathizers of communist parties, as well as socialists, anarchists and left-wing liberals/libertines. Of about 700 Dutch volunteers, about 300 survive the battle. On their return, they are stripped of their Dutch citizenship because they have served in a foreign armed force.
Monument to the fallen of Terrassa
Location: Spain, Catalonia, Terassa, Carretera de Montcada
Design: Jaume Bazin
Unveiling: 1944
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
This statue, erected in 1944, is to honor the Nationalists killed in the Spanish Civil War. Some years ago, a plaque was added: “The city of Terrassa commemorates the victims of war”, this to make it a monument to all victims of the civil war. However, this did not erase the monument’s origins. Nationalist monuments are controversial in Spain because of the Nationalists’ close ties with the Germans during World War II, which is why they are often poorly maintained or removed.
Monument for the exiles
Location: Spain, Catalonia, Vajol, l’Alt Empordà
Design: Joan García-Codina en Lola Reyes
Unveiling: 2000
Photo: Vajol
When Barcelona fell to the Nationalists in early 1939, some 440,000 Republicans (soldiers, militiamen and civilians) flee to France. The monument is inspired by a photo of the Gracia Bamala family, the father and his three children. In the bombing of their village Monzón, the mother is killed. A year and a half later, in France, father dies. The family asks for the children to be returned and then takes them to an orphanage where they are treated as “bad children” because they are children of the losers.
‘The fallen soldier until 2005, when the monument was renamed:
‘In honour of all who gave their lives for Spain’
Location: Spain, Catalonia, Barcelona, Ctra. de Montjuïc 66
Design: Miquel y Llucià Oslé
Unveiling: 1940
Photo: Wikimedia Commmons
Barcelona’s Montjuïc castle has long served as a prison and execution site when the Republicans take possession of it during the civil war. They imprison nearly 1,500 people there, about 250 of whom are executed. After the fall of Barcelona in 1939, thousands of Republican soldiers are imprisoned here and later deported to the Horta concentration camp near Barcelona. In 1940, the victors place this monument on the former execution site as ‘The fallen soldier’. In 2005, it was given its current name.
Monument for the victims of the execution on September 10, 1936
Location: Spain, La Rioja, Lardero, Camino de Valhondo, Cemetery ‘La Barranca’ (the canyon)
Design: Alejandro Rubio Dalmati
Unveiling: 1979
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The monument stands near the cemetery where 401 victims of an execution by the Nationalists on 10 September 1936 lie. More than 2,000 other victims, from almost every village in La Rioja, are buried in mass graves in the region. Even after the end of the civil war, until 1945, the so-called ‘Spanish White Terror’ continued to carry out mass executions of Nationalist opponents.
‘Guernica’
Location: Spain, Madrid, Calle Santa Isabel 52, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Design: Pablo Picasso
Unveiling: 1937
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Guernica, in Spanish Basque Country, has a population of 5,000. It is Monday 26 April 1937, market day, when, with the consent of the Spanish Nationalists, the town is bombed flat by the German Condor Legion and by Italian bombers. The aim is to break Basque resistance to the Nationalist uprising. The city is largely destroyed. The exact number of fatalities is still disputed by historians to hi day. Picasso creates his famous painting (3.49 m high and 7.76 m wide) for the (republican) Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris.