Franco Still Dead

The celebration of the 30th anniversary of the death of this proto-Milosovic reptile is apparently causing some disturbance in Spain. Perhaps its the 10,000 leftists and others that were murdered by Franco's thugs. (The current prime minister's grandfather was one....victim...not thug.)

The Valle de los Caidos, (Valley of the Fallen), that serves as Franco's tomb, was built by slave labor provided by the vanquished Republicans. It is still funded by the State. There is now a move afoot to return the justifiably rotted remains of the ghoul to his family, and retain the garish monstrosity as a monument to the fallen of BOTH sides.

This probably won't happen, if only because Spain, like most of the West, still retains a more than a whiff of fascism within the confines of the military and commercial, (not to mention religious and aristocratic), elites.


On the other hand there is this...


"Thoroughly documented, these facts also spell out Franco's effort on behalf of Jews, an effort that saved perhaps as many as 60,000 from the Nazi concentration camps. In 1940 he refused to submit to Hitler's demand to institute anti-Jewish legislation in Spain. Instead, several months after meeting Hitler on the Spanish border of occupied France, Franco facilitated the founding of Instituto Arias Montano, a scholarly organization devoted to the study of Hebrew, Sephardic and near-Eastern cultures in Madrid, as well as the establishment of the scholarly journal Sefarad (Hebrew for Spain and the Iberian Peninsula), one of the world's finest Jewish publications. He opened the Spanish border to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution, ordering Spanish embassies and consulates to provide asylum and Spanish passports.

Furthermore, beginning in 1945, Franco helped the Jewish Agency smuggle the survivors of concentration camps to Palestine, against the wishes of the British. Starting in 1956, he opened the way for Moroccan Jews to travel en masse to Israel via the Spanish Sahara. He signed the document of abrogation of the 1492 Edict of Expulsion of Spanish Jews. During all the wars that Arabs states waged against Israel, Franco personally intervened with Arab governments to save Jews from persecution..."

So the animal is responsible for the death of at least 10,000 Leftists, regional Nationalists and the like. He persecuted Protestants, free-thinkers, Socialists, and so forth. Yet he is also responsible for saving the lives 60,000 non-combatant civilians from a regime exponentially more evil than his. He authored the terror bombing of Guernica... But he stood against Auschwitz.

I suppose that it's something to do with his Marrano background - a fact certain to make the standard Falangist uncomfortable. Still its heartwarming that the fascist who could unleash a firestorm in a town filled with women and children could feel an odd tug on the heartstrings. Its like enjoying something pleasantly homey with Hannibal Lector.