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A TIME OF WARS AND COMMON TOTALITARIAN PROJECTS
official documents related to the municipal policy. Ihere was a tendency to
omit information, or to grossly falsify it, as was done with the bombing of
Gernika".
Besides Germans and Italians, there was also another exotic element
during this period in the city: soldiers from North Africa. The first arrived
in December 1936 during the battle of Villarreal, and many of them were
quartered in the vicinity of the plaza de toros (bullring). Their presence in
the city lasted until the end of the Bizkaia campaign, in the summer of 1937".
Interviews with witnesses of that period — who were children or very young at
the time — have highlighted the deep impression that those ,German gentlemen
— so tall, elegant and handsome” made and the reactions that all these foreign
developments caused in the city. They are remembered as quiet, orderly and
friendly, in contrast to the Italians, more scandalous and fun-loving.
With regard to the North African troops, the perception of them varied:
from the image of good maghrebis portrayed by the uprising, and which is
reflected in some opinion articles in the press, to the suspicion that was raised
among part of the local population.
ParT Two: THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1939-1944/45)
The Second World War through the local press
Ihe start of the Second World War was the result of a complex chain of
economic, political and ideological factors, many of which were a legacy of
the way in which the end ofthe First World War was managed. In the 20s and
30s of the twentieth century, several totalitarian regimes emerged in Europe
in a context in which not a few politicians and intellectuals thought that
democracy wasa political model in crisis, and which needed new alternatives:
something cutting edge, a breakthrough”.
In practice, this global conflict pitched two major blocs against each other:
the Axis powers, which included Germany, Italy, and the Japanese; and the
Allies, with the UK, USA and the USSR as the main powers. Its outcome marked
the end of Fascist-style totalitarianism in Europe, and the emergence of a new
bipolar political context: the Cold War, in which the USA and the USSR pushed
for more than 40 years to extend their ideological influence in the world.
155 Walter L. Bernecker: Gernika y Alemania: debates historiograficos, Historia Contempordnea,
No. 35, 2007, 507-527.
16 On the participation of Maghrebis in the Spanish Civil War, Rosa Madariaga: Los moros que
trajo Franco: la intervención de tropas coloniales en la Guerra Civil española, Barcelona,
Martinez Roca, 2002.
7 Francisco Cobo - Claudio Hernändez - Miguel Ängel del Arco (eds.): Fascismo y Modernismo.
Politica y cultura en la Europa de entreguerras (1918-1945), Granada, Comares, 2016.
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