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GUILLERMO MARÍN
In a small, guiet and traditional town like Vitoria in the early 1940s, many
of its inhabitants followed the developments of this second big war through
the local press. Ihis study is a very interesting way to gauge the capacity for
transformation that Francos regime had as the war was advancing and as the
winners and losers were being outlined.
In the press studied between 1939 and 1944, the population was convinced
that the Axis powers (and especially Germany) were the world’s vanguard,
the model to follow. German ,,conquests” in Europe, such as the number of
enemy ships sunk or the success of their attacks in France, England or the
USSR, were enthusiastically reported. Figures such as Adolf Hitler and Benito
Mussolini were extolled, and through small sections with photographs an
image of friendly German soldiers was portrayed, fraternising with the locals
wherever they went, as opposed to the red hordes that burned and destroyed
everything in their wake. Meanwhile, far more distant powers, like Japan,
were presented as the future rulers of the Pacific Ocean".
From 1943 onwards, this openly pro-German vision (which contrasted,
let us not forget, with the official status of the Franco regime during World
War II — neutral from 1939 to 1940, non-belligerent from 1940 to 1943) was
tempered by the first great defeats suffered by the Axis. This progressive
change of perspective started with the first major Nazi setback during the
war: the story of the German defeat in Stalingrad in February 1943. The
press, as if trying to conceal the defeat, gave very little space to this news, and
continued to present the Germans as heroes”.
The existence of the Blue Division®®, which fought on the eastern front
supporting Germany and against a great shared enemy communism — was a
decisive factor for the press to maintain this pro-German vision on the oriental
front. On the western front, however, little attention was paid to Germany, and
the manner in which the war was described changed radically, focusing on other
great narratives of the war in Europe, such as the American advances in Italy,
or the Normandy landings. In contrast to the pro-German approach until 1943,
that year the press started to emphasise the military might of the ,, Yankees”, the
neutrality of Spain, and the need to end the war and conquer peace.
Meanwhile, regarding the Pacific front, the pro-American about-turn
was also progressive, and is especially representative in the narrative of the
process of the reconquering of the Philippines by the Americans from the
occupying Japanese, represented as a ,,reconquest of the Hispanic lands for
Western civilisation and for Christianity”.
18 Pensamiento Alavés, January 23, 1942, 8; April 15, 1942, 1; December 27, 1943, 1.
1% Pensamiento Alaves, April 6, 1943, 4; May 31, 1943.
2° Xose Manoel Niifiez Seixas: Camarada Invierno. Experiencias y memoria de la Division
Azul (1941-45), Critica, Barcelona, 2016.
21 Pensamiento Alavés, November 23, 1944, 3.
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