Page 105 [105]
OCR
CONCLUSIONS The period between 1936 and 1944 was a period of political violence and ideological effervescence, both in Spain, with a civil war, and later in Europe and the world, with the Second World War. Although officially Germany did not participate in the civil war, and although the Franco regime was officially neutral/non-belligerent in the second great war, mutual support between the two countries was evident. Ihis support was based on ideological affinities and the belief that political violence was a legitimate tool for the construction of a project presented as revolutionary, renovating... totalitarian. The presence of foreign powers, and more specifically of Nazi Germany in Spain, had a variety of manifestations and was constant between the end of 1936 and 1944. For the case analysed in this paper, that of a ,,small inland city” like Vitoria, this was a ,,physical” presence, represented by soldiers in the city, and also by senior Luftwaffe commanders. It was also a ,,symbolic” presence, by honouring the „friendly nations" (Germany, Italy, Portugal) in a context, that of late 1936, in which a war had just begun in Spain, and one of the sides needed legitimacy and international support. + 104 +
