Double Helix: Blueprint of Nations
Welcome to 'Double Helix: Blueprint of Nations,' the podcast where we analyze and look at the events, people and actions that have shaped the nations of our world . From revolutions to treaties, conflicts to triumphs, we explore the historical blueprints that continue to influence the way nations think and act today.
Double Helix: Blueprint of Nations
The Spanish Civil War: The Time of The Hunters (Part 4)
Join us as we unravel the turbulent and chaotic early days of the Spanish Civil War, a time when Spain was engulfed in ideological strife and violence. Ever wonder how a city can function normally amid revolution and terror? Discover the surreal duality of Barcelona, where the anarchist CNT-FAI fostered a mix of revolutionary fervor and everyday life, with scenes vividly brought to life through personal accounts from figures like George Orwell. We'll take you on a journey through the streets of Madrid and Granada, capturing the power struggle that emerged in Republican territory as government authority crumbled, giving rise to workers' committees, political parties, and militias vying for control.
Explore the contrasting forms of violence that marked this brutal conflict, from the spontaneous chaos of the Red Terror in Republican zones to the systematic terror orchestrated by Nationalist leaders like General Mola. We'll delve into the methodical approach of the Nationalists, where fear and executions were used as tools to reshape Spain, and experience the chilling accounts of cities like Badajoz and Seville. The skies above Spain tell their own harrowing story as we uncover the devastating impact of aerial warfare, previewing the horrors of World War II with the infamous bombing of Guernica and relentless assaults on Madrid. Immerse yourself in these pivotal moments of history, where survival and ideology intertwined, and witness the violent legacy that began to take shape.
Today's episode contains graphic descriptions of violence, mass killings and other atrocities that some listeners may find deeply disturbing. While these events are crucial to understanding the Spanish Civil War, listener discretion is strongly advised. The priest is running. It is dawn in Madrid, july 20th 1936. He's traded his cassock for workman's clothes. He knows the militia is coming. They've already burned the church. Now they're going house to house. In his pocket is a piece of paper, a list of parishioners who he fears will be targeted. Next he has to warn them, but he doesn't make it. They find him three blocks from the church.
Speaker 1:200 miles away, in the city of Granada, a school teacher is being marched to the cemetery wall. It's the same dawn. He's wearing the same clothes he had on when they arrested him the night before His crime, being a member of the teacher's union. A phalangist officer reads out the charge, poisoning the minds of children with Marxist ideas. The school teacher tries to speak, but a rifle butt silences him. But a rifle butt silences him.
Speaker 1:You know how they say you can't understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes. Well, I'd argue, you can't understand a nation until you've walked through its history, not just the highlight reel or the sanitized version you find in textbooks. I mean really getting into its DNA, those defining moments that shaped everything that came after, those moments where paths were chosen, where decisions were made in palaces and backrooms and city streets that changed the course of millions of lives. I'm your host, paul, and this is Double Helix Blueprint of Nations, where we unravel the genetic code of countries through their most transformative moments. Think of it like ancestry testing, but for entire nations. We dig deep into the historical DNA, finding those crucial moments that made countries who they are today. In our last episode we saw how Spain's military coup split the country in two. Today we'll witness what happens next when the mask of civilizations falls away and Spain descended into what many would later call the time of the hunters. You know I've studied many civil wars, but what happens in Spain in those first months still has the power to shock.
Speaker 1:This wasn't just about military victories or political control. It was about erasing the other side completely. Control. It was about erasing the other side completely. Both sides convinced themselves they weren't just fighting enemies, but rather removing a cancer from the body of Spain itself. The results were predictably catastrophic. Let's start with Republican territory. The failed coup had an unexpected effect it completely shattered government authority. Had an unexpected effect it completely shattered government authority. The republic survived, but real power now lay with a bewildering array of workers' committees, political parties and armed militias. In Barcelona, the anarchist CNT-FAI was suddenly the strongest force in Catalonia. In Madrid, socialist and communist militias controlled the streets, and in Valencia, local defense committees seized power.
Speaker 1:The writer George Orwell, who would later fight for the Republic, described Barcelona in those early days. The workers had seized all the transport, most of the factories and even the smallest shops. Every building flew a red flag or a black anarchist flag, even the boot. Blacks had been collectivized and their boxes were painted red and black. For some it was a revolution, for others it was the beginning of a nightmare.
Speaker 1:The violence in Barcelona offers us a perfect example of how complex this situation was. The city had a long tradition of radical politics, anarchists, socialists and separatists. When the coup failed there, power fell to the anarchist CNT-FAI and other working class organizations, and they quickly established a revolutionary committee to govern the city. But here's what's fascinating and tragic about this moment While workers were seizing factories and establishing collectives, while churches were being burned and suspected rioters executed, the city's basic services kept running. Trams and buses operated on schedule, hospitals remained open, bakers still baked bread. It was revolution and normalcy, terror and daily life all happening simultaneously. One account I find particularly telling comes from a British businessman who was in Barcelona during these early days and he wrote In the morning I would see bodies in the streets, victims of the night's violence. By afternoon, children would be playing soccer in those same streets. In the evening, people would stroll to the Ramblas as if nothing had happened. It was as if the city was living in two different realities all at once. And here's where we need to pause and understand something crucial about the violence that followed.
Speaker 1:In Republican zones, most of the killing was spontaneous, carried out by local militias acting on their own initiative. The Republican government tried to stop it, but they had lost control of their own territory. Let me share some numbers that tell this story. In Madrid alone, about 8,815 people were killed in what became known as the Red Terror. But look at the timing Roughly 62% of the killings happened in the first three months of the war. As the Republican government regained control, the violence decreased significantly. The targets were predictable Priests, nuns, wealthy landowners, known conservative supporters. But there was also an element of random violence and settling of old scores. In one village in La Mancha, a farmer was killed simply because he had fired a worker 10 years earlier. In Barcelona, a factory owner was executed because he had opposed the strike in 1931.
Speaker 1:The Catholic Church bore the brunt of the violence. About 6,832 religious personnel were killed, including 13 bishops, 4,172 priests and seminarians, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns. Countless churches were burned, their art destroyed, their relics desecrated. In Barcelona, revolutionaries even dug up cemeteries' old mummies of nuns and displayed them outside their convent. Why such hatred for the church? A Spanish anarchist gave one answer that stayed with me. When asked why they were burning churches, he replied the church is not just part of the old order, it is the mortar that holds the old order together. As long as people believe in heaven above, they will accept hell below. But here's something that's crucial to understand except hell below. But here's something that's crucial to understand as horrible as the Red Terror was, what was happening in nationalist territory was even worse. This is not just my opinion. This is supported by virtually every serious historical study of the war In nationalist areas.
Speaker 1:The killing was not chaotic or spontaneous. It was systematic, organized and deliberate. General Mola had written in his instructions to the coup it is necessary to spread terror. We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do. And they had a name for it. They called it limpieza cleansing. The word itself tells you everything about their mindset. They weren't just killing enemies, they were purifying Spain In nationalist territory. Being a trade unionist, a school teacher who taught in secular school, or even just a known Republican voter could be a death sentence.
Speaker 1:Let me take you to Badajoz in August 1936. The city has just fallen to Franco's army of Africa. Their commander, colonel Juan Jague, becomes known as the Butcher of Badajoz. For what happens next? Colonel Juan Jague becomes known as the Butcher of Barajos. For what happens next? Over 4,000 people are executed in the first days after the city is captured. Many are killed in the bullring, where machine guns are set up to make the work more efficient. When a foreign journalist asks Jague about the massacre, he replies Of course we shot them. What do you expect? Was I supposed to take 4,000 Reds with me as my army advanced, racing against time? Was I expected to turn them loose in my rear and let them make Badajoz Red. Again In Seville in July of 1936, general Gonzalo Capodegiano has just taken control of the city.
Speaker 1:Each night he gives radio broadcasts celebrating the executions of Reds. In one infamous broadcast he declares For every one of our men you kill, we will kill ten of yours, and your women should not think that they'll be spared. They too will know the meaning of real men. This wasn't just talk. In Seville alone, about 3,028 people were executed in the first months of the war. But more chilling was the bureaucratic nature of the killings.
Speaker 1:The Nationalists kept detailed records complete with photographs and fingerprints of their victims complete with photographs and fingerprints of their victims. They saw themselves not as killers but as surgeons removing what they called the cancer of Marxism from Spain's body. In Granada, we see how this surgery worked. When the city fell to the nationalists, they divided the population into categories. Category A known leftists to be executed immediately. Category B suspected leftist sympathizers to be investigated and probably executed. Category C political moderates to be monitored. Category D supporters of the uprising to be armed. The systematic approach explains why nationalist violence actually increased over time, while republican violence decreased as the government regained control.
Speaker 1:The nationalists weren't just killing enemies, they were remaking Spain through terror. In Granada, the poet Federico Garcia Lorca is arrested, his crime being a quote socialist and a Freemason. He was neither, but it hardly mattered. They shoot him near an olive grove. The exact location of his body remains unknown to this day. When asked about the killing, one nationalist officer reportedly said we killed him because he was a poet. The numbers are staggering. In the small city of Huelva, 6,000 people were killed, about 10% of the adult male population. In La Rioja, a region that saw no fighting because it immediately fell to the nationalists, 2,000 people were executed. In Zaragoza, the University of Medicine was turned into an execution center.
Speaker 1:The Moroccan troops of the Army of Africa brought their own particular brand of terror. These were colonial troops used to fighting colonial wars, but they treated Spanish civilians like colonial subjects. In villages across Extremadura and Andalusia, the very sight of their distinctive turbans was enough to cause panic. A British journalist wrote they were Franco's shock troops, but also his psychological weapon. The threat of letting the Moors lose on a town was often enough to secure their surrender.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, franco was consolidating his power. On September 21, 1936, his fellow generals named him Generalissimo, supreme Military Commander of All Nationalist Forces. But Franco wanted more. By October 1, he was also head of state. It was a masterful political maneuver. While other generals had let the coup, franco emerged as the ultimate victor. Let me show you how cleverly Franco maneuvered to gain supreme power. When the other generals named him Generalissimo, it was supposed to be purely military title, but Franco understood something his colleagues did not.
Speaker 1:In a civil war, military power quickly becomes political power. Consider this sequence of events. On September 21st, he becomes Generalissimo. On September 29th he arranges for the Junta of National Defense to be dissolved. On October 1st he's proclaimed Head of State. Each step seemed logical, even necessary in the context of war, but together they amount to a quiet coup within the coup. The other rebel generals, especially Mola and Queipo de Llano, watched this process with growing unease. Mola allegedly remarked to a fellow officer we thought we were giving him an army, he's building himself a state. But by then it was too late.
Speaker 1:Franco had the support of Hitler and Mussolini, control of the Army of Africa and a growing propaganda machine painting him as Spain's savior. Let me share a detail that illustrates this perfectly. In Republican Madrid, there were dozens of different militia groups, each with their own command structure, their own politics, even their own prisons. In Nacional de Salamanca, where Franco established his headquarters, there was one command, one politics, one system of oppression. A Republican officer captured by Franco's forces allegedly said Now I understand why we're losing. You know how to hate better than we do. This was a crucial difference between the two sides. While the Republic struggled for control of its own forces, franco was building a ruthlessly efficient military dictatorship. Franco was building a ruthlessly efficient military dictatorship. While republican territory was fragmented between competing ideologies socialists, communists, anarchists, nationalist Spain was becoming a monolithic state under one leader.
Speaker 1:Another aspect of the conflict was the international dimension, which started to become crucial. Hitler and Mussolini had already been helping Franco, but now they stepped up their support. Italian transport planes and German junkers were flying in Moroccan troops. Italian submarines were harassing Republican shipping. German technicians were training nationalist forces.
Speaker 1:You know there's a document from this period that I find particularly chilling. It's a telegram from Hitler to Franco dated July 26, 1936. Hitler promises support, but that's a condition the national uprising must succeed quickly. Franco replies, thanking him, but warns that the war might take longer than expected, and you can see here that he's already thinking ahead, realizing that a longer war will help him eliminate more enemies and consolidate his power even more. And this brings us to another crucial aspect of this period the role of propaganda and mythology in justifying the violence. Both sides created their own narratives, their own martyrs, their own versions of Spain's past and future. The nationalists claim they were fighting a crusade against godless communism. The revived medieval imagery Santiago Matamoros, saint James the Moor Slayer became a popular symbol. Franco himself was often portrayed as the modern El Cid, defending Christian Spain against its enemies. The Republicans, meanwhile, cast their struggle as part of a larger fight against international fascism. They portrayed themselves as heirs to Spain's progressive traditions the comuneros who had fought against absolute monarchy in the 16th century. The guerrillas who had resisted Napoleon, the First Republic of 1873.
Speaker 1:By October 1936, both sides were preparing for what everyone knew would be the decisive battle Madrid. Franco's forces were advancing on the capital from the southwest. The Republic was desperately trying to organize its defenses. International aid was beginning to arrive Soviet tanks and planes for the Republic and more German and Italian support for Franco. Tanks and planes for the Republic and more German and Italian support for Franco. But something had changed in Spain that could never be unchanged.
Speaker 1:The writer Arturo Barea described walking through Madrid in those days. The city looked the same, the same buildings, the same streets, but it was as if someone had painted over reality with invisible blood. Everyone knew someone who had been killed, everyone was afraid of someone, everyone was preparing to kill or be killed. The transformation of Madrid in these months was extraordinary. The city had always been somewhat conservative it was, after all, the capital of bureaucrats and civil servants. Conservative, it was, after all, the capital of bureaucrats and civil servants. But as Franco's forces approached, it became the symbol of republican resistance. Workers fortified the city, building barricades and tank traps. Women organized soup kitchens and first aid stations. Children helped fill sandbags. The socialist leader, dolores Ibarurri, la Pasionaria, coined what would become the city's defiant slogan no pasarán they shall not pass.
Speaker 1:But beneath this unity, tensions remained. Different militia groups controlled different neighborhoods. The Communist Party was growing stronger thanks to Soviet aid. The anarchists were suspicious of growing Soviet influence. The moderate Republicans worried about revolution from within as much as attack from without. A young militia member captured this complexity in his diary. We are fighting, franco. Yes, we are also fighting among ourselves about what kind of Spain we want after we win. We want revolution. Others want democracy. Some want independence for their regions. Others want a unified Spain. The only thing we can agree on is that we don't want Franco. I wonder if that will be enough. I wonder if that will be enough.
Speaker 1:As September turned into October, the nature of the war was about to change dramatically. Franco's forces were approaching Madrid, but they brought with them something new, something that would transform warfare forever. The German Condor Legion and Italian Aviazione Legionaria were preparing to test theories about a terrifying new kind of combat the systematic bombing of civilian populations. A Republican officer captured near Toledo reportedly told his interrogators you may have more guns than us, but you can't shoot an entire people. One of Franco's officers replied we don't need to. We have something better than guns. Now, looking up at the aircraft circling overhead, the Republican finally understood what he meant.
Speaker 1:Next time, on Double Helix, the War Takes to the Skies. We'll witness the destruction of Guernica, where German bombers turned an ancient Basque town into a laboratory for terror. To the skies, we'll witness the destruction of Guernica, where German bombers turn an ancient Basque town into a laboratory for terror. Then we'll see how Madrid faced its own ordeal from above as Franco's forces tried to bomb the capital into submission. Two cities, two stories of aerial warfare and civilian courage that would preview the horrors awaiting Europe in World War II. Until then, thank you for listening and we will see you soon. ©. Transcript Emily Beynon.
