Teaching about Fascism(s): The Relationship between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in East German, West German, and Italian Textbooks, 1950–60

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200942110630
Author(s):  
Daniela R.P. Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
School History ◽  
East German ◽  
The Relationship

The parallels and interconnections between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany are not merely a matter of contemporary scholarly interest, but also were and still are a charged political and societal question. Through an analysis of discourse in school history textbooks, this article analyzes how scholars, students, teachers and state authorities perceived these parallels and interconnections during the immediate postwar period. The paper investigates how the earliest history textbooks – published in the post-fascist successor states of East Germany, West Germany, and Italy between 1950 and 1960 – evaluated the relationship between Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany during the 1930s. The 1930s are key because they began with Mussolini as the senior fascist dictator; over the course of the decade – with the war in Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, the passage of anti-Semitic racial laws, and the creation of the Pact of Steel – Hitler's Germany eclipsed Mussolini's Italy as the preeminent fascist power. By looking at postwar textbooks’ representations of the Fascist Italy–Nazi Germany relationship during the 1930s, we can see that the postwar post-fascist states often blamed each other for the emergence of the especially imperialist, racist and violent elements of fascism. Thus, this article illustrates how educational materials marshalled deflection strategies during the long process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung.

Filming History and The Spanish Earth

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-156
Author(s):  
Lisa Nanney
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Documentary Film ◽  
Ernest Hemingway ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Relief Effort ◽  
Russian Military ◽  
The Relationship

Dos Passos was instrumental in initiating The Spanish Earth, a 1937 documentary film relief effort for the Republican fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, although he likely did not contribute to its writing. Yet the dangerous, divisive circumstances surrounding the film’s creation and his collaboration with its Communist director Joris Ivens and with colleague Ernest Hemingway during its production in Spain challenged Dos Passos’s beliefs about the relationship between politics and art and profoundly affected his subsequent career. The execution of a Spanish friend, José Robles, at the hands of Russian military personnel who were ostensibly Republican allies, and a subsequent coverup, led Dos Passos to re-evaluate his leftist political positions, his professional alliance with Ivens, and his longtime friendship with Hemingway. The film and its circumstances raised complex questions about the dynamics between fact and fictionalization in documentary and the artist’s ethical and aesthetic responsibilities. Dos Passos’s choices to report fully on the repercussions of factionalization in the Spanish anti-fascist cause, to represent multiple perspectives of the looming greater European conflict, and to articulate unequivocally his conviction that Communism was compromising both European and U.S. leftist movements earned opprobrium from literary critics who had theretofore lionized him.

Volunteers for Anarchy: The International Group of the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War

2020 ◽  
pp. 002200942094992
Author(s):  
Morris Brodie
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Melting Pot ◽  
International Group ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Hostile Attitude

This article explores the twin phenomena of anti-fascism and transnational war volunteering through a case study of the International Group of the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War. This anarchist-led unit comprised approximately 368 volunteers with a variety of political views from at least 25 different countries. The article examines the relationship between these foreign volunteers and their Spanish hosts (both anarchist and non-anarchist), through, firstly, the militarization of the militias in the winter of 1936, and, secondly, the group’s role in the May Days of 1937 and its aftermath. These episodes show the often hostile attitude of Spaniards to foreigners within Spain and challenge the characterization of the conflict as distinctively internationalist. The lives of these volunteers also highlight the continuity of anti-fascism between the interwar and wartime period, with Spain acting as an ‘anti-fascist melting pot’ where volunteers of different backgrounds and political leanings came together in a common cause. This commitment, however, was not unconditional, and was frequently challenged due to circumstances within Spain. Through studying these transnational fighters, we have a more comprehensive understanding of the complex nature of twentieth century anti-fascism.

scholarly journals A trajetória de um gaúcho na Guerra Civil Espanhola: Saga, de Erico Veríssimo

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-269
Author(s):  
Elcio Loureiro Cornelsen
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
History Plays ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Península Ibérica

Resumo: Nossa contribuição visa a refletir sobre o processo de ficcionalização da Guerra Civil Espanhola no romance Saga, de Erico Veríssimo, publicado em 1940. Neste caso, a relação entre Literatura e História desempenha um papel fundamental, pois o escritor tomou por base o diário de um ex-brigadista brasileiro para escrever seu romance sobre a guerra fratricida que assolou a Península Ibérica entre os anos de 1936 e 1939. Saga também documenta o engajamento político de Erico Veríssimo, numa postura contrária ao regime autoritário vigente no Brasil, na época de sua publicação: o Estado Novo.Palavras-chave: Guerra Civil Espanhola; Erico Veríssimo; Saga.Abstract: This contribution aims at to reflect about the process of fictionalizing of the Spanish Civil War on Erico Veríssimo’s novel Saga, published in 1940. In this case, the relationship between Literature and History plays a fundamental role, since the writer used as basis the diary of a Brazilian ex-brigadist to write his novel about the fratricide war that destroyed the Iberian Peninsula between 1936 and 1939. Besides Saga documents Erico Veríssimo’s political engagement on a posture against the authoritarian regime in Brazil at the time from his publishing: the called “New State”.Keywords: Spanish Civil War; Erico Veríssimo; Saga.

scholarly journals Ambassadeurs op het sportfront : Sport, politiek en diplomatie tijdens de Spaanse Burgeroorlog (1936-1939)

2021 ◽  
Vol 133 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-658
Author(s):  
Enrico Castro Montes
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Sports History ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Ambassadors on the Sports Front: Sports, Politics and Diplomacy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)This article examines the role of sports in the international politics and diplomacy of nation states in wartime. Through a case study on public diplomacy during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), this article shows how sport could influence international public opinion. By focussing on some lesser-known international sporting events from this period, such as the 1937 Labour Olympiad in Antwerp, this article will move away from the dominant focus in sports history on mega-events such as the Olympic Games. Although research about the relationship between sports and diplomacy has grown in recent years, it has barely taken into account the influence of a war context on sport and diplomacy. This article attempts to fill this gap by analysing left-wing Belgian and Spanish newspapers, archives of the Belgian workers' sports movement, and unused source material from the FIFA archive.

scholarly journals La Guerra civil española como tema en la novela gráfica actual

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
José María Izquierdo
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Spanish Literature ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Next Of Kin ◽  
New Vision

The Spanish civil war and its postwar period remain two of the most important historical references of present-day Spain. Along with themes of strictly political nature addressing that period of time and with the negative aspects of the transition to democracy, themes of memory and postmemory (Hirsch 1992 / Liikanen 2015) appear. Both are closely related to – although not only to – the silencing of the victims of the mentioned historical periods. By this, I am referring to the ones defeated and to the next of kin of the disappeared.   Despite the famous affair of the so-called “gentleman’s agreement”, the “amnesia”, the “forgetfulness” or the “silence” of the democratic transition, a variety of narrative works have emerged in recent history; literary works that in various manners have the Civil War and Franco’s posterior dictatorship as topics or common threads in their narrations[1]. The consolidation of a new literary subgenre of hybrid characteristics combining the mode of narration found in novels and the specificities of the comic strip is a novelty in the context of Spanish literature. Although already canonized in the 1970’s in the United States (Eisner, 1978), the subgenre emerged in Spain during the end of the 1990’s. With the turn of the century, a new vision of the Spanish cartoon arrived: it was no longer fundamentally limited to the sphere of children, of satire, or of short comic strips in newspapers. With an expanded format, it began addressing the adult public. In the selection of graphic novels that I am presenting, there are various narrative strategies and aesthetics elaborated from accounts from the Civil War, and its prolongation in the Second World War, by authors who were not protagonists in the real-life events themselves and whom I include within the wide concept of postmemory. The prevailing ideas in all the texts are as follows: the necessary recuperation of the memory of the Civil War, the presentation of the present as a result of the past and the importance of knowing the points of view of the defeated in order to update the cultural identities of the territorial sphere of the Spanish state [1] I have already presented one such work during the «Romanist XV» « Escribir de Oídas: Final literature of the memory of the Spanish Civil War and its postwar period” (2012).

On Hostile Soil: Spanish Republican Diplomats in Berlin at the Onset of the Spanish Civil War

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-67
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO MORENTE
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Relationship

German intervention in the Spanish Civil War was decisive for its development and result. Traditionally scholars have focused their attention on the support given by the Third Reich to the military rebels; however, they have widely neglected the study of the relationship between Germany and the Spanish Republic during the first four months of the war, when both countries maintained diplomatic relations. This paper aims at exploring a crucial aspect of that historical period, namely the circumstances of the Spanish diplomats in Berlin during those first four months, and the strategies that the German and the Spanish governments carried out in the harsh diplomatic battle that they ended up fighting. The author explains the difficult working conditions of the Spanish diplomats who were loyal to the Republic and stayed in Berlin in July 1936, when most of their colleagues deserted. Finally, he explores how the German Foreign Affairs Department, in collaboration with the Gestapo, managed to restrain the Spanish Republic diplomatic action in Germany.

Competing Utopias? Musical Ideologies in the 1930s and Two Spanish Civil War Films

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-354
Author(s):  
CAROL A. HESS
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Culture Industry ◽  
War Films ◽  
Utopian Thinking ◽  
Marc Blitzstein ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractAlthough literature inspired by the Spanish Civil War has been widely studied, music so inspired has received far less scholarly attention, and film music even less so. Musical ideologies of the 1930s, including the utopian thinking of many artists and intellectuals, emerge in some surprising ways when we consider two films of the era. Both The Spanish Earth (1937), an independent documentary, and Blockade (1938), produced in Hollywood, were intended to awaken Loyalist sympathies. The music for the former, consisting of recorded excerpts chosen by Marc Blitzstein and Virgil Thomson and widely understood as folkloric, embodies leftist composers' idealization of folk music. Werner Janssen's score for Blockade relies on many stock Hollywood gestures, granting it the status of a commodity. This article explores both films in light of Michael Denning's reflections of the relationship between the “cultural front” and the “culture industry,” along with Fredric Jameson's advocacy of the Utopian principle as a hermeneutic tool. It argues that the music for The Spanish Earth unwittingly subverts the Loyalist cause, whereas the score of Blockade, with its manipulation of Hollywood codes, is far more persuasive than the political whitewashing of its plot would seem to suggest.

scholarly journals Morality and Biology in the Spanish Civil War: Psychiatrists, Revolution and Women Prisoners in Málaga

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Richards
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
Women Prisoners ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Moral Culpability ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

The psychiatric study of women prisoners in the city of Málaga during the Spanish Civil War provides a starting point for a two-part analysis of the gendered tension between biology and morality. First, the relationship of organic psychiatry and bio-typologies to, in turn, liberalism and neo-Thomist Catholicism is discussed. The supposedly ‘biological’ roots of conditions such as hysteria and their link to women's revolutionary behaviour are examined. Second, prison records are used to examine the material conditions of women in the city and the gendered construction of their moral culpability during the revolution. Both medical science and Catholic doctrine could be exploited in declaring the indissolubility of gendered morality.

Rethinking the Postwar Period in Spain: Violence and Irregular Civil War, 1939–52

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-513
Author(s):  
Jorge Marco
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Prison System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Franco Dictatorship ◽  
Guerrilla Movement

There is a consensus among scholars regarding the slow transformation of ‘hot-blooded terror’ into ‘cold-blooded terror’ during the Civil War and the postwar period in Spain. This article challenges this framework in two ways. First, it argues that the Spanish Civil War did not end in 1939, but lasted until 1952, divided in three stages: symmetric nonconventional warfare (July 1936 – February 1937), conventional civil war (February 1937 – April 1939), and irregular civil war (April 1939–52). Second, it argues that the narrative of ‘cold-blooded terror’ after 1939 has obscured the complexity of the political violence imposed by the Franco dictatorship. The author argues that throughout the three stages of the Civil War the Francoists implemented a process of political cleansing, but that from April 1939 two different logics of violence were deployed. These depended on the attitude of the vanquished – resignation or resistance – after the defeat of the Republican army. The logic of violence directed against the subjugated enemy was channelled through institutional instruments. In contrast, the logic of counterinsurgency directed against the guerrilla movement, alongside instruments such as military courts and the prison system, imposed a wide repertoire of brutal practices and massacres against civilians and combatants.

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