White Terror (Spain)

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The "White Terror" in Spain is one of the names given to the atrocities committed on the Nationalist side of the war during its course and after.[1] The terror included the repression of political opponents in areas under Nationalist occupation, mass executions in areas captured from the Republicans, bombing of civilian areas such as Guernica, Madrid and Barcelona by the Luftwaffe and Italian air force and the establishment of Franquist prisons in the aftermath of the Republicans' defeat.

In areas controlled by the Nationalists, government officials, Popular Front politicians, union leaders, teachers, intellectuals, suspected Freemasons, Basque, Catalan or Galician nationalists, military officers who had supported the Republicans or who wavered, and people suspected of voting for the Popular Front were targeted, usually brought before local committees and imprisoned or executed.

It is estimated that 200,000 to 800,000 people died as a result of Nationalist repression during and after the war.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Antony Beevor , The Battle For Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2006), pp.89-94.
  2. ^ Antony Beevor , The Battle For Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2006), p.94.

[edit] See also