Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista

The Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista (UMRA, Republican Antifascist Military Union) was a self-described anti-fascist organization for members of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces in Spain during the Second Spanish Republic.

History

By 1935 the Unión Militar Española (UME), a secret military organization of pro-fascist officers of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces had extended its influence among Spanish officers and began displaying open hostility towards the Spanish Republic.[1] In order to oppose and neutralize this movement, Eugenio Rodríguez Sierra, an officer of the Spanish Republican Navy was instrumental in the foundation of the Military Antifascist Union, Unión Militar Antifascista (UMA). The Unión Militar Antifascista was later merged with the Republican Military Union, Unión Militar Republicana (UMR), another group of similar goals that had been founded in 1929 within the Army, in order to create the Unión Militar Republicana Antifascista (UMRA).[2]

Membership of this secret society was especially high among the Assault Guard. One of its leading members, Captain Díaz Tendero, was later to perish at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Hermenegildo Franco Castañón, Por el camino de la revolución: La Marina española, Alfonso XIII y la República, Editorial Neptuno, Valladolid 2004, pg. 193-194
  2. ↑ Julio Busquets & Juan Carlos Losada, Ruido de Sables, p. 63-64
  3. ↑ Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. p. 457