Students
Gernika
The bombing of
The lies and truths of the event
Gernika Peace Museum (2021)
Index
Chronicle by George L. Steer i
Introduction to the Civil War
Herbert Southworth,
historian and writer
Introduction to the bombing of Gernika
Acknowledgements:
To all the colleagues from the Gernika Peace Museum who have contributed to the creation and improvement of the work.
Luis Iriondo,
a witness of the bombing
Civil War posters
Letter from the President of Germany
Webography
Foru Plaza, 1
48300 Gernika-Lumo (Bizkaia) Tel. +34 94 627 0213 www.museodelapaz.org E-mail: hezkuntza.museoa@gernika-lumo.net
Gernika-Lumo, 2021
This magazine is a complement to the game-research on the Bombing of Gernika that we have created at the Gernika Peace Museum.
Duration
10 h
Modality
Online
"The bombing of Gernika" game-research: https://view.genial.ly/6166b45727f2b50dcae15967/game-breakout-the-bombing-of-gernika-research
Language
It consists of the following materials:
- The bombing of Gernika (Teaching guide)
- The bombing of Gernika magazine (teachers)
- The bombing of Gernika magazine (students)
Link
Research-game
https://view.genial.ly/6166b45727f2b50dcae15967/game-breakout-the-bombing-of-gernika-research
"The bombing of Gernika" research-game
The Spanish Civil War ravaged Spain between the 17th of July 1936 and the 1st of April 1939.
By the time the Second Republic was proclaimed on the 14th of April 1931, the country was already quite polarised. The situation worsened during the period of 1931-1936, leading to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
The war, which broke out as a result of the uprising of the army (under the command of General Francisco Franco) against the government of the Second Republic, ended in 1939 with the victory of the rebels. The victory of the rebels led to the establishment of a dictatorial regime (Francoism) that lasted more than 35 years.
INTRODUCTION TO THE CIVIL WAR
Francisco Franco in a winter cloak, 1930.
Title 1
"Today, civilians are the main victims of war. Only 80 years ago such news would have been unbelievable: the human tragedy of war only affected young soldiers on the battlefield, far from the cities". © Gernika Peace Museum, "Memoritour: Anti-aircraft shelters".
The Spanish Civil War. © Gernika Peace Museum
June 17-20, 1936. Chaos ensued in just four days. Spain was at war, divided into friendly and hostile territories. Eating, working, thinking, interacting with others and with one's surroundings were no longer commonplace. Suddenly peace disappeared and with it, life itself. © Gernika Peace Museum.
Gernika, the symbol. © Gernika Peace Museum
Title 1
Church of San Juan and surroundings after the bombing © The Documentation Centre on the Bombing of Gernika
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOMBING OF GERNIKA
The bombing (1) © Gernika Peace Museum
On 31st March 1937, Franco's army bombed Durango and fear began to spread among the population.
The local authorities ordered the construction of several anti-aircraft shelters. And so the 26th of April 1937 arrived. It was Monday. Market day.
Gernika, the nerve centre of the region, held an important agricultural and livestock market every Monday. It was also known for its industrial activity (from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century) with a large number
The people of Gernika experienced the stages of the war from the very beginning, although during the first months the war campaign did not drastically alter the atmosphere in the town. As the front approached, the direct effects of the war increased.
Title 1
The bombing (2) © Gernika Peace Museum
Victims and responsibility © Gernika Peace Museum
of weapon factories, jewellery and silverware factories...
In 1937, Gernika had a population of 5,630 inhabitants in addition to some 2,000 refugees and the large number of people who came to the market. It is estimated that on 26 April there were between 10,000 and 12,000 people.
The air raid began at around 4 p.m. when the bells of Santa María church tolled three times to warn of the arrival of planes.
This was the beginning of the systematic bombing of Gernika, which lasted for more than three hours.
The destruction of Gernika, which was carried out in three phases (the dropping of bomblets, incendiary bombs and the strafing of the civilian population) was the work of the German Condor Legion and the Italian air force acting under Franco's orders.
Gernika was practically razed to the ground and went down in history as the first rehearsal of total war.
The Basque Government recorded 1,654 direct fatalities.
+info
Title 1
Luis Iriondo, a witness of the bombing
Discurso del 60º Aniversario del Bombardeo de Gernika
The Mark of Man © Gernika Gogoratuz
Perhaps from their height they saw us like ants desperately fleeing. And we could not speak to each other. Men and ants cannot talk to each other. And they poured down on us a rain of fire, shrapnel and death.
And they destroyed our village. And that night we could no longer dine in our house or
sleep in our bed. We no longer had a home. We had no home. (...)”
nothing against them, but they didn't see us as we were. Because they were at the top and we were at the bottom. If they had been at our level, all of us at the bottom, they would have seen that we were just like the kids in their country, in their village, like their children or their little brothers and sisters.
And that the women were like their women. But they didn't see us like that.
Gernika, the 27th of April 1997 "Sixty years ago, we had an unexpected visitor in Gernika. Many of us were still kids and some men came to us from other lands, who did not know us and whom we did not know. They didn't even hate us because we had done
+info
Title 1
I offer you, who still carry the wounds of the past in your hearts, my open hand in a plea for reconciliation.
+info
Th Mark of Man© Gernika Gogoratuz
Letter from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany
60th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika
Letter from the German President to the people of Gernika © Gernika Gogoratuz
Bust of George Steer in Gernika © Peace Museum of Gernika
Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers and Heinkel fighters, did not cease
unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000lb. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machine- gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields.
The whole of Guernica was soon in flames except the historic Casa de Jontas with its rich archives of the Basque race, where the ancient Basque Parliament used to sit. The famous oak of Guernica, the dried old stump of 600 years and the young new shoots of this century, was also
THE TRAGEDY OF GUERNICA TOWN DESTROYED IN AIR ATTACK
EYE-WITNESS’S ACCOUNT
From Our Special Correspondent
BILBAO, April 27 1937
George L. Steer
War correspondent
Busto de George Steer en Gernika ©Museo de la Paz de Gernika
The reflection of the flames could be seen in the clouds of smoke above the mountains from 10 miles away. Throughout the night houses were falling until the streets became long heaps of red impenetrable debris.
Many of the civilian survivors took the long trek from Guernica to Bilbao in antique solid-wheeled Basque farmcarts drawn by oxen. Carts piled high with such household possessions as could be saved from the conflagration clogged the roads all night.
untouched. Here the kings of Spain used to take the oath to respect the democratic rights (fueros) of Vizcaya and in return received a promise of allegiance as suzerains with the democratic title of Señor, not Rey Vizcaya. The noble parish, church of Santa Maria was also undamaged except for the beautiful chapter house, which was struck by an incendiary bomb. At 2 am today when I visited the town the whole of it was a horrible sight, flaming from end to end.
10
Article from The Times in which George Steer's article on the bombing of Gernika was published.
© Documentation Centre on the bombing of Gernika
Other survivors were evacuated in Government lorries, but many were forced to remain round the burning town lying on mattresses or looking for lost relatives and children, while units of the fire brigades and the Basque motorized police under the personal direction of the Minister of the Interior, Señor Monzon, and his wife continued rescue work till dawn. (...)
+info
Photograph on display in the History Room of the Gernika Peace Museum © Gernika Peace Museum
11
Article from The Times in which George Steer's article on the bombing of Gernika was published.
© Documentation Centre on the bombing of Gernika
12
Books on the bombing of Gernika
Gernika after the bombing
© Documentation Centre on the bombing of Gernika
Title 1
consequence of the prior publication of the news concerning the bombing by the foreign press. (...)
-The messages of the foreign journalists who visited Gernika after the nationalists took the town on 29 April. (...)"
foreign correspondents and Spanish representatives of the foreign press in Bilbao on the night of 26-27 April 1937, the Gernika event would not have appeared as we know it today. The newspaper articles that influenced the development of the Gernika story can be classified into three groups: -Journalistic reports sent by correspondents from Bilbao or from listening posts on the Basque border in France. (...)
-The reports, communiqués and speeches published first by the Spanish national press, and then by other countries, as a
SOUTHWORTH, Herbert R.: The Destruction of Guernica: Journalism, Diplomacy, Propaganda and History, Ed. Ruedo Ibérico, 1977, p. 27.
Presentation by Angel Viñas of the new edition of The Destruction of Guernica by Herbert Southworth
© Gernika Peace Museum
+info
"From the earliest stages of its development, the story of the destruction of the Basque town of Gernika is first and foremost a matter of press dispatches, all due to the initiative of correspondents. It can be said that without the presence of
Herbert R. Southworth
Writer, journalist and historian who specialises in the Civil War.
13
Photo of the cover of the book Herbert R. Southworth, Bizitza eta Lana/Life and Work @Gernika Peace Museum
Title 1
ideological weapon can be found in the 1917 revolution. Art and War (Posters of the Spanish Civil War) claims the art of the poster in wartime, as well as its authors, some of whom,
phagocytised by the events of 1936-1939, remain anonymous.
"Art and war. Posters of the Spanish Civil War": an exhibition at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
+info
Civil War poster (1936-1939) https://historiana.eu
War posters. 1936 - 1939 © UNED Documents
Civil War posters
The popular and ephemeral art of the poster in times of war has mainly a propagandistic function: it aims to mobilise the masses, to convey a political message, to provoke a social reaction without renouncing the aesthetic component. The main precedent for the use of poster art as an
Propaganda during the Civil War
(1936-1939)
14
Title 1
Article 1
Article 4
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE POSTER (some traces between the Belle époque and today).
What questions do these posters from the Civil War evoke? (Historiana)
Article 5
Article 2
Spanish Civil War in Poster Collection (Brandeis University)
Art of the Spanish Civil War: Political Propaganda and the Modernist Avant-Garde
Article 6
"Art and war. Posters of the Spanish Civil War" Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Article 3
The other Spanish Civil War
You will not pass! July 1936, We shall pass! https://www.europeana.eu
Combating illiteracy https://historiana.eu
15
WEBOGRAPHY
TO READ
PODCAST TO LISTEN TO
1. The Spanish Civil War
1.1. BBC Radio 4 In Our Time: The Spanish Civil War
1. The essential books on the bombing of Gernika according to the Gernika Peace Museum
1.2. History Extra Podcast: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Spanish Civil War, but were afraid to ask
2. Bombing of Gernika
Twitter
2.1. Irish History Podcast: The Bombing of Guernica & the War in the North (Partisans VII)
1.1. TheSpanishCivilWar
@civil_spanish
2.2. This is democracy: Episode 49: Guernica and the Bombing of Civilians
1.2. Spain's Memory Wars @SpainMemoryWars
2.3. The Spanish History Podcast: Episode 13- Gernika: The Massacre in Context
16
WEBOGRAPHY
TO WATCH
OTHER ASSOCIATIONS INVOLVED IN THE FIELD
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX3hk0bcc9M
2.1. Gernika the Story. Documentary Film.
2.2. Ten Minute History - The Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco (Short Documentary) (History Matters)
2.3. Feature History - Spanish Civil War
2.4. The Spanish Civil War - Episode 1: Prelude To Tragedy (History Documentary)
RESEARCH BY THE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE
ON THE BOMBING OF GERNIKA (CDBG)
Gernika, 80 years after the bombing
April 2017
17
Title 1
The bombing of Guernica (Students’ magazine)
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Transcript
Students
Gernika
The bombing of
The lies and truths of the event
Gernika Peace Museum (2021)
Index
Chronicle by George L. Steer i
Introduction to the Civil War
Herbert Southworth, historian and writer
Introduction to the bombing of Gernika
Acknowledgements: To all the colleagues from the Gernika Peace Museum who have contributed to the creation and improvement of the work.
Luis Iriondo, a witness of the bombing
Civil War posters
Letter from the President of Germany
Webography
Foru Plaza, 1 48300 Gernika-Lumo (Bizkaia) Tel. +34 94 627 0213 www.museodelapaz.org E-mail: hezkuntza.museoa@gernika-lumo.net
Gernika-Lumo, 2021
This magazine is a complement to the game-research on the Bombing of Gernika that we have created at the Gernika Peace Museum.
Duration
10 h
Modality
Online
"The bombing of Gernika" game-research: https://view.genial.ly/6166b45727f2b50dcae15967/game-breakout-the-bombing-of-gernika-research
Language
It consists of the following materials:
Link
Research-game
https://view.genial.ly/6166b45727f2b50dcae15967/game-breakout-the-bombing-of-gernika-research
"The bombing of Gernika" research-game
The Spanish Civil War ravaged Spain between the 17th of July 1936 and the 1st of April 1939. By the time the Second Republic was proclaimed on the 14th of April 1931, the country was already quite polarised. The situation worsened during the period of 1931-1936, leading to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The war, which broke out as a result of the uprising of the army (under the command of General Francisco Franco) against the government of the Second Republic, ended in 1939 with the victory of the rebels. The victory of the rebels led to the establishment of a dictatorial regime (Francoism) that lasted more than 35 years.
INTRODUCTION TO THE CIVIL WAR
Francisco Franco in a winter cloak, 1930.
Title 1
"Today, civilians are the main victims of war. Only 80 years ago such news would have been unbelievable: the human tragedy of war only affected young soldiers on the battlefield, far from the cities". © Gernika Peace Museum, "Memoritour: Anti-aircraft shelters".
The Spanish Civil War. © Gernika Peace Museum
June 17-20, 1936. Chaos ensued in just four days. Spain was at war, divided into friendly and hostile territories. Eating, working, thinking, interacting with others and with one's surroundings were no longer commonplace. Suddenly peace disappeared and with it, life itself. © Gernika Peace Museum.
Gernika, the symbol. © Gernika Peace Museum
Title 1
Church of San Juan and surroundings after the bombing © The Documentation Centre on the Bombing of Gernika
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOMBING OF GERNIKA
The bombing (1) © Gernika Peace Museum
On 31st March 1937, Franco's army bombed Durango and fear began to spread among the population. The local authorities ordered the construction of several anti-aircraft shelters. And so the 26th of April 1937 arrived. It was Monday. Market day.
Gernika, the nerve centre of the region, held an important agricultural and livestock market every Monday. It was also known for its industrial activity (from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century) with a large number
The people of Gernika experienced the stages of the war from the very beginning, although during the first months the war campaign did not drastically alter the atmosphere in the town. As the front approached, the direct effects of the war increased.
Title 1
The bombing (2) © Gernika Peace Museum
Victims and responsibility © Gernika Peace Museum
of weapon factories, jewellery and silverware factories... In 1937, Gernika had a population of 5,630 inhabitants in addition to some 2,000 refugees and the large number of people who came to the market. It is estimated that on 26 April there were between 10,000 and 12,000 people.
The air raid began at around 4 p.m. when the bells of Santa María church tolled three times to warn of the arrival of planes. This was the beginning of the systematic bombing of Gernika, which lasted for more than three hours.
The destruction of Gernika, which was carried out in three phases (the dropping of bomblets, incendiary bombs and the strafing of the civilian population) was the work of the German Condor Legion and the Italian air force acting under Franco's orders.
Gernika was practically razed to the ground and went down in history as the first rehearsal of total war. The Basque Government recorded 1,654 direct fatalities.
+info
Title 1
Luis Iriondo, a witness of the bombing
Discurso del 60º Aniversario del Bombardeo de Gernika
The Mark of Man © Gernika Gogoratuz
Perhaps from their height they saw us like ants desperately fleeing. And we could not speak to each other. Men and ants cannot talk to each other. And they poured down on us a rain of fire, shrapnel and death. And they destroyed our village. And that night we could no longer dine in our house or
sleep in our bed. We no longer had a home. We had no home. (...)”
nothing against them, but they didn't see us as we were. Because they were at the top and we were at the bottom. If they had been at our level, all of us at the bottom, they would have seen that we were just like the kids in their country, in their village, like their children or their little brothers and sisters. And that the women were like their women. But they didn't see us like that.
Gernika, the 27th of April 1997 "Sixty years ago, we had an unexpected visitor in Gernika. Many of us were still kids and some men came to us from other lands, who did not know us and whom we did not know. They didn't even hate us because we had done
+info
Title 1
I offer you, who still carry the wounds of the past in your hearts, my open hand in a plea for reconciliation.
+info
Th Mark of Man© Gernika Gogoratuz
Letter from the President of the Federal Republic of Germany
60th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika
Letter from the German President to the people of Gernika © Gernika Gogoratuz
Bust of George Steer in Gernika © Peace Museum of Gernika
Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers and Heinkel fighters, did not cease
unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000lb. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machine- gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields. The whole of Guernica was soon in flames except the historic Casa de Jontas with its rich archives of the Basque race, where the ancient Basque Parliament used to sit. The famous oak of Guernica, the dried old stump of 600 years and the young new shoots of this century, was also
THE TRAGEDY OF GUERNICA TOWN DESTROYED IN AIR ATTACK
EYE-WITNESS’S ACCOUNT From Our Special Correspondent BILBAO, April 27 1937
George L. Steer
War correspondent
Busto de George Steer en Gernika ©Museo de la Paz de Gernika
The reflection of the flames could be seen in the clouds of smoke above the mountains from 10 miles away. Throughout the night houses were falling until the streets became long heaps of red impenetrable debris. Many of the civilian survivors took the long trek from Guernica to Bilbao in antique solid-wheeled Basque farmcarts drawn by oxen. Carts piled high with such household possessions as could be saved from the conflagration clogged the roads all night.
untouched. Here the kings of Spain used to take the oath to respect the democratic rights (fueros) of Vizcaya and in return received a promise of allegiance as suzerains with the democratic title of Señor, not Rey Vizcaya. The noble parish, church of Santa Maria was also undamaged except for the beautiful chapter house, which was struck by an incendiary bomb. At 2 am today when I visited the town the whole of it was a horrible sight, flaming from end to end.
10
Article from The Times in which George Steer's article on the bombing of Gernika was published. © Documentation Centre on the bombing of Gernika
Other survivors were evacuated in Government lorries, but many were forced to remain round the burning town lying on mattresses or looking for lost relatives and children, while units of the fire brigades and the Basque motorized police under the personal direction of the Minister of the Interior, Señor Monzon, and his wife continued rescue work till dawn. (...)
+info
Photograph on display in the History Room of the Gernika Peace Museum © Gernika Peace Museum
11
Article from The Times in which George Steer's article on the bombing of Gernika was published. © Documentation Centre on the bombing of Gernika
12
Books on the bombing of Gernika
Gernika after the bombing © Documentation Centre on the bombing of Gernika
Title 1
consequence of the prior publication of the news concerning the bombing by the foreign press. (...) -The messages of the foreign journalists who visited Gernika after the nationalists took the town on 29 April. (...)"
foreign correspondents and Spanish representatives of the foreign press in Bilbao on the night of 26-27 April 1937, the Gernika event would not have appeared as we know it today. The newspaper articles that influenced the development of the Gernika story can be classified into three groups: -Journalistic reports sent by correspondents from Bilbao or from listening posts on the Basque border in France. (...) -The reports, communiqués and speeches published first by the Spanish national press, and then by other countries, as a
SOUTHWORTH, Herbert R.: The Destruction of Guernica: Journalism, Diplomacy, Propaganda and History, Ed. Ruedo Ibérico, 1977, p. 27.
Presentation by Angel Viñas of the new edition of The Destruction of Guernica by Herbert Southworth © Gernika Peace Museum
+info
"From the earliest stages of its development, the story of the destruction of the Basque town of Gernika is first and foremost a matter of press dispatches, all due to the initiative of correspondents. It can be said that without the presence of
Herbert R. Southworth
Writer, journalist and historian who specialises in the Civil War.
13
Photo of the cover of the book Herbert R. Southworth, Bizitza eta Lana/Life and Work @Gernika Peace Museum
Title 1
ideological weapon can be found in the 1917 revolution. Art and War (Posters of the Spanish Civil War) claims the art of the poster in wartime, as well as its authors, some of whom,
phagocytised by the events of 1936-1939, remain anonymous.
"Art and war. Posters of the Spanish Civil War": an exhibition at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
+info
Civil War poster (1936-1939) https://historiana.eu
War posters. 1936 - 1939 © UNED Documents
Civil War posters
The popular and ephemeral art of the poster in times of war has mainly a propagandistic function: it aims to mobilise the masses, to convey a political message, to provoke a social reaction without renouncing the aesthetic component. The main precedent for the use of poster art as an
Propaganda during the Civil War (1936-1939)
14
Title 1
Article 1
Article 4
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE POSTER (some traces between the Belle époque and today).
What questions do these posters from the Civil War evoke? (Historiana)
Article 5
Article 2
Spanish Civil War in Poster Collection (Brandeis University)
Art of the Spanish Civil War: Political Propaganda and the Modernist Avant-Garde
Article 6
"Art and war. Posters of the Spanish Civil War" Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Article 3
The other Spanish Civil War
You will not pass! July 1936, We shall pass! https://www.europeana.eu
Combating illiteracy https://historiana.eu
15
WEBOGRAPHY
TO READ
PODCAST TO LISTEN TO
1. The Spanish Civil War
1.1. BBC Radio 4 In Our Time: The Spanish Civil War
1. The essential books on the bombing of Gernika according to the Gernika Peace Museum
1.2. History Extra Podcast: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Spanish Civil War, but were afraid to ask
2. Bombing of Gernika
Twitter
2.1. Irish History Podcast: The Bombing of Guernica & the War in the North (Partisans VII)
1.1. TheSpanishCivilWar @civil_spanish
2.2. This is democracy: Episode 49: Guernica and the Bombing of Civilians
1.2. Spain's Memory Wars @SpainMemoryWars
2.3. The Spanish History Podcast: Episode 13- Gernika: The Massacre in Context
16
WEBOGRAPHY
TO WATCH
OTHER ASSOCIATIONS INVOLVED IN THE FIELD
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX3hk0bcc9M
2.1. Gernika the Story. Documentary Film.
2.2. Ten Minute History - The Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco (Short Documentary) (History Matters)
2.3. Feature History - Spanish Civil War
2.4. The Spanish Civil War - Episode 1: Prelude To Tragedy (History Documentary)
RESEARCH BY THE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE ON THE BOMBING OF GERNIKA (CDBG)
Gernika, 80 years after the bombing April 2017
17
Title 1