Sonics weblog

"Poolse soldaten hebben gisteravond de radiostation nabij Gleiwitz overvallen en vernietigd. Deze provocatie accepteren we niet, en sinds 5 uur vannochtend schieten we terug!"
Iets van deze strekking moet Hitler via de radio de 2e wereldoorlog hebben ingeluid met de inval in Polen.
Die "overval" was natuurlijk in scene gezet, en het "bewijs" een aantal dode poolse soldaten waren ter dood veroordeelde duitsers.
Hitler wilde meer levensruimte creeën en wraak voor de duiste vernedering na 1918. Voor de inname van Polen had hij een verbond gesloten met zijn ideologische vijand Stalins Sovjet unie.

Beide hadden redenen om Polen een lesje te leren.
Na de duitse nederlaag in 1918 moest Duitsland een deel afstaan aan het opnieuw onafhankelijk geworden Polen. Voor de Sovjet unie gold hetzelfde. In 1795 werd Polen namelijk in stukjes opgedeeld.
In 1919 vond Polen dat het westelijke stuk van Oekraïne bij hun hoorde (etnische polen enzo) en vielen Oekraïne binnen. Polen-Littouwen wonnen die oorlog van de Sovjets zodat het Poolse rijk een stuk groter werd.

Toen na twee weken van vechten tussen de duitsers en de polen het front leek te stabiliseren greep Stalin in door op de 17e september de ingegraven polen in de rug aan te vallen. Daarna was het snel gedaan. De sovjets hadden het stuk dat in 1919 door Polen was ingepikt weer terug, en de duisters bezetten de rest.

Het blijft speculeren of Hitler toen al niet een kopje kleiner had kunnen worden gemaakt als Stalin meteen daarna de nazis had aangevallen en dat Frankrijk wellicht samen met engeland vanuit het westen duitsland in de rug had aangevallen.
Frankrijk en Engeland hadden immers de oorlog aan duitsland al verklaard na de Poolse inval. De fransen deden wel een halfslachtig offensiefje om de Polen te ontlasten, maar dat stelde niet veel voor.
De leeuwendeel van de duitsers waren in Polen, hun voorraden waren in die tijd nog niet zo groot, en het duiste achterland zou voor de fransen open liggen.
Aan de andere kant had het franse leger zijn bewapening niet goed in orde, en de generaals leefden nog in de 19e eeuw met hun tactieken.
Stalins leger was dan wel goot maar kampten ook met vele problemen (Stalin "zuiverde" bv vele ervaren officieren).

In March 1936 the Popular front (left winged government also called republicans) gets into power after years of struggle against the right winged (fascist) government and the church. However this new government was to be inefficient, and the danger of a reaction by the army and its fascism became bigger every day. The army being supported by Church and other right winged groups. The anarchists are realizing this and continue their struggle against the government and the fascists. Part of the army was preparing a coup, government was powerless, workers were impatient. Meanwhile many hungry landworkers started collectivization of the land on their own initiative. In the streets fascists fought with anarchists. Then on the 19th the fascist leader Franco moved his army from Maroc to spain, and his followers in Spain (part of the army and great part of guardia civil) started a coup. Meanwhile the popular government did nothing, keeping their passive attitude. The CNT and FAI (huge anarchist union and its militant wing) were forced to act on their own and took up arms against the rebellious army and guarda civil.
After the 19th about 50% of Spain was under left winged control (anarchists, marxists, socialists, communists), and 50% was under fascist Francos control.
A bloody civil war had started, but also a social revolution had started; many factories and farming land were being collectivizised.
Slowly the anarchists lost their influence. CNT was forced to cooperate with the socialist government. Worse was the fact they depended on arms support of Stalins Soviet-Union. He didn't like the anarchists and marxists and demanded the communist minority in Spain to have important positions. Soviet secred police started to arrest anarchists.
In may 1937 the counter revolution started under the motto "the war has to be won first, then social revolution can take place". The ideals of the social revolution were crushed under pressure of stalin, and many measures that took place after july 19th were turned back.
militias like the Poum were disbanded, and its officers arrested. Many important buildings came under socialist and communist control.
The only reason for the people to fight on was the fact that life under the fascists was even worse.
The lack of arms was never to be solved, same as flaws in the armies organisation. The republican army had help from the international brigades, mainly communist volunteers from various countries until its disbandment in september 1938. On the other side fascist Franco had help from Hitlers Condor Legion and from an army of Mussolini and had an overwhelming surplus on equipment.
At the 1st of April 1939 the civil war ended. Estimated 500.000 people died. 200.000 of them during combat. 130.000 people were executed, and the remaining amount were civilian dying during bombings, fighting and starvation. A rough guess is that after the war around 100.000 republicans (the left-winged coalition) were executed by Franco. He would stay in power until his death in 1975.

There is some good news now though: rehabilitation of civil war victims and removal of Franco homages.
At last the new socialist government in Spain has the guts to face the spanish people its past. They also want to remove homages to Franco out of Spain. Als the homages in the Catholic churches.

Barricadas in Madrid

Songs of the revolution

A las Barricadas hymne of the CNT
Ay Carmela
El Quinto Regimento

site to the lyrics of these three songs

PDF summary of the spanish revolution / civil war
Scanned from the CD-book "1936" of the Ex

A lot more can be found about the Spanish civil war like here and here.
A dutch sites can be found here and here.
For all interested in history.

If you click the read more button you will find a small story I wrote 7 years ago about the period prior the Juli 19th 1936.

=> Read more!