On this day in 1937, the Germans and Italians who supported Franco’s insurgency reduced the Town of Guernica to rubble and bodies in what was just an experiment carried out on Basque soil in preparation for the apocalypse that would be the Second World War.
Starting that very day, those guilty of the war and the bombing lied about their participation and the destruction of Guernica. Fortunately, the Basques had the immeasurable luck to have journalists George L. Steer and Noel Monks as eyewitnesses to that Crime against Humanity, and they would spread the truth to the world via their newspapers. But, despite the clarity in the description of the tragedy and the proof in the photos, both then and now, we still have to put up with the lies that were, and are, told about the consequences of that attack. It’s true, we’ve gone from the “It was the separatist reds who burned and dynamited the Sacred City of the Basques” lie to the “the number of dead wasn’t so great, and it’s just nationalist propaganda” one. Mind you, the current lie is even more insulting, because it hides behind supposed historical facts, while the data given at the time by the Basque Government are rejected as “mere propaganda”. We’re not going to repeat here everything we’ve covered on this topic on the blog here. We think it’s enough to bring you some of the most interesting entries we’ve written about the Bombing of Guernica and the lies that have been told about it. Today, 77 years after that horrible day, we still must fight to defend the truth against so many lies, and continue to demand Memory, Truth, and Recognition for its victims (in the next few days, we’ll be bringing you the international news related to this anniversary). Here, we’ll leave you with some of the more interesting entries:
El bombardeo de Gernika: contra las mentiras, más verdad
Verdades sobre el Bombardeo de Gernika. Por Xabier de Irujo, profesor del Centro de Estudios Vascos de Reno
En el 75 aniversario del Bombardeo de Gernika: Memoria, Verdad y Reconocimiento
La exageración sobre el bombardeo de Gernika, o los vascos nos quejamos por cualquier cosa
El bombardeo de Gernika, ocurrido hace 74 años y narrado por George L. Steer, es actualidad todos los días
Gernika es un símbolo de paz, no de destrucción
De lectura imprescindible: Paul Preston escribe sobre el periodista George L. Steer
No eran Nationalists eran Insurgents, o simplemente Fascists
Ha muerto Alain Resnais, el bretón que llevó al cine la tragedia de Gernika
El Bombardeo de Gernika en Nueva York. Una salvajada sin arrepentimiento
