We’re in a time of commemorations. As you might expect, we’re referring to the 80th anniversary of those terrible events that divided and destroyed the Land of the Basques below the Pyrenees.
We believe it to be very special, this 80th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War; the Constitution of the Government of Euzkadi; the bombing of Guernica; the taking over of the Basque territory that was controlled by the partisans of the Republic and democracy by Fascist troops (who had many Basques among their number); or the firing squad, jailing, and exile of tens of the thousands of Basques.
It’s very special because it will be one of the last ones for which we will be able to turn to the living memory of those who lived through those events.
Still from the documentary “Elai-Alai” (1938)
Fotograma del documental Elai-Alai (1938)
For many years, this memory, by which we’re referring to the group who fought against Fascism, has been hidden, blocked, and chased away. Afterwards, for reasons we can’t seem to fathom, those men and women were never given adequate recognition, nor was their vision of what happened documented and distributed, nor their sacrifice for and commitment to the Cause of the Basque people.
Not long from now, thanks to the forces of nature, to find out about this part of history, we’ll only be able to turn to the documents that these people have left behind. And they will very unfortunately be far fewer that are necessary to understand what happened, and how they suffered, it full magnitude.
In this time of commemorations, here on our blog, we’ll be collecting documents that seem especially significant to us. We’ve been doing this since we started the blog, but now our commitment to keep spreading the word as far as we can is now part of our story, and we rededicate ourselves to it.
We’ve found, thanks to those on Facebook who are determined to record and spread our history, a documentary that is incredibly valuable to us.
Its name is “Elai-Alai”, and it was directed by Nemesio Sobrevila on the commission of the Propaganda Service for the Government of Euzkadi in 1938. It was never shown until 2012. That was thanks to the recovery work of the Basque Filmotheque after finding a copy of the negative deposited by the author at the French Cinematheque in Paris. Sound was added to some fragments later.
In this documentary, you can see a performance of the children’s group Elai Alai from Guernica, and the EresoinkaChorus (organized by the Euzkadi Government to help spread the true image of the Basques around the world). Both culture groups acted together on several French stages in order to help spread the word of what was happening in the Basque Country and to raise funds to help the refugees.
As Lehendakari Agirre himself explained in his book “From Guernica to New York via Berlin”:
We wanted to show abroad how that Basque soul that had been sacrificed at the altar of totalitarianism still vibrated, and we organized newspapers, magazine, and especially theatrical productions. When I was in Santander, three days before it fell, I called a notable Basque musician and said to him, ‘It’s possible that we can’t leave here, but for just that reason the struggle I want fought in the artistic field as well cannot be concluded.
Still from the documentary ‘Elai-Alai’ where the results of the Bombing of Guernica are visible.
Fotograma del documental Elai-Alai donde se pueden ver los resultados del Bombardeo de Gernika (1938)
This visual and spoken documentary, alongside the images of everyday life, also includes footage of the Basque war children being sent off, as well as the only footage of the aftermath of the Bombing of Guernica, filmed before the Francoist insurgents arrived. They were filmed by Agustín Ugartetxea just after the bombing. The footage is very short, as the German company hired to develop most of the film confiscated the material when they received it. But there is enough to get an idea of the magnitude of the bombing and its terrible consequences, like the death of 1,000 people.
This website uses cookies so that we can give you the best possible user experience. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions like recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team understand which website areas you find most interesting and useful.
Necessary cookies activate basic functions like navigation and access to secure website areas. Without these cookies, the website cannot work properly.
Cookie
Type
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
persistent
1 year
This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for the cookies in the “Necessary” category.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary
persistent
1 year
This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for the cookies in the “Non-Necessary” category.
PHPSESSID
session
End of browser session
This cookie is native to PHP and allows the website to save serialized status data. On this website, it is used to establish user sessions by passing status data via a temporary, or session, cookie. This cookie has no established expiration because it disappears when the website is closed.
viewed_cookie_policy
permanent
1 year
This cookie is placed by the GDPR Cookies Consent plug-in and is used to store whether the user has consented to the use of cookies or not. It stores no personal data.
__cfduid
permanent
1 month
Established by the CloudFlare service to identify trusted web traffic.
Marketing cookies are used to track website visitors. The aim is to display adverts that are relevant and appealing to the individual user.
Cookie
Type
Duration
Description
1P_JAR
persistent
1 month
This cookie is used to transfer data to Google.
DSID
persistent
1 hour
Established by Google, if you have started a session with your Google account on another device, this is used to link your activity between devices and coordinate ads that appear on them and to convert them.
fr
persistent
3 months
This cookie is necessary for the Facebook “Like” button to work.
IDE
persistent
2 years
Used by Google DoubleClick, it stores information about the way the user uses the website and any other ads before visiting the website. It is used to present the user with ads that are relevant according to the user’s profile.
mc
persistent
1 year
QuantCast platform cookie for granular audience measurements. It stores no personal data, only user identifiers and their browsing.
NID
persistent
6 months
The NID cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language, the number of search results you want shown per page (for example, 10 or 20), and whether you want the Google Safe Search filter activated.
uid
persistent
1 year
This cookie is used to anonymously measure the number and behavior of the visitors to the website. The data include the number of visits, the average duration of visit to the website, visited websites, etc., in order to understand the user’s preferences better with regards to targeted ads.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
permanent
5 months
This cookie is placed by YouTube. It is used to trace the information of the YouTube videos that are embedded in a website.
_fbp
permanent
1 day
Used by Facebook to offer a line of advertising products, such as real-time offers from third-party advertisers.
Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.
Cookie
Type
Duration
Description
cref
persistent
1 year
Contains data on user navigation interaction and time spent on the website and its sub-pages. This data is used to optimize the relevance of advertisements and for statistical purposes.
d
persistent
3 months
Collects anonymous data on the user's visits to the website, such as the number of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been loaded with the purpose of generating reports for optimizing the website content.
i
persistent
1 year
Registers anonymized user data, such as IP address, geographical location, visited websites, and what ads the user has clicked, with the purpose of optimizing ad display based on the user's movement on websites that use the same ad network.
KADUSERCOOKIE
persistent
3 months
Registers a unique ID that identifies the user's device during return visits across websites that use the same ad network. The ID is used to allow targeted ads.
KTPCACOOKIE
persistent
1 day
Registers a unique ID that identifies the user's device during return visits across websites that use the same ad network. The ID is used to allow targeted ads.
na_id
persistent
13 months
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor's behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_rn
persistent
13 months
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_sc_e
persistent
1 month
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_sr
persistent
1 month
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_srp
persistent
1 day
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behaviour and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
na_tc
persistent
13 months
Used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor's behavior and facilitate the social sharing function provided by Addthis.com.
ouid
persistent
13 months
Sets an ID-string for the specific visitor. This is used to recognize the visitor upon re-entry. This allows the website to register the visitor's behavior and facilitate the social media sharing function provided by Addthis.com.