110th anniversary of the birth of George L. Steer, the journalist we Basques owe a great debt of gratitude to

We found out thanks to the Twitter account of the Basque Children of ’37 Association, a British association that safeguards and dutifully shares the memory of the Basque children who took refuge in the UK.  We’ve spoken about them on many occasions, and we will continue to do so whenever possible, because they do extraordinary work.

It turns out that one of the most important “Friends of the Basques” this People has ever had in its history was born on November 22, 1909.  This born journalist, and good man, died when the Army jeep he was driving crashed in Burma on December 25, 1944.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of George Lowther Steer, whose explosive report of the bombing of Guernica shocked the British public and led the British Government to action. Read more: https://t.co/39S17LGlqj and https://t.co/qo0c7a0ajC pic.twitter.com/MedSTujjRk

— Basque Children of '37 Association (@basquechildren) November 22, 2019

In his 35 years of life, this South Africa-born Briton, by telling the truth in his articles, defended the lost causes of the Ethiopians in their struggle against the Italian invaders, and of the Basques in their struggle against the insurgent Francoists.  His life and work are, without a doubt, worth remembering.

We have always done so whenever we’ve had the occasion, because as Basques, we feel that we have a perpetual debt with this journalist who told what he saw happening with his own eyes, without allowing himself to be influence by outside pressures or threats.

He told the world about the insurgents’ massacre, about how their Nazi and Italian fascist allies bombed Guernica, and his chronicle, published in the Times and New York Times was the proof their barbarism.

Today, one day late, we’d like to pay homage to this journalist and thank him once again for his commitment to truth and justice; it cost him his job, but it allowed him to enter the history books.

And as we’ve already said, we have mentioned George L Steer on many occasions.  But in 2017, we prepared a chronicle in which we tried to collect the great work he did for the Basque Country.

https://aboutbasquecountry.eus/en/2017/04/26/george-l-steer-a-chronicle-about-the-journalist-who-told-the-world-about-the-bombing-of-guernica/

Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country