book: Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II

book: Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II | Stanley G. Payne ...

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	• Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and World War II Stanley G. Payne Yale University Press, 2008 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Concise and authoratative

Payne gives us a concise and authoritative account of the relationship between Hitler and Franco before and during WW2. The relationship is characterized by Franco's constant attempt to milk everything he can from the Germans while Hitler vacillates in interest in Spain. Ironically, it was probably best for Hitler and Franco that Spain never entered the war (despite Franco's constant promises that it would). Even if Hitler would have gone through Spain to take Gibraltar, Spain's military and economy were in such abysmal shape that, in the long run, Spain would have been a liability rather than an asset. (A curious scenario: the Allies land in Spain in 1943 instead of North Africa).

FaH may be of limited interest for most WW2 enthusiasts but it is well done and presented in a concise style. Even though the subject matter is a bit dry, at least it moves along nicely. It's mostly "high politics" so you don't really get much of a feel for what was going on in Spain at the time; I would have liked to know more about the success (or lack thereof) of the massive pro-German propaganda campaigns. How did the majority of the Spanish people see the war? Did they share Franco's (proclaimed) desire to fight with the Axis? There is also a chapter or two about the Blue Division (Spanish volunteers on the Eastern Front) but, personally, I would have liked a more in-depth look at them.

Anyway, HaF is well done history.

Recommended.

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Was Franco sympathetic to Nazi Germany? Why didn't Spain enter World War II? In what ways did Spain collaborate with the Third Reich? How much did Spain assist Jewish refugees?

This is the first book in any language to answer these intriguing questions. Stanley Payne, a leading historian of modern Spain, explores the full range of Franco?s relationship with Hitler, from 1936 to the fall of the Reich in 1945. But as Payne brilliantly shows, relations between these two dictators were not only a matter of realpolitik. These two titanic egos engaged in an extraordinary tragicomic drama often verging on the dark absurdity of a Beckett or Ionesco play.

Whereas Payne investigates the evolving relationship of the two regimes up to the conclusion of World War II, his principal concern is the enigma of Spain?s unique position during the war, as a semi-fascist country struggling to maintain a tortured neutrality. Why Spain did not enter the war as a German ally, joining with Hitler to seize Gibraltar and close the Mediterranean to the British navy, is at the center of Payne?s narrative. Franco?s only personal meeting with Hitler, in 1940 to discuss precisely this, is recounted here in groundbreaking detail that also sheds significant new light on the Spanish government?s vacillating policy toward Jewish refugees, on the Holocaust, and on Spain?s German connection throughout the duration of the war.

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