There were a few diplomats, such as Ángel Sanz Briz in Hungary, who deserve praise, but they were the exception.” “When that time was up, he didn’t move a finger to save them and he didn’t let any more in. This myth comes from the time when the Germans informed the friendly countries that if they wanted to take Jews in who passed through their territory, the Germans wouldn’t pursue them to exterminate them.” Franco allowed a fixed number in, but not so that they would stay, but so they could leave Spain without problems and only during a fixed period. “For example, it is not true that he helped save Jews, as his hagiographers claim.

How did he do it? “By lying, manipulating – as he almost always did,” he says. He had to break his commitment to the Hitler-Mussolini axis and come out looking clean. “It was a gaping hole in his biography,” says Preston. The Jewish dimension was one of the key aspects of his survival strategy after World War II. Preston uncovers an Oedipus complex, a hatred of his cruel father, his at times lamblike relationship with his wife, Carmen Polo, and the private side of Franco: the man who painted, wrote and loved watching movies. Or at least no one has done it in a more rigorous and sustained way, examining not just Franco’s military career or political maneuvers, but also his psychological profile. That said, no one has made a bigger contribution to revealing that mystery than the London School of Economics professor. “Franco remains a mystery to me,” says Preston from his London home.įranco was implacable and used all his extermination machinery to eliminate those he considered enemies” On top of that, he’s also made amendments all the way through the biography’s more-than 1,000 pages: “Minutiae, details – about his relationship with Hitler, his role in the global conflict, the bombing of Guernica…” The immense flow of a life of maneuvering, word play, icy consideration for those he liquidated, opportunism, and an instinct for survival. Preston, however, is not worried: “They may sell a lot of books, but they aren’t serious, and attempts to revitalize his figure have proved unsuccessful.”

The second means confronting controversy: Franco’s admirers have attempted to rehabilitate his figure and their knives will be sharpened and waiting. In the first case, the British Hispanist enters a gray area, obscured by Franco’s manipulations after the end of World War II. Since Paul Preston published his landmark study of the life of General Francisco Franco in 1993, he has not stopped revising and expanding the work for the latest edition, he’s added two new chapters: “One about his relationship with the Jews, and another providing an overview of how he has been treated by other historians and writers.” British Hispanist Paul Preston in Valencia.

The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston