Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Barcelona became the Republicans' national capital in autumn 1937. The Republican de-
feat in the Battle of the Ebro in southern Catalonia the following summer left Barcelona un-
defended. Republican resistance crumbled, in part due to exhaustion, in part due to disunity.
In 1938 Catalan nationalists started negotiating separately with the Nationalists. The city fell
to Franco's forces in January 1939.
Occupation
Franco's tanks rolled into a strangely silent and empty city. Almost half a million people had
fled to the north. The first few months of occupation was a strange hiatus before the onset of
the full machinery of oppression. Within two weeks of the city's fall, a dozen cinemas were
in operation and the following month Hollywood comedies were being shown between
rounds of Nationalist propaganda. The people were even encouraged to dance the
sardana,
Catalonia's national dance, in public (the Nationalists thought such folkloric generosity
might endear them to the people of Barcelona).
On the other hand, the city presented an exhausted picture. The metro was running but
there were no buses (they had all been used on the front). Virtually all the animals in the city
zoo had died of starvation or wounds. There were frequent blackouts, and would be for
years.
By 1940, with WWII raging across Europe, Franco had his regime more firmly in place
and things turned darker for many. Catalan Francoists led the way in rounding up anarchists
and former Republican supporters; up to 35,000 people were shot in purges. At the same
time, small bands of resistance fighters continued to harry the Nationalists in the Pyrenees
through much of the 1940s. Catalonia's president, Lluís Companys, was arrested in France
by the Gestapo in August 1940, handed over to Franco, and shot on 15 October on
Montjuïc. He is reputed to have died with the words '
Visca Catalunya
!' ('Long live Catalo-
nia!') on his lips.
The executions continued into the 1950s. Most people accepted the situation and tried to
get on with living, while some leapt at opportunities, occupying flats abandoned by 'Reds'
who had been forced to flee. Speculators and industrialists allied with Franco were able to
earn a lucrative income, but the majority of
barcelonins
were affected by nationwide
poverty.
Life Under Franco
Franco took a particularly hard line against Barcelona. Catalan monuments in the city were
dismantled. He banned public use of Catalan, and had all town, village and street names
rendered in Spanish (Castilian). Education, radio, TV and the daily press would henceforth
