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The views of Franco’s regime on the ‘children’s issue’ during the Greek civil war

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Loukianos Hassiotis
Loukianos Hassiotis*
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
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Extract

The suggestion is made here that, as part of its effort to identify the Spanish civil war with that of Greece, Madrid adopted the view that the two cases were similar in order to identify Franco’s regime with the other anti-communist regimes of Western Europe at the beginning of Cold War. During the civil wars in both Spain (1936–9) and Greece (1946–9), the ‘children’s issue’ became an important factor for humanitarian as well as for propaganda reasons. Indeed, the correspondence between the measures taken for the care of children by the two conflicting sides in both countries is impressive, in spite of the structural differences between the two civil conflicts.

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Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , 2009 , pp. 204 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2009

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References

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3 Vigil, A. Alted, Marín, Encarna Nicolás, Martell, Roger González (ed.), Los niños de la guerra de España en la Unión Soviética: De la evacuación al retorno, 1937-1999 (Madrid 1999) 29-30Google Scholar.

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11 MGA/CIR 20: Leaflets and Pamphlets “Greece and Britain”, 1946-78.

12 The use of the terms paidomazoma and ‘janissaries’ was deployed in right-wing propaganda in order to evoke images of the Ottoman devįirme, that is the forced recruitment of Christian boys to serve in the army and the state apparatus of the Empire.

13 Baerentzen, L., ‘The “paidomazoma” and the Queen’s camps’, in Baerentzen, L., Iatrides, J. and Smith, O. L. (ed.), Studies in the History of the Greek Civil War, 1945-1949 (Athens 1992) 127-38Google Scholar; Lagani, I., To «παιδομάζωμοί» кои ог ελληνογιουγκοσλαβικές σχέσεις, 1949-1953: Mía κριτική προσέγγιση (Athens 1996) 13-32Google Scholar, 86-95, and Vervenioti, T., ‘Charity and nationalism: the Greek Civil War and the entrance of right-wing women into politics’, in Bacchetta, P. and Power, M. (ed.), Right-Wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists around the World (New York and London 2002) 115-26Google Scholar.

14 Brosse, T., War-Handicapped Children: Report on the European Situation (Paris 1950) 26-9Google Scholar.

15 Baerentzen, ibid, 138-43. For a comparison between the policies the two camps concerning children see Vervenioti, T., ‘#Περι’ “παιδομαζώματος” και “παιδοφυλάγματος” о λόγος ή τα παιδιά στη δίνη της εμφύλιας διαμάχης’, in Voutira, E. et al. (ed.), To ο’πλο παρά πόδα: Οι πολιτικοί πρόσφνγες τοο ελληνικού εμφυλίου πολεμου στην Ανατολική Ενρώπη (Thessaloniki 2005) 101-24Google Scholar.

16 For two studies on war-handicapped children that are contemporary with the events see Freud, A. and Burlingham, D. T., War and Children (New York 1943)Google Scholar, and Brosse, War-handicapped Children.

17 Vervenioti, ‘Περί “παιδομαζώματος” και “παιδοφυλάγματος” о λόγος, 120-3.

18 Spain became officially a member of the UN only in 1955. Regarding the ‘Spanish question’ in the UN see Lleonart, A. J. y Anselem, , España y ONU. U (1947): La “cuestión española”. Estudio introductivo y corpus documental (Madrid 1983) 75-199Google Scholar; Portero, F., Franco aislado: La cuestión española, 1945-1950 (Madrid 1989)Google Scholar, and Edwards, J., Anglo-American Relations and the Franco Question, 1945-1955 (Oxford 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Thomas, J. María, La Falange de Franco: Fascismo y fascistización en el régimen franquista, 1937-1945 (Barcelona 2001) 353-61Google Scholar, and Payne, S. G., The Franco Regime, 1936-1975 (Madison, Wisconsin, and London 1987) 349-83Google Scholar.

20 AMAE/ R 3115/20: Grecia: Actividades de la representación diplomatica de España (1946-1952): Domingo de las Barcenas to Radigales, London, 22 Nov. 1946. See also a relevant report in ibid., Radigales to Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 12 Nov. 1947.

21 AMAE/ R 3115/20: Grecia: Actividades de la representación diplomatica de España (1946-1952): Radigales to Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 25 Apr. 1950.

22 See a relevent report by George Kennan in Pecharromán, J. Gil, La política exterior del franquismo: Entre Hendaya y El Aiún (Madrid 2008), 174-5Google Scholar.

23 Historical Archive of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (hereafter HAMFA)/1948/82/3/3/2: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 7 Jan. 1948: According to the Greek diplomat, the Spanish statesmen assured him that ‘the Greek case is identical to the Spanish one... Greece can count on Spain’.

24 HAMFA /1948/82/3/3/2: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 30 July 1947.

25 AMAE/ R 3115/20: Grecia: Actividades de la representación diplomatica de España (1946-1952): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 17 May 1949, 8 June 1949, 19 July 1950, and 30 December 1950. For relevant Greek references see HAMFA/1947/2/1/5/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 25 June 1947 and 2 Dec. 1947; HAMF A/1948/101/2/1/1: Spain, Municipal Elections: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 7 Dec. 1948; HAMF A/1949/114/7/1/1: Spain-Domestic situation: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 30 Nov. 1949, and Greek General State Archives, Central Service/Small Collections/K 119: Publication of the Army Staff/Press Office, under the title H vea φάσις του αγώνος (Athens 1950) 29.

26 AMAE/R 3115/21: Españoles en el extranjero, Grecia (1948-51): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 10 May 1948, and AMAE/R 2036/1: Grecia, Informaciones de Grecia sobre ambiente elecciones y politica de España (1949): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 20 May 1949.

27 Archivo General de Administración, Alcalá de Henares (hereafter AGA)/Sección 15/01/Caja 254: Report by the general secretary of the Foreign Service of the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista y de las JONS, Madrid, 26 Nov. 1949.

28 Lagani, To «ποαδομάζωμα», 123-6, 149-51.

29 For the regime’s control over the domestic mass media see Carnicer, M. A. Ruiz, ‘La educación popular en el régimen franquista’, in García, J. G. and Carnicer, M. A. R. (ed.), La España de Franco (1939-1975): Cultura y vida cotidiana (Madrid 2001) 69-85Google Scholar, and la Guardia, R. Martín de, ‘Los medios de cominación social como formas de persuasión durante el primer franquismo’, in Idarreta, J. M. Delgado (ed.), Propaganda y medios de comunicación en el primer franquismo, 1936-59 (Logroño 2006), 15-28Google Scholar. See also Mela, ‘О ελληνικός εμφύλιος πόλεμος κοα о ισπανικός τύπος’, 134-6.

30 Katsoudas, ‘Mía δικτατορία που δεν είναι δικτατορία’, 159-60; Rosillo, M. Morcillo, S. R. Kadigales y los Sefardíes de Grecia, 1943-1946 (Madrid 2008) 24-5Google Scholar.

31 See Vigil, Marín, Martell, Los niños de la guerra, 44; Vinyes, Armengou, Belis, Los niños perdidos, 71, 205, and Kowalsky, Daniel, ‘The Evacuation of Spanish Children to the Soviet Union’, in his Stalin and the Spanish Civil War, Interactive e-book (Columbia 2004)Google Scholar. http://www.gutenberg-e.org/kod01/

32 HAMFA/1948/82/3/3/2: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 6 March 1948.

33 HAMFA/1948/101/4/1/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 9 April 1948.

34 HAMF A/1948/101/4/1/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 9 April 1948, 20 April 1948, and AMAE/R 2340/1: Información sobre política interior de Grecia (1950): Sebastián de Romero Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 2 Jan. 1950.

35 HAMF A/1948/101/4/1/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 11 April 1948.

36 ABC, 18 April 1948, Ya, 14 April 1948; La Gaceta del Norte: ‘Un acto de barbarie inaudita’, 14 April 1948.

37 HAMFA/1948/101/4/1/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 8 July 1948.

38 AMAE/R 2340/1: Información sobre política interior de Grecia (1950): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 2 Jan. 1950.

39 AMAE/ R 3115/20: Grecia: Actividades de la representación diplomatica de España (1946-1952): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens 4 January 1948; AMAE/R 2344/2: Grecia, Informaciones política internacional de Grecia (1949-50): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 16 May 1950 and 4 June 1950.

40 AMAE/R 2340/1: Información sobre política interior de Grecia (1950): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 12 Jan. 1950.

41 Ristovi, M., A Long Journey Home: Greek Refugee Children in Yugoslavia, 1948-60 (Thessaloniki 2000) 99-117Google Scholar.

42 AMAE/R 2344/2: Grecia, Informaciones política internacional de Grecia (1949-50): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens. 14 Nov. 1950.

43 AMAE/R 2344/2: Grecia, Informaciones política internacional de Grecia (1949-50): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 26 May 1950 and 27 Nov. 1950. See also AGA/Sección 10/114/Caja 66/3860: Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens 22 November 1950, where he supports the official Greek views on the country’s ‘niños raptados’.

44 AMAE/R 2042/1: Grecia: Informaciones sobre legislación griega (1946-49): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens 13 March 1949; AMAE/R 2340/1: Información sobre política interior de Grecia (1950): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 20 Feb. 1950, 1 May 1950, and 29 Dec. 1950.

45 HAMFA/1948/101/4/1/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 11 April 1948: Articles in the Spanish press.

46 HAMFA/1948/101/4/1/1: Spain: Kapetanidis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid, 3 April 1948: Dispatch of an article in Semana (30 March 1948), with the title ‘Deportaciones en masa de niños hellenos’.

47 AMAE/R 2344/2: Grecia, Informaciones política internacional de Grecia (1949-50): Lawyers’ Association of Madrid to the Spanish Ministry of Justice, Madrid 25 April 1950; General Director of the Spanish Ministry of Justice to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Madrid 14 June 1950, and Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Radigales, Madrid 16 June 1950.

48 Marten, J., ‘Introduction’, in his (ed.), Children and War. A Historical Anthology (New York and London 2002) 2-8Google Scholar, and Simonsen, ‘Children in danger’, 269-80. For the Greek case see Dalianis, M. and Mazower, M., ‘Children in turmoil during civil war: today’s adults’, in Mazower, (ed.), After the War was Over: Reconstructing the Family, Nation and State in Greece, 1943-1960 (Princeton 2000) 92-104Google Scholar.

49 AMAE/R 3115/20: Grecia: Actividades de la representación diplomatica de España (1946-1952): Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 8 June 1949 and 30 Dec. 1950. See also AGA/Sección 10/114/ Caja 66/3860: Radigales to the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens, 12 Dec. 1950.