Soap wrapper for Catalan government’s antifacist militas very probably destinated for Aragón front. 1936-37. As Orwell reminds us hygiene was a major issue.
Walking Museum of the Spanish Civil War
Anti-fascist soap
Author Archives: nick2
Marina Ginestà
I believe this is the only known use of Juan Guzman’s famed Marina Ginestà photo shot during the Spanish Civil War itself, an image which has come this century to represent more than any other the revolutionary hopes of 1936. That said, it is a different shot in the reel from the famed image
CP women’s magazine Pasionaria, 23 October 1937.
CNT union of Barbers
CNT union of Barbers of Barcelona. “At last we are free!”
Barcelona market bombed
Barcelona 1938 David Seymour. I’m not sure if that is the Boqueria market or Barceloneta market. If the latter it would make it 18 September 1938 on which more than 40 people were killed. Sant Antoni market was also hit. Original here at Magnum.
Marina Ginestà in colour
A colourised version of the famous and iconic Marina Ginestà photo standing on the roof of the Hotel Colón in Plaça Catalunya on 21 July 1936. In fact she was never a militia fighter. She worked through the war as a journalist and as an interpreter for the Soviet correspondent Mijaíl Koltsov. This colourised version of Hans Gutmann (Juan Guzman)’s original is by Jared Enos. Great job and gives impression of photo a little overexposed due to the sunlight which adds authenticity
Sant Felip Neri bombing
Another tragic Barcelona anniversary today. 77 years ago two fascist Italian bombs fell on the Sant Felip Neri church and square and killed dozens of people, mainly orphaned children from Madrid who had sheltered here.
Barcelona 1939
Today, on a freezing cold morning 76 years ago, Barcelona fell to Franco’s rebel fascist army which set about destroying everything republicans and revolutionaries had built. Rather than show an image of his triumphant troops in Plaça Catalunya, here’s one of civilians in a food queue three days later in the defeated city.
Nehru in Barcelona
Jawaharlal Nehru, future first Prime Minister of India, visited Barcelona in June 1938. The photo above shows Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, who also later became Indian Prime Minister, together with Catalan president Lluis Companys.
See also India and the Spanish Civil War
It was the Europe of 1938 with Mr. Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement in full swing and marching over the bodies of nations, betrayed and crushed, to the final scene that was staged at Munich. There I entered into this Europe of conflict by flying straight to Barcelona. There I remained for five days and watched the bombs fall nightly from the air. There I saw much else that impressed me powerfully; and there, in the midst of want and destruction and ever-impending disaster, I felt more at peace with myself than anywhere else in Europe. There was light there, the light of courage and determination and of doing something worthwhile.
The quote is from Nehru’s autobiograpahy Toward Freedom: From here
Gerda Taro’s grave
The sorry state of the grave of photographer Gerda Taro, Peré Lachaise cemetery, París. Taro came to Spain with Robert Capa in August 1936 and together they set out to depict the war and revolution. She was tragically killed when a republican armoured vehicle accidentally crushed her during a retreat in the Brunete battle on 26 July 1937. Photo from here
A Jewish Iraqi in the Spanish Civil War
Letty Abraham from Baghdad. Via here