The Spanish Holocaust

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The Spanish holocaust · ELPAÍS.com in English. Review of Paul Preston’s seminal work
Clemency was not a word that Captain Manuel Díaz Criado understood. During his four months in charge of security in the Andalusian capital of Seville following the capture of the city in July 1936 by the forces of General Francisco Franco, he launched a reign of terror, rounding up anybody suspected

Stalinist repression in Barcelona in 1937

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A short letter from an Amercian member of the POUM describing the Stalinist repression in Barcelona in 1937

http://orwell.ru/a_life/Spanish_War/english/e_harry

Dear Marty:

The P.O.U.M. has been suppressed. Its paper and plant, all institutions and buildings seized. All occupants arrested. Most of the leaders including Nin have been jailed.

Every foreigner not a Stalinist is suspect and scores and scores have been arrested.

Hundreds arrests take place. The streets bustle with armed assault guards and a Hitlerite tenor prevails.

All prisoners are held incommunicado; a gigantic frame-up is being concocted. The charge: Criminal political conspiracy with the German and Italian fascists.

I’ve been running around like a hunted rat. Detectives have appeared at my hotel. Fortunately, the clerk speaks English and gave me warning. …

The CNT film industry

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Interesting piece on the CNT film industry during the Spanish Civil War

Collectivized Creativity: The Rediscovered Films of the CNT | Film International

It was in August 1936 that the SUEP decided to create a ‘Committee of Cinema Economy’ in order to define the goals and decide on the administration of the amusement industry within the revolutionary movement. Early in 1937, SIE Films (‘Union of the amusement industry’) was created, and it was under its label that most of the CNT films appeared. As Prost observes in his documentary: ‘Right from July 1936, the anarchists decided to work within this essential dimension of the culture industry that is the cinema’. The film industry was therefore collectivized by the CNT, and its members produced and directed documentaries, newsreels and fiction films, all of which are anchored in the events of the war and revolution. They made no less than 200 documentaries and eight fiction films.