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Angel Vinas, et al: "Castigar a los Rojos" (Angel Vinas, Belgium, 06/21/22 7:45 am)

With two colleagues, Dr Francisco Espinosa and Professor Guillermo Portilla, Crítica has just published a book on the historical and ideological foundations of the Francoist repression meted out to the Spaniards who resisted the coup d'Etat from 18 July 1936. This repression has been thoroughly examined by Spanish historians since the 1980s and has become the most vibrant chapter of Spanish present-day historiography. The number of monographs and comprehensive studies on the subject is countless. Several years ago Sir Paul Preston published The Spanish Holocaust to provide an overall view on this subject to English and Spanish readers.

We have not endeavored to replicate Sir Paul's tour de force. We have concentrated on critically analysing the memorandum on the orientations for the repression, written by a military prosecutor just before the civil war ended. He based his 80-page opus magnum on the basis of his own experience as the general prosecutor of the Occupation Army (a special military corps to deal with summary "justice" on the conquered areas). It also provided the rationale for the "justice" to be meted out after the victory in 1939.

Should a history of Spanish infamy be written someday, we contend that then Lt Colonel and subsequently three-star general Felipe Acedo Colunga should figure prominently in it. He was the author of the memorandum. We reproduce it in our book verbatim and explain the philosophy and the aims of the repression past and to come. It was a strange mélange of half-digested procedures going back to the Spanish Inquisition combined with the most up-to-date philosophy and procedures of the National-Socialist criminal code on the basis of the theses of Prof. Carl Schmitt, the Third Reich's Kronjurist. The prologue to the book was written by Baltasar Garzón.

WAISers may excuse my non-participation in the discussion about Ukraine. Gen Acedo Colunga gave me a lot to think about during the last few months. More on it in my blog.

Francisco Espinosa, Guillermo Portilla, Angel Viñas: Castigar a los Rojos [Punish the Reds] Crítica, Barcelona, 2022, 334 pages.

JE comments:   Ángel, you are tireless!  Congratulations on your newest arrival.  Tell us, how has the Acedo Colunga memorandum (Spain's Wannsee?) remained suppressed until now?  Huelga decir, I'm looking forward to reading your book.

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