General Franco's International Brigades

Description

Ninety thousand foreign volunteers fought for Franco in the Spanish Civil War - three times the number who fought in the International Brigades in support of the Republican Government. They were an unlikely collection of men and women: British adventurers and aristocrats, Peruvian poets, Finnish film stars, White Russian Generals, Romanian fascists, French monarchists, Moroccan Nationalists and devout Irish Catholics and the lone Welsh miner's son who left the valleys to fight for the fascists. Fighting alongside them were 15,000 German and 70,000 Italian soldiers.After the war the victorious insurgents could not admit that they had needed foreigners to win their patriotic crusade, and they were omitted from history books. After the Second World War the volunteers chose to stay silent, hesitant to admit what they had done. Using memoirs, interviews and archive material, Othen selects key moments in the civil war to show the importance of foreign fighters in toppling the Spanish government. It provides crucial insight into Spanish history and offers a snapshot of a divided and confused continent on the brink of world war.

Author description

Christopher Othen studied Linguistics, Literature and Law and has worked as a journalist, musician, and legal representative for asylum seekers. He has shared an office with an Afghan exile who was probably telling the truth when he claimed to have shaken hands with Osama Bin Laden. Published as LAS BRIGADAS INTERNACIONALES DE FRANCO in Spain.