White Terror (Spain)

White Terror
Francoist Repression
White Terror; Francoist Repression
Part of Spanish Civil War, World War II, Francoist period
	Galician reapers shot by the Nationalists in Talavera de la Reina in 1936; the execution was attributed to the Republicans by the Francoist propaganda which distributed the photo as an evidence of atrocities by the "Marxist hordes"
Location	Spain
Date	1936–1947
Target	Spanish Republicans, liberals, leftists, Protestants, intellectuals, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jews, immigrants and Basque, Catalan, Andalusian and Galician nationalists
Attack type	Politicide, mass murder, forced labour, human experimentation, war rape, genocide
Deaths	160,000–400,000
Perpetrators	Nationalist faction of Spain and the proceeding government

The White Terror (Spanish: Terror Blanco), also called the Francoist Repression (Spanish: la Represión franquista), was the political repression and mass violence against dissidents that were committed by the Nationalist faction during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), as well as during the first nine years of the regime of General Francisco Franco.^[6]^: 89–94 From 1936–1945, Francoist Spain officially designated supporters of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939), liberals, socialists of different stripes, Protestants, intellectuals, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jews, immigrants as well as Basque, Catalan, Andalusian, and Galician nationalists as enemies.^[8]^[5]^: 52^[9]^: 136

The Francoist Repression was motivated by the right-wing notion of social cleansing (Spanish: limpieza social), which meant that the Nationalists immediately started executing people viewed as enemies of the state upon capturing territory.^[6]^: 98 As a response to the similar mass killings of their clergy, religious^{[clarification needed]}, and laity during the Republican Red Terror, the Spanish Catholic Church legitimized the killings by the Civil Guard (national police) and the Falange as a defense of Christendom.^[6]^: 88–89^[10]

Repression was ideologically hardwired into the Francoist regime, and according to Ramón Arnabat, it turned "the whole country into one wide prison".^[11] The regime accused the loyalist supporters of the Republic of having "adherence to the rebellion", providing "aid to the rebellion", or "military rebellion"; using the Republicans' own ideological tactics against them.^[11] Franco's Law of Political Responsibilities (Spanish: Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas), in force until 1962, gave legalistic color of law to the political repression that characterized the defeat and dismantling of the Second Spanish Republic^[12] and punished Loyalist Spaniards.^[13]

The historian Stanley G. Payne considers the White Terror's death toll to be greater than the death toll of the corresponding Red Terror.^[14]

^ Francisco Espinosa Maestre. Breve historia de una fotografía // Pasado y Memoria. Revista de Historia Contemporánea, 6, 2007.
^ Cite error: The named reference ARMH was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Maestre, Francisco; Casanova, Julián; Mir, Conxita; Gómez, Francisco (2004). Morir, matar, sobrevivir: La violencia en la dictadura de Franco. Grupo Planeta. ISBN 978-8484325062.
^ Fontana, J. (Ed.). (1986). España bajo el franquismo: coloquio celebrado en la universidad de Valencia, noviembre de 1984. Universidad; Crítica: Departamento de Historia Contemporánea. p. 22
^ ^a ^b Preston, Paul (2006). The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, revolution & revenge. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0007232079.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Penguin Books. ISBN 014303765X.
^ Michael Richards, A Time of Silence: Civil War and the Culture of Repression in Franco's Spain, 1936–1945, Cambridge University Press. 1998. p. 11.
^ Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed., vol. 21, p. 836.
^ Graham, Helen (2005). The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192803771.
^ "El silencio de los obispos: La Iglesia Católica de España y los niños perdidos del franquismo un año después". En el país de los niños perdidos. 22 November 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
^ ^a ^b Arnabat Mata 2013, pp. 33–34.
^ Cite error: The named reference CH-sa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "La Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas, un arma más de represión durante el franquismo". Los ojos de Hipatia. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
^ Payne, Stanley. "Chapter 26: A History of Spain and Portugal vol. 2". libro.uca.edu. Retrieved 22 August 2020. The toll taken by the respective terrors may never be known exactly. The left slaughtered more in the first months, but the Nationalist repression probably reached its height only after the war had ended, when punishment was exacted and vengeance wreaked on the vanquished left. The White terror may have slain 50,000, perhaps fewer, during the war. The Franco government now gives the names of 61,000 victims of the Red terror, but this is not subject to objective verification. The number of victims of the Nationalist repression, during and after the war, was undoubtedly greater than that.

[1] Francisco Espinosa Maestre. Breve historia de una fotografía // Pasado y Memoria. Revista de Historia Contemporánea, 6, 2007.

[ARMH-2] Cite error: The named reference ARMH was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Morir-3] Maestre, Francisco; Casanova, Julián; Mir, Conxita; Gómez, Francisco (2004). Morir, matar, sobrevivir: La violencia en la dictadura de Franco. Grupo Planeta. ISBN 978-8484325062.

[Fontana-4] Fontana, J. (Ed.). (1986). España bajo el franquismo: coloquio celebrado en la universidad de Valencia, noviembre de 1984. Universidad; Crítica: Departamento de Historia Contemporánea. p. 22

[Preston-5] Preston, Paul (2006). The Spanish Civil War. Reaction, revolution & revenge. Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0007232079.

[Beevor-6] Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain; The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Penguin Books. ISBN 014303765X.

[7] Michael Richards, A Time of Silence: Civil War and the Culture of Repression in Franco's Spain, 1936–1945, Cambridge University Press. 1998. p. 11.

[8] Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed., vol. 21, p. 836.

[Graham-9] Graham, Helen (2005). The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192803771.

[10] "El silencio de los obispos: La Iglesia Católica de España y los niños perdidos del franquismo un año después". En el país de los niños perdidos. 22 November 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2015.

[FOOTNOTEArnabat_Mata201333–34-11] Arnabat Mata 2013, pp. 33–34.

[CH-sa-12] Cite error: The named reference CH-sa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[13] "La Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas, un arma más de represión durante el franquismo". Los ojos de Hipatia. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2015.

[14] Payne, Stanley. "Chapter 26: A History of Spain and Portugal vol. 2". libro.uca.edu. Retrieved 22 August 2020. The toll taken by the respective terrors may never be known exactly. The left slaughtered more in the first months, but the Nationalist repression probably reached its height only after the war had ended, when punishment was exacted and vengeance wreaked on the vanquished left. The White terror may have slain 50,000, perhaps fewer, during the war. The Franco government now gives the names of 61,000 victims of the Red terror, but this is not subject to objective verification. The number of victims of the Nationalist repression, during and after the war, was undoubtedly greater than that.

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