City Divided

The world's first reaction to Barcelona's fall was perplexity. Why did a city of 2,000,000 people, the reddest town on earth outside Russia, surrender to the Fascists as soon as they reached the suburbs? The explanation was that a metropolis divided against itself--and hungry--also falls.

On the morning of Barcelona's capture, Radio Barcelona warned the approaching Rebels that the "city will be defended inch by inch, house by house, street by street." This bold talk reminded the world that Barcelona had smashed the local Fascist uprising in July 1936 with speed and vigor not duplicated anywhere else in Spain. The revolutionary Anarchists, Communists and Socialists--who had learned their discipline and their politics in the only large industrial centre in the country--proceeded to clear Catalonia of Franco forces and chase them half way across Aragon.

Then they stopped, like a mongrel dog pack, and began fighting among themselves. Anarchist hated Communist almost as much as he hated Rebel. Trotskyist bickered with Stalinist. Good bourgeoisie were horrified at the confiscation of private property. The Catalan autonomists resented even the least suggestion from Madrid.

To cross the French border into Catalonia at one time required passage through three independent sets of custom officers--Madrid's, Catalonia's, the Anarchists'. Supplies earmarked for transit through Catalonia for the Central Government were often waylaid.

The Catalan front in Aragon became scandalously inactive. So conspicuous was Barcelona's failure to wage effective warfare against the Fascists, either industrially or militarily, that a favorite, bitter Loyalist quip was that Catalonia, alone of 27 European nations, had lived faithfully up to the non-intervention agreement not to help either side in the Spanish War. In May 1937, Anarchists tried to seize Barcelona and the Central Government, then at Valencia, had to send troops to Catalonia to restore order.

Doubts. The politically-torn population soon faced the terrifying ordeal of hunger and air raids. By last autumn many an ardent antiFascist, his belly gnawed by hunger and his nerves frayed by bombs, began to wonder if, after all, the oppression of Fascism could be any worse. When, three days before Barcelona fell, the Loyalist Government called out all men to help build fortifications to withstand a siege, the city was war weary and apathetic. The job was quietly sabotaged. Many evaded the draft, many worked only halfheartedly. In the last few days before the fall, many Rebel sympathizers--the "Fifth Column"--openly showed their political feelings.

The night before the fall the censors told foreign correspondents that they would not be operating in Barcelona the next day. Dr. Negrin left in the middle of the night. What Loyalist battalions remained guarding the city vanished before daylight. It was all over.

When General Juan Yague's troops reached the 600-foot-high hill of Montjuich commanding Barcelona's harbor they saw a white flag flying from the fortress. When General Garcia Valino's soldiers climbed the summit of Tibidabo, on the west, and looked down upon the city gleaming in brilliant sunshine, they saw white sheets, towels and Rebel red & gold bunting flying from windows and housetops.

Rejoicing. Armored cars cautiously went forth to explore the city. They returned to report that no one had fired on them, that no one seemed likely to. Early in the afternoon Rebel troops began cautiously to make their way through the streets. They reached the Plaza de Cataluna, Barcelona's centre, at 4:30 p.m., occupied the entire city by nightfall. The radio which had blared forth defiance in the morning changed its tune for the evening, played the Rebel anthem, announced: "Barcelonians, do not fear. The Red rulers who have cheated you will never return."

People soon poured into the streets to welcome their new masters. On the Rambla girls flung their arms around the Rebel soldiers. Men who had long ago acquired the habit of clenching their fists and saying "salud!" in approved Leftist style gave the Fascist salute of the upraised arm and yelled "Viva Espana!" The people who had long shaken their fists angrily at Rebel bombers rejoiced at the sight of Rebel soldiers.

People took out their now useless Loyalist pesetas and made bonfires of them in the streets. Electric lights burned that night in Barcelona for the first time in many months. Trucks laden with bread, milk, rice, foodstuffs of all sorts began to arrive, and soup kitchens were opened. The feeding of a hungry city with a swollen population of 2,000,000 was a task which taxed to capacity the administration of Ramon Serrano Suner, Rebel Minister of the Interior. Senor Serrano, married to the sister of Generalissimo Franco's wife, has long been known as an expert on national administrative matters. A distinguished lawyer, he studied at Rome and at the University of Bologna, Italy. Arrested and placed in Madrid's Model Prison early in 1936, Senor Serrano escaped after the war began and eventually made his way to Rebel territory.

Reconstruction. Also facing the Rebels was the job of rebuilding the rundown, wornout, blown-up city. The harbor was spotted with the wreckage of bombed ships. Many docks were destroyed. Barceloneta, the port district, and the Barrio Chino ("Chinese quarter"), Barcelona's famed underworld, had been virtually destroyed. Few glass windows in downtown Barcelona remained. Almost every piece of machinery in the city--elevators, refrigerators, street cars--was badly in need of repair.

Reallocation of all the property seized by the Anarchists and trade unions at the war's outset--stores, factories, hotels, apartment houses, clubs, theatres, restaurants, banks, homes--presented a knotty problem which will probably take years to settle. It will be tackled by a man who himself has something to reclaim--Miguel Mateu Pla, director of the Hispano-Suiza Co. before the revolution. Other jobs were the removal of Loyalist, anti-Fascist posters, the renaming of streets called after Loyalist heroes, the reopening of Barcelona's churches, many of which were burned in the first week of the war, all but one of which have been since closed. The capital of Rebel Spain was expected to be moved soon from provincial Burgos to metropolitan Barcelona.

Rebel blue-shirted military police replaced Barcelona's old municipal guards. Immediately released from three jails were some 6,000 political prisoners left behind by the Loyalists. They were overjoyed, but meanwhile military courts--such as have followed every previous Rebel occupation of a city--were set up in Barcelona to try those Loyalists who had been guilty of "crimes" against the Rebels. On the Franco "blacklist" are said to be some 2,000,000 names, some of whom must have been caught in Barcelona. Those ardent Loyalist workers, union officials, Government employes still remaining in the city faced probable execution, at best long prison terms.

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