The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

against Germany and Italy trying to show that fascism was a greater danger to
European peace than communism.
While Stalin did not want to risk a division with Britain and France over
Spain, those two countries were not willing to wage a war over a country that
was perceived as backward and on the periphery of Europe. 21 Nevertheless,
large parts of the population in these liberal democracies were appalled by the
Appeasement Policy. The reason for this was the practise of the German
Luftwaffe to test new tactics of bombing open cities, which culminated in the
bombing of the Basque city of Guernica on April 27 th , 1937.
The bombing of Guernica was not the first bombardment of an open city
risking large numbers of civilian victims. Already in November 1936 the Madrid
suburb Getafe had been attacked by the Legion Condor and in March 1937 the
monastery of Durango was bombed. But Guernica became a worldwide symbol
of the atrocities of modern warfare because international journalists happened to
come to the city four hours after the bombing and send reports about the killing
and destruction to the British newspapers Times and Daily Express. 22 Together
with Pablo Picasso's famous painting that was shown to the public on June 17,
1937, these articles helped to shape the symbolic meaning of Guernica as a
warning of the atrocities of war in general. Ian Patterson referred to the atrocities
of the bomb war as a „propaganda gift” 23 for the Republican side, because soon
posters appeared in cities in France, Netherlands and Britain showing pictures of
childhood victims of the bombing of Madrid with the English and French
captions „If you tolerate this, your children will be next” and „What are you
doing to prevent this / Que fais-tu pour empêcher cela?” 24 As the language of the
slogans shows, those posters were directed to the British and French public. Their
message was to show the atrocities of war to a Western audience and to admonish
them against the dangers of fascist aggression. The intention of the posters was to
mobilize the public in these democratic countries to put pressure on their
governments to change the Appeasement Policy and give support to the Spanish
Republic. The posters argued that fascist expansionism had to be stopped in
Spain or else other European cities might be the next to be bombed and British or
French children would be the next victims.
But the British and French government did not change their policy and
about a week after the bombing of Guernica events took place that made the
21
PRESTON, Paul: El contexto Europeo y Las Brigadas Internacionales. In: GALLEGO,
Requena, LOSA, Manuel und Sepúlveda, MARIA, Rosa: Las Brigadas Internacionales. El
Contexto internacional, los Medios de Propaganda, Literatura y Memorias. Ediciones le la
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Cuenca, 2003. 15.
22
SHELMERDINE, Brian: British Representations of the Spanish Civil War. Manchester
University Press, Manchester-New York, 2006. 168.
23
PATTERSON, Ian: Guernica and Total War. Harvard University Press, Cambridge-Mass.-
London, 2007. 15.
24
LEFEBVRE, Michel, SKOUTELSKY, Rémi: Les Brigades Internationales. Images
Retrouvées, Seuil, Paris, 2003. 77.
97