Friend, Foe or Franco?: Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevik Propaganda in WWII Spain
Rachael Jenness
Gonzaga University
Keywords: Spain, Nazi Germany, World War II, Francisco Franco, propaganda, antisemitism, facism, Falange
Abstract
Contemporary media often conflates antisemitism and Nazism, yet the Nazis are certainly not the only regime in history to target Jewish communities. The Spanish Inquisition (1470s-1853) and the Reconquista (711-1492) were perhaps the second- and third-most famous persecutions of the Jews, resulting in the forced conversion, exile, or execution of Jews across the Iberian Peninsula. By the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, historical anti-Jewish policies ensured that few members of the Jewish community remained in Spain. It is curious, then, that in 1936, anti-Jewish sentiment was once again on the rise in Spanish society. The golpe de estado that installed Franco as the leader of Spain also saw a far-right, antisemitic regime come to power, one that would offer little help to the Jewish community during the Holocaust, and even turn the attitude of everyday Spainards unsympathetic to their plight. The foremost vehicle used to perpetuate these prejudices was the Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevik Conspiracy: the idea that the Jewish community was attempting to destroy Spain from within using Freemasonry and Communism. As World War II grew into a full-scale conflict, La bestia judeomasonica was an important symbol used by both German and Spanish governments to tie their enemies into a single international threat. This paper explores how these symbols changed the attitude of Spanish society through the use of official government policy, the rewriting of school curriculum, and strategic cooperation with the head of German propaganda. It concludes that had WWII been tipped in favor of the Germans, the Spanish government's allegiance would have remained with their ideological allies. Instead, Franco managed to fool the international community into believing his government was a neutral party and maintain his power until his death in 1975, when the political parties of Spain agreed to forget the horrors of the regime and move forward.
