The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-century Spain

Paul Preston

W.W. Norton & Company, 2012 - History - 700 pages

The remains of General Francisco Franco lie in an immense mausoleum near Madrid, built with the blood and sweat of twenty thousand slave laborers. His enemies, however, met less-exalted fates. Besides those killed on the battlefield, tens of thousands were officially executed between 1936 and 1945, and as many again became "non-persons." As Spain finally reclaims its historical memory, a full picture can now be given of the Spanish Holocaust-ranging from judicial murders to the abuse of women and children. The story of the victims of Franco's reign of terror is framed by the activities of four key men-General Mola, Quiepo de Llano, Major Vallejo Najera, and Captain Don Gonzalo Aguilera-whose dogma of eugenics, terrorization, domination, and mind control horrifyingly mirror the fascism of Italy and Germany.

Evoking such classics as Gulag and The Great Terror, The Spanish Holocaust sheds crucial light on one of the darkest and most unexamined eras of modern European history.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - HadriantheBlind - LibraryThing

The term 'holocaust' is one contentious, reserved solely now for the gravest of atrocities (with hyperbole notwithstanding). Although on a slightly smaller scale, Preston makes the assertion that the ...

THE SPANISH HOLOCAUST: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain

User Review  - Kirkus

Chilling history of the class-fueled institutionalized violence perpetrated mostly by the reactionary Francoists during the Spanish Civil War.Scholar Preston (London School of Economics; We Saw Spain ...

About the author

Paul Preston, author of The Spanish Civil War, Franco and Juan Carlos, and The Spanish Holocaust, is the world's foremost historian on twentieth-century Spain. A professor at the London School of Economics, he lives in London.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-century Spain
• Author: Paul Preston
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012
• ISBN: 039306476X, 9780393064766
• Length: 700 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Spain & Portugal