Barcelona Llibres

After Vienna (March 1938) and before Prague (March 1939), Barcelona was the second biggest European city to fall (liberated in the language of Spanish fascism) into the hands of a fascist regime, as was the case with the rebellion against the Second Spanish Republic, headed by General Francisco Franco within the framework of the so-called “European Civil War” in the 20th century (1914-1945).

The city was occupied by Franco’s troops on 26 January 1939, in a military operation conceived as part of the campaign in Catalonia. Yet this manoeuvre of war came with political, economic and policing projects which mapped out what would be the management of an occupied city, regarded as a focus of enemy resistance and with a population which was largely hostile towards the new regime.

This is the chronicle of the fall and occupation of Barcelona, based on written accounts, documents and graphic materials. It also describes how, once defeated, the city became the scene for celebrating other Francoist victories: the fall of Girona, of Madrid, and the end of the war. But in the main, this is the documentary and graphic chronicle of the victors and those in the city who came out to receive them in the city’s main streets and squares. The defeated city, of retreating Republic troops and civilians, of people who stayed at home and didn’t take to the streets or their balconies, disappeared from view.

Silence shrouded the neighbourhoods, streets, men, women and children who were defeated. In the end, in the winter of 1939, only the victorious military figures and civilians left a graphic account of their triumph, their return to municipal power the all-consuming vengeance they exercised.