Editing Francisco Franco (section)

== From the Spanish Civil War to World War II ==
Franco rose to power during the Spanish Civil War, which began in July 1936 and officially ended with the victory of his Nationalist forces in April 1939. Although it is impossible to calculate precise statistics concerning the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, Payne writes that if civilian fatalities above the norm are added to the total number of deaths for victims of violence, the number of deaths attributable to the civil war would reach approximately 344,000.{{sfn|Payne|2012|pp=244–245}} During the war, [[rape]], [[torture]], and [[summary execution]]s committed by soldiers under Franco's command were used as a means of retaliation and to repress political dissent.{{sfn|Patterson|2007|p=9}}

The war was marked by [[Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War|foreign intervention]] on behalf of both sides. Franco's Nationalists were supported by [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]], which sent the ''[[Corpo Truppe Volontarie]]'' and by [[Nazi Germany]], which sent the [[Condor Legion]]. Italian aircraft stationed on [[Mallorca]] [[Bombing of Barcelona|bombed Barcelona]] 13 times, dropping 44 tons of bombs aimed at civilians.{{sfn|Payne|Palacios|2014|p=194}}{{sfn|Alpert|2019|p=174}} Similarly, both Italian and German planes [[Bombing of Guernica|bombed the Basque town of Guernica]] at Franco's request. The Republican opposition was supported by communists, socialists, and anarchists within Spain as well as the [[Soviet Union]] and volunteers who fought in the [[International Brigades]].<ref name="MCCannon1995">{{cite journal |last1=MCCannon |first1=John |title=Soviet Intervention in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–39: A Reexamination |journal=Russian History |date=1995 |volume=22 |issue=2 |page=161 |doi=10.1163/187633195X00070 |jstor=24657802 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24657802 |issn=0094-288X}}</ref>

=== First months ===
[[File:Spanish Civil War - Mass grave - Estépar, Burgos.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Twenty-six Republicans executed by Francoists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, buried in a mass grave at [[Estépar]]]]
Following the ''[[pronunciamiento]]'' of 18 July 1936, Franco assumed the leadership of the 30,000 soldiers of the [[Spanish Army of Africa]].<ref name="Keene2007">{{cite book |last1=Keene |first1=Judith |title=Fighting For Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain During the Spanish Civil War |year=2007 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-85285-593-2 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e4qtAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |language=en}}</ref> The first days of the insurgency were marked by an imperative need to secure control over the [[Spanish Morocco|Spanish Moroccan Protectorate]]. On one side, Franco had to win the support of the native Moroccan population and their (nominal) authorities, and, on the other, he had to ensure his control over the army. His method was the summary execution of some 200 senior officers loyal to the Republic (one of them his own cousin). His loyal bodyguard was shot by Manuel Blanco. Franco's first problem was how to move his troops to the [[Iberian Peninsula]], since most units of the Navy had remained in control of the Republic and were blocking the [[Strait of Gibraltar]]. He requested help from [[Benito Mussolini]], who responded with an offer of arms and planes.<ref name="RadoshHabek2001">{{cite book |editor1-last=Radosh |editor1-first=Ronald |editor2-last=Habeck |editor2-first=Mary R. |editor3-last=Sevostʹi͡anov |editor3-first=G. N. |title=Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War |year=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08981-3 |page=29 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IayGhrEQX_QC&pg=PA29 |language=en |chapter=Historical Background}}</ref> In Germany [[Wilhelm Canaris]], the head of the ''[[Abwehr]]'' military intelligence service, persuaded Hitler to support the Nationalists;<ref name="Bassett2012">{{cite book |last1=Bassett |first1=Richard |title=Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery |year=2012 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-4532-4929-1 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwXzYNoZ9FUC&pg=PT92 |language=en}}</ref> Hitler sent 20 [[Junkers Ju 52|Ju 52 transport aircraft]] and six [[Heinkel]] biplane fighters, on the condition that they were not to be used in hostilities unless the Republicans attacked first.<ref name="Mueller2017">{{cite book |last1=Mueller |first1=Michael |title=Nazi Spymaster: The Life and Death of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris |year=2017 |publisher=Skyhorse |isbn=978-1-5107-1777-0 |page=iii17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpHRDgAAQBAJ&pg=PR3-IA17 |language=en}}</ref> Mussolini sent 12 [[Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Pipistrello|Savoia-Marchetti SM.81]] transport/bombers, and a few fighter aircraft. From 20 July onward Franco was able, with this small squadron of aircraft, to initiate an [[Airbridge (logistics)|air bridge]] that carried 1,500 soldiers of the Army of Africa to [[Seville]], where these troops helped to ensure rebel control of the city.<ref name="Candil2021">{{cite book |last1=Candil |first1=Anthony J. |title=Tank Combat in Spain: Armored Warfare During the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939 |year=2021 |publisher=Casemate |isbn=978-1-61200-971-1 |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=170pEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2 |language=en}}</ref>  He successfully negotiated with Germany, and Italy for more military support, and above all for more aircraft. On 25 July aircraft began to arrive in [[Tetouan]] and on 5 August Franco was able to break the blockade, successfully deploying a convoy of fishing boats and merchant ships carrying some 3,000 soldiers; between 29 July and 15 August about 15,000 more men were moved.<ref name="Candil2021" />

On 26 July, just eight days after the revolt had started, foreign allies of the Republican government convened an international communist conference at Prague to arrange plans to help the Popular Front forces in Spain. Communist parties throughout the world quickly launched a full scale propaganda campaign in support of the Popular Front. The [[Communist International]] (Comintern) immediately reinforced its activity, sending to Spain its Secretary-General, the Bulgarian [[Georgi Dimitrov]], and the Italian [[Palmiro Togliatti]], chief of the [[Italian Communist Party|Communist Party of Italy]].{{sfn|Hayes|1951|p=117}}{{sfn|Richardson|2014|p=12}} From August onward, aid from the Soviet Union began; by February 1937 two ships per day arrived at Spain's Mediterranean ports carrying munitions, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, artillery, and trucks. With the cargo came Soviet agents, technicians, instructors and propagandists.{{sfn|Hayes|1951|p=116}}

The [[Communist International]] immediately started to organise the [[International Brigades]], volunteer military units which included the [[Brigate Garibaldi|Garibaldi Brigade]] from Italy and the [[Lincoln Battalion]] from the United States. The International Brigades were usually deployed as [[shock troops]], and as a result they suffered high casualties.{{sfn|Payne|2012|p=154}}

In early August, the situation in western [[Andalucia]] was stable enough to allow Franco to organise a column (some 15,000 men at its height), under the command of then Lieutenant-Colonel [[Juan Yagüe]], which would march through [[Extremadura]] towards Madrid. On 11 August [[Battle of Mérida|Mérida was taken]], and on 15 August [[Battle of Badajoz (1936)|Badajoz]], thus joining both nationalist-controlled areas. Additionally, Mussolini ordered a voluntary army, the ''[[Corpo Truppe Volontarie]]'' (CTV) of fully motorised units (some 12,000 Italians), to Seville, and Hitler added to them a professional squadron from the [[Luftwaffe]] (2JG/88) with about 24 planes. All these planes had the Nationalist Spanish insignia painted on them, but were flown by Italian and German nationals. The backbone of Franco's air force in those days was the Italian [[SM.79]] and [[SM.81]] bombers, the biplane Fiat [[CR.32]] fighter and the German [[Junkers Ju 52]] cargo-bomber and the [[Heinkel He 51]] biplane fighter.<ref name="MacDougall2017">{{cite book |last1=MacDougall |first1=Philip |title=Air Wars 1920–1939: The Development and Evolution of Fighter Tactics |year=2017 |publisher=Fonthill Media |pages=133–135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sYDzDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT133 |language=en}}</ref>

On 21 September, with the head of the column at the town of [[Maqueda]] (some 80&nbsp;km away from Madrid), Franco ordered a detour to free the [[Siege of the Alcázar|besieged garrison at the Alcázar]] of [[Toledo (Spain)|Toledo]], which was achieved on 27 September.<ref name="Tucker2021">{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Spencer C. |title=Great Sieges in World History: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century |year=2021 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-4408-6803-0 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H94aEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA218 |language=en}}</ref> This controversial decision gave the [[Popular Front (Spain)|Popular Front]] time to strengthen its defences in Madrid and hold the city that year,<ref name="Seidman2002">{{cite book |last1=Seidman |first1=Michael |title=Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War |year=2002 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-17863-5 |pages=50–51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VE4YVw9iBksC&pg=PA50}}</ref> but with Soviet support.<ref name="Cazorla-Sanchez2013">{{cite book |last1=Cazorla-Sanchez |first1=Antonio |title=Franco: The Biography of the Myth |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-44949-1 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EdcdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |language=en}}</ref> Kennan alleges that once Stalin had decided to assist the Spanish Republicans, the operation was put in place with remarkable speed and energy. The first load of arms and tanks arrived as early as 26 September and was secretly unloaded at night. Advisers accompanied the armaments. Soviet officers were in effective charge of military operations on the Madrid front. Kennan believes that this operation was originally conducted in good faith with no other purpose than saving the Republic.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Russia and the West under Lenin and Stalin|last=Kennan|first=George|pages=309}}</ref>

Hitler's policy for Spain was shrewd and pragmatic.<ref name="Whealey2021">{{cite book |last1=Whealey |first1=Robert H. |title=Hitler And Spain: The Nazi Role in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 |year=2021 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-8275-9 |page=135 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B0wgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT135 |language=en}}</ref> The minutes of a conference with his foreign minister and army chiefs at the [[Reich Chancellery]] in Berlin on 10 November 1937 summarised his views on foreign policy regarding the Spanish Civil War: "On the other hand, a 100 percent victory for Franco was not desirable either, from the German point of view; rather were we interested in a continuance of the war and in the keeping up of the tension in the Mediterranean."<ref name="USGovPrintingOffice1949">{{cite book |title=Documents on German Foreign Policy: 1918–1945 {{!}} From the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry |year=1949 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=09gWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA37 |volume=12 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Tucker2016">{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Spencer C. |title=World War II: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection [5 volumes]: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection |year=2016 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-969-6 |page=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wm_YDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1982 |language=en}}</ref> Hitler distrusted Franco; according to the comments he made at the conference he wanted the war to continue, but he did not want Franco to achieve total victory. He felt that with Franco in undisputed control of Spain, the possibility of Italy intervening further or of its continuing to occupy the Balearic Islands would be prevented.{{sfn|Hayes|1951|pp=127–128}}

By February 1937 the Soviet Union's military help started to taper off, to be replaced by limited economic aid.

=== Rise to power ===
[[File:J mmue 202444 1 00001.jpg|thumb|Franco and other rebel commanders during the Civil War, {{circa|1936–1939}}]]
The designated leader of the uprising, General [[José Sanjurjo]], died on 20 July 1936 in a plane crash. In the nationalist zone, "political life ceased".{{sfn|Thomas|2013|p=258}} Initially, only military command mattered: this was divided into regional commands ([[Emilio Mola]] in the North, [[Gonzalo Queipo de Llano]] in [[Seville]] commanding [[Andalucia]], Franco with an independent command, and [[Miguel Cabanellas]] in [[Zaragoza]] commanding [[Aragon]]). The Spanish Army of Morocco was itself split into two columns, one commanded by General [[Juan Yagüe]] and the other commanded by Colonel [[José Enrique Varela|José Varela]].

From 24 July a coordinating ''[[Military junta|junta]]'', the [[National Defense Junta|National Defence Junta]], was established, based at [[Burgos]]. Nominally led by Cabanellas, as the most senior general, it initially included Mola, three other generals, and two colonels; Franco was later added in early August.{{sfn|Thomas|2013|p=282}} On 21 September it was decided that Franco was to be commander-in-chief (this unified command was opposed only by Cabanellas),{{sfn|Thomas|2013|p=421}} and, after some discussion, with no more than a lukewarm agreement from Queipo de Llano and from Mola, also head of government.{{sfn|Thomas|2013|pp=423–424}} He was, doubtlessly, helped to this primacy by the fact that, in late July, Hitler had decided that all of Germany's aid to the Nationalists would go to Franco.{{sfn|Thomas|2013|p=356}}

Mola had been somewhat discredited as the main planner of the attempted coup that had now degenerated into a civil war, and was strongly identified with the [[Carlism|Carlist]] monarchists and not at all with the [[Falange Española de las JONS|Falange]], a party with Fascist leanings and connections ("phalanx", a far-right Spanish political party founded by [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]]), nor did he have good relations with Germany. Queipo de Llano and Cabanellas had both previously rebelled against the government of General [[Miguel Primo de Rivera]] and were therefore discredited in some nationalist circles, and Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera was in prison in [[Alicante]] (he would be executed a few months later). The desire to keep a place open for him prevented any other Falangist leader from emerging as a possible head of state. Franco's previous aloofness from politics meant that he had few active enemies in any of the factions that needed to be placated, and he had also cooperated in recent months with both Germany and Italy.{{sfn|Thomas|2013|pp=420–422}}

On 1 October 1936, in [[Burgos]], Franco was publicly proclaimed as ''[[Generalissimo|Generalísimo]]'' of the National army and ''Jefe del Estado'' ([[Head of State]]).{{sfn|Thomas|2013|p=424}} When Mola was killed in another air accident a year later on 2 June 1937 (which some believe was an assassination), no military leader was left from those who had organised the conspiracy against the Republic between 1933 and 1935.{{sfn|Thomas|2013|pp=689–690}}

=== Military command ===
Franco personally guided military operations from this time until the end of the war. Franco himself was not a strategic genius, but he was very effective at organisation, administration, logistics and diplomacy.{{sfn|Payne|Palacios|2014|p=193}} After the [[Siege of Madrid|failed assault on Madrid]] in November 1936, Franco settled on a piecemeal approach to winning the war, rather than bold manoeuvring. As with his decision to [[Siege of the Alcázar|relieve the garrison]] at Toledo, this approach has been subject of some debate:{{sfn|Payne|Palacios|2014|p=142}} some of his decisions, such as in June 1938 when he preferred to advance towards [[Valencia (autonomous community)|Valencia]] instead of [[Catalonia]],{{sfn|Graham|2002|p=365}} remain particularly controversial from a military strategic viewpoint.<ref name="Meneses200354">{{cite book |last1=Meneses |first1=Filipe Ribeiro De |title=Franco and the Spanish Civil War |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-55408-9 |page=54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QZ-CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 |language=en}}</ref> Valencia, Castellon and Alicante saw the last Republican troops defeated by Franco.

Although both Germany and Italy provided military support to Franco, the degree of influence of both powers on his direction of the war seems to have been very limited. Nevertheless, the Italian troops, despite [[Battle of Guadalajara|not always being effective]], were present in most of the large operations in large numbers. Germany sent insignificant numbers of combat personnel to Spain, but aided the Nationalists with technical instructors and modern matériel;<ref name="Turnbull2013">{{cite book |last1=Turnbull |first1=Patrick |title=The Spanish Civil War 1936–39 |year=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-0446-4 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYWHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT80 |language=en}}</ref> including some 200 tanks and 600 aircraft{{sfn|Sangster|2018|p=52}} which helped the Nationalist air force dominate the skies for most of the war.<ref name="Cortada2014">{{cite book |last1=Cortada |first1=James W. |title=Modern Warfare in Spain: American Military Observations on the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 |year=2014 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-61234-101-9 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_06uUe91o4C&pg=PA144 |language=en}}</ref>

Franco's direction of the German and Italian forces was limited, particularly in the direction of the [[Condor Legion]], but he was by default their supreme commander, and they declined to interfere in the politics of the Nationalist zone.<ref name="Coverdale2015">{{cite book |last1=Coverdale |first1=John F. |title=Italian Intervention in the Spanish Civil War |year=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-6790-5 |pages=117–120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=71x9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA117 |language=en}}</ref> For reasons of prestige it was decided to continue assisting Franco until the end of the war, and Italian and German troops paraded on the day of the final victory in Madrid.{{sfn|Jackson|2012|p=539}}

The Nationalist victory could be accounted for by various factors:{{sfn|Payne|Palacios|2014|pp=193–195}} the Popular Front government had reckless policies in the weeks prior to the war, where it ignored potential dangers and alienated the opposition, encouraging more people to join the rebellion, while the rebels had superior military cohesion, with Franco providing the necessary leadership to consolidate power and unify the various rightist factions.{{sfn|Payne|Palacios|2014|pp=147–148}} His foreign diplomacy secured military aid from Italy and Germany and, by some accounts, helped keep Britain and France out of the war.{{sfn|Payne|Palacios|2014|p=193}}

The rebels made effective use of a smaller navy, acquiring the most powerful ships in the Spanish fleet and maintaining a functional officer corps, while Republican sailors had assassinated a large number of their naval officers who sided with the rebels in 1936, as at Cartagena,{{sfn|Alpert|2013|p=296}} and El Ferrol.{{sfn|Thomas|2013|p=242}} The Nationalists used their ships aggressively to pursue the opposition, in contrast to the largely passive naval strategy of the Republicans.

Not only did the Nationalists receive more foreign aid to sustain their war effort, but there is evidence that they made more efficient use of such aid.{{sfn|Radcliff|2017|p=203}} They augmented their forces with arms captured from the Republicans,{{sfn|Payne|2008|pp=33–35, 40}} and successfully integrated over half of Republican prisoners of war into the Nationalist army.{{sfn|Matthews|2010|p=354}} The rebels were able to build a larger air force and make more effective use of their air force, particularly in supporting ground operations and bombing; and generally enjoyed air superiority from mid-1937 onwards; this [[air power]] contributed greatly to the Nationalist victory.{{sfn|Hooton|2019|p=136}}

The Republicans were subject to disunity and infighting,{{sfn|Graham|1988|pp=106–107}} and were hampered by the destructive consequences of the revolution in the Republican zone: mobilisation was impeded, the Republican image was harmed abroad in democracies, and the campaign against religion aroused overwhelming and unwavering Catholic support for the Nationalists.{{sfn|Payne|2012|pp=115–116}}

=== Political command ===

[[File:Francoist demonstration in Salamanca.jpg|thumb|left|Francoist demonstration in Salamanca (1937) with the paraders carrying banners with the portrait of Franco and the populace giving the [[Roman salute]]]]

On 19 April 1937, Franco and Serrano Súñer, with the acquiescence of Generals Mola and Quiepo de Llano, [[Unification Decree (Spain, 1937)|forcibly merged]] the ideologically distinct national-syndicalist [[Falange Española de las JONS|Falange]] and the [[Carlism|Carlist]] monarchist parties into [[one-party state|one party]] under his rule, dubbed ''[[Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista]]'' (FET y de las JONS),{{sfn|Raguer|2007|p=206}} which became the only legal party in 1939.{{sfn|Clifford|2020|p=53}}

Unlike some other fascist movements, the Falangists had developed an official program in 1934, the "Twenty-Seven Points".{{sfn|Payne|1961|pp=68–69}} In 1937, Franco assumed as the tentative doctrine of his regime 26 out of the original 27 points.{{sfn|Payne1999|p=269}} Franco made himself ''jefe nacional'' (National Chief) of the new FET (''Falange Española Tradicionalista''; Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx) with a secretary, Political Junta and National Council to be named subsequently by himself. Five days later on 24 April the [[Roman salute|raised-arm salute]] of the Falange was made the official salute of the Nationalist regime.{{sfn|Payne|1987|p=172}} Also in 1937 the ''Marcha Real'' ("Royal March") was restored by decree as the national anthem in the Nationalist zone. It was opposed by the Falangists, who associated it with the monarchy and boycotted it when it was played, often singing their own anthem, ''[[Cara al Sol]]'' (Facing the Sun) instead.{{sfn|Moreno-Luzón|Seixas|2017|pp=47–48}} By 1939 the fascist style prevailed, with ritual rallying calls of "Franco, Franco, Franco."{{sfn|Payne|1987|p=234}}

Franco's advisor on Falangist party matters, [[Ramón Serrano Súñer]], who was the brother-in-law of his wife Carmen Polo, and a group of Serrano Súñer's followers dominated the FET JONS, and strove to increase the party's power. Serrano Súñer tried to move the party in a more fascist direction by appointing his acolytes to important positions, and the party became the leading political organisation in Francoist Spain. The FET JONS failed to establish a fascist party regime, however, and was relegated to subordinate status. Franco placed the Carlist [[Manuel Fal Condé]] under house arrest and imprisoned hundreds of old Falangists, the so-called "old shirts" (''camisas viejas''), including the party leader [[Manuel Hedilla]],{{sfn|Riley|2019|p=114}} to help secure his political future. Franco also appeased the Carlists by exploiting the Republicans' [[anti-clericalism]] in his propaganda, in particular concerning the "[[Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War|Martyrs of the war]]". While the Republican forces presented the war as a struggle to defend the Republic against fascism, Franco depicted himself as the defender of "Catholic Spain" against "atheist communism".{{sfn|Casla|2021|p=138}}{{sfn|Morcillo|2010|p=39}}

=== End of the Civil War ===
By early 1939 only Madrid (see [[History of Madrid]]) and a few other areas remained under control of the government forces. On 27 February [[Neville Chamberlain|Chamberlain's Britain]] and [[Édouard Daladier|Daladier's France]] officially recognised the Franco regime. On 28 March 1939, with the help of pro-Franco forces inside the city (the "[[fifth column]]" General Mola had mentioned in propaganda broadcasts in 1936), Madrid fell to the Nationalists. The next day, [[Valencia]], which had held out under the guns of the Nationalists for close to two years, also surrendered. Victory was proclaimed on 1 April 1939, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered. On the same day, Franco placed his sword upon the altar of a church and vowed to never take it up again unless Spain itself was threatened with invasion.

Although Germany had recognised the Franco Government, Franco's policy towards Germany was extremely cautious until spectacular German victories at the beginning of the Second World War. An early indication that Franco was going to keep his distance from Germany soon proved true. A rumoured state visit by Franco to Germany did not take place and a further rumour of a visit by Goering to Spain, after he had enjoyed a cruise in the Western Mediterranean, again did not materialise. Instead Goering had to return to Berlin.<ref>{{cite book |title = Survey of International Affairs, 1939 (On the Eve of War) |volume = 1 |page = 358 }}</ref>

During the Civil War and in the aftermath, a period known as the [[White Terror (Spain)|White Terror]] took place. This saw mass executions of Republican and other Nationalist enemies, standing in contrast to the wartime [[Red Terror (Spain)|Red Terror]]. Historical analysis and investigations estimate the number of executions by the Franco regime during this time to be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead.

[[Stanley G. Payne]] says the total number of all kinds of [[summary execution|executions]] in the Republican zone added up to about 56,000, and that those in the Nationalist zone probably amounted to at least 70,000, with an additional 28,000 executions after the war ended.{{sfn|Payne|2012|p=110}}{{sfn|Tremlett|2003|p=}} Recent searches conducted with parallel excavations of mass graves in Spain by the [[Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory]] (Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica), (ARMH) estimate that more than 35,000 people killed by the nationalist side are still missing in mass graves.<ref name="ARMH">[http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2002/351/1026114970.html Fosas Comunes – Los desaparecidos de Franco. La Guerra Civil no ha terminado], ''[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]]'', 7 July 2002 {{in lang|es}}</ref>

[[Julián Casanova Ruiz]], who was nominated in 2008 to join the panel of experts in the first judicial investigation, conducted by judge [[Baltasar Garzón]], of Francoist crimes,<ref>[http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Aportaremos/trozos/verdad/puzzle/resolvera/Garzon/elpepiesp/20081023elpepinac_11/Tes "Aportaremos trozos de verdad a un 'puzzle' que resolverá Garzón"], ''[[El País]]'', 23 de octubre de 2008.</ref> as well as historians [[Josep Fontana]] and [[Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton|Hugh Thomas]], estimate deaths in the White Terror to be around 150,000 in total.{{sfn|Casanova|Espinosa|Mir|Gómez|2004|p=8}}{{sfn|Juliá|Casanova|1999|pp=411–412}}{{sfn|Fontana|2000|p=22}} According to [[Paul Preston]], 150,000 wartime civilian executions took place in the Francoist area, as well as 50,000 in the Republican area, in addition to approximately 20,000 civilians executed by the Franco regime after the end of the war.{{sfn|Preston|2012|p=9}}{{NoteTag|The more than 150,000 executions for political reasons was ten times the number of those in Nazi Germany and 1,000 times the number in Fascist Italy. Reig Tapia points out that Franco signed more decrees of execution than any other previous head of state in Spain.{{sfn|Romero Salvadó|2005|p=277}}}} According to [[Helen Graham (historian)|Helen Graham]], the Spanish working classes became to the Francoist project what the Jews were to the German [[Volksgemeinschaft]].{{sfn|Graham|2002|p=123}}

According to [[Gabriel Jackson (hispanist)|Gabriel Jackson]] and [[Antony Beevor]], the number of victims of the "White Terror" (executions and hunger or illness in prisons) between 1939 and 1943 was 200,000.{{sfn|Jackson|2012|p=539}} Beevor "reckons Franco's ensuing 'white terror' claimed 200,000 lives. The '[[Red Terror (Spain)|red terror]]' had already killed 38,000."<ref>[http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7081116 "Men of La Mancha"]. Rev. of Antony Beevor, ''The Battle for Spain''. ''The Economist'' (22 June 2006).</ref> [[Julius Ruiz]] concludes that "although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including 50,000 after the war) in [[Spain under Franco|Nationalist Spain]]."{{sfn|Ruiz|2007|p=97}}

[[File:Francisco Franco escoltado por la Guardia Mora visita San Sebastián una vez finalizada la guerra (8 de 8) - Fondo Marín-Kutxa Fototeka.jpg|thumb|Franco arriving in San Sebastián in 1939, escorted by the [[Guardia Mora|Moorish Guard]]]]

Despite the end of the war, Spanish [[guerrilla warfare|guerrillas]] exiled in France, and known as the "''[[Spanish Maquis|Maquis]]''", continued to resist Franco in the [[Pyrenees]], carrying out sabotage and robberies against the Francoist regime. Several exiled Republicans also fought in the [[French resistance]] against the [[German military administration in occupied France during World War II|German occupation]] in [[Vichy France]] during [[World War II]]. In 1944, a group of republican veterans from the French resistance [[Invasion of Val d'Aran|invaded the Val d'Aran]] in northwest [[Catalonia]] but were quickly defeated. The activities of the Maquis continued well into the 1950s.

The end of the war led to [[Spanish Republican exiles|hundreds of thousands of exiles]], mostly to France, but also to Mexico, Chile, Cuba, and the United States.<ref>{{cite news |last = Caistor |first = Nick |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2809025.stm |title = Spanish Civil War fighters look back |work = BBC News |date = 28 February 2003 |access-date = 2 March 2010 }}</ref> On the other side of the [[Pyrenees]], [[refugee]]s were confined in [[Concentration camps in France|internment camps]] in [[French Third Republic|France]], such as [[Camp Gurs]] or [[Camp Vernet]], where 12,000 Republicans were housed in squalid conditions (mostly soldiers from the [[Durruti Division]]<ref name="ariege.fr">{{cite web |url = http://cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/page/afficheLieu.php?idLang=fr&idLieu=2311 |title = 'Camp Vernet' Website |language = fr |website = Cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr |access-date = 2 March 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090416211417/http://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/page/affichelieu.php?idLang=fr&idLieu=2311 |archive-date = 16 April 2009 }}</ref>). The 17,000 refugees housed in Gurs were divided into four categories: [[Brigadist]]s, pilots, ''[[Euzko Gudarostea|Gudaris]]'' and ordinary "Spaniards". The ''Gudaris'' (Basques) and the pilots easily found local backers and jobs, and were allowed to quit the camp, but the farmers and ordinary people, who could not find relations in France, were encouraged by the French government, in agreement with the Francoist government, to return to Spain. The great majority did so and were turned over to the Francoist authorities in [[Irún]]. From there they were transferred to the [[Miranda de Ebro]] camp for "purification" according to the [[Law of Political Responsibilities]].

After the proclamation by [[Marshal of France|Marshal]] [[Philippe Pétain]] of the [[Vichy France]] regime, the refugees became political prisoners, and the [[French police]] attempted to round up those who had been liberated from the camp. Along with other "undesirables", they were sent to the [[Drancy internment camp]] before being deported to Nazi Germany. 5,000 Spaniards thus died in [[Mauthausen concentration camp]].<ref name="Cite">[http://www.histoire-immigration.fr/index.php?lg=fr&nav=20&flash=0 Film documentary] on the website of the ''[[Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration]]'' {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The Chilean poet [[Pablo Neruda]], who had been named by the Chilean President [[Pedro Aguirre Cerda]] special consul for immigration in Paris, was given responsibility for what he called "the noblest mission I have ever undertaken": shipping more than 2,000 Spanish refugees, who had been housed by the French in squalid camps, to Chile on an old cargo ship, the ''[[Winnipeg (boat)|Winnipeg]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php |title = Pablo Neruda: The Poet's Calling |website = Redpoppy.net |access-date = 2 March 2010 }}</ref>

=== World War II ===
{{Further|Spain during World War II}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L15327, Spanien, Heinrich Himmler bei Franco.jpg|thumb|Front row in order from left to right: [[Karl Wolff]], [[Heinrich Himmler]], Franco and Spain's Foreign Minister [[Ramón Serrano Súñer|Serrano Súñer]] in Madrid, during [[Visit of Heinrich Himmler to Spain in 1940|Himmler's visit to Spain]], October 1940]]
[[File:Meeting at Hendaye (en.wiki).jpg|thumb|right|Franco and [[Adolf Hitler]] in [[Meeting at Hendaye]], 1940]]
In September 1939, World War II began. Franco had received important support from [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]] during the Spanish Civil War, and he had signed the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]]. He made pro-Axis speeches,{{sfn|Bowen|2017|pp=59–60}} while offering various kinds of support to Italy and Germany. His spokesman Antonio Tovar commented at a Paris conference entitled 'Bolshevism versus Europe' that "Spain aligned itself definitively on the side of...National Socialist Germany and Fascist Italy."{{sfn|Pike|2008|p=74}} However, Franco was reluctant to enter the war due to Spain recovering from its recent civil war and instead pursued a policy of "non-belligerence".

On 23 October 1940, Hitler and Franco [[Meeting at Hendaye|met in Hendaye]], France to discuss the possibility of Spain's entry on the side of the [[Axis Powers|Axis]]. Franco's demands, including large supplies of food and fuel, as well as Spanish control of [[Gibraltar]] and [[French North Africa]], proved too much for Hitler. At the time Hitler did not want to risk damaging his relations with the new [[Vichy France|Vichy French]] government.{{sfn|Goda|1993|pp=305–308}} (An oft-cited remark attributed to Hitler is that the German leader said that he would rather have some of his own teeth pulled out than to have to personally deal further with Franco).{{sfn|Payne|1999|page=334}}

Some historians argue that Franco made demands he knew Hitler would not accede to, in order to stay out of the war. Other historians argue that Franco, as the leader of a destroyed and bankrupt country in chaos following a brutal three-year civil war, simply had little to offer the Axis and that the Spanish armed forces were not ready for a major war. It has also been suggested that Franco decided not to join the war after the resources he requested from Hitler in October 1940 were not forthcoming.<ref name="rockoff">{{cite web|url=https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/94297/1/2000-08.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214213842/https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/94297/1/2000-08.pdf |archive-date=14 December 2019 |url-status=live|title=A Wolfram in Sheep's Clothing: Economic Warfare in Spain and Portugal, 1940–1944 |id=Working Paper, No. 2000-08 |publisher=Econstor|year=2000|last1=Rockoff|first1=Hugh|last2=Caruana|first2=Leonard}}</ref>

Franco allowed Spanish soldiers to volunteer to fight in the German Army against the [[Soviet Union]] (the [[Blue Division]]) but forbade Spaniards to fight in the West against the democracies. Franco's common ground with Hitler was particularly weakened by Hitler's attempts to [[Positive Christianity|manipulate Christianity]], which went against Franco's fervent commitment to defending Catholicism. Contributing to the disagreement was an ongoing dispute over German mining rights in Spain.

According to some scholars, after the [[Fall of France]] in June 1940, Spain did adopt a pro-Axis stance (for example, German and Italian ships and U-boats were allowed to use Spanish naval facilities) before returning to a more neutral position in late 1943 when the tide of the war had turned decisively against the Axis Powers, and Italy had changed sides. Franco was initially keen to join the war before the UK could be defeated.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Preston, Paul |title=Franco and Hitler: The Myth of Hendaye 1940|pages=1–16 (5)|journal=Contemporary European History|volume=1|issue=1|year=1992 |jstor=20081423|doi=10.1017/s0960777300005038|s2cid=143528356|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/26101/1/Franco%20and%20Hitler%28lsero%29.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517083611/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/26101/1/Franco%20and%20Hitler%28lsero%29.pdf |archive-date=17 May 2013 |url-status=live | issn=0960-7773 }}</ref>[[File:FrancoenReus.jpg|thumb|Franco in [[Reus]], 1940]]In the winter of 1940 and 1941, Franco toyed with the idea of a "Latin Bloc" formed by Spain, Portugal, Vichy France, the Vatican and Italy, without much consequence.<ref>Lukacs, John (2001). ''The Last European War: September 1939 – December 1941''. Yale University Press, p. 364. {{isbn|0300089155}}.</ref> Franco had cautiously decided to enter the war on the Axis side in June 1940, and to prepare his people for war, an anti-British and anti-French campaign was launched in the Spanish media that demanded [[French Morocco]], [[Cameroon]] and [[Gibraltar]].{{sfn|Weinberg|2005|p=133}} On 19 June 1940, Franco pressed along a message to Hitler saying he wanted to enter the war, but Hitler was annoyed at Franco's demand for the French colony of Cameroon, which had been German before World War I, and which Hitler was planning on taking back for [[Plan Z]].{{sfn|Weinberg|2005|p=177}} Franco seriously considered blocking allied access to the Mediterranean Sea by invading British-held [[Gibraltar]], but he abandoned the idea after learning that the plan would have likely failed due to Gibraltar being too heavily defended. In addition, declaring war on the UK and its allies would no doubt give them an opportunity to capture both the [[Canary Islands]] and [[Spanish Morocco]], as well as possibly launch an invasion of mainland Spain itself.{{sfn|Lochner|1948|p=253|loc=25 October 1940}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6972/is_6_16/ai_n32334981/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708124911/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6972/is_6_16/ai_n32334981/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 July 2012 |title=Franco, Hitler & the play for Gibraltar: how the Spanish held firm on the Rock |first=Murray |last=Sager |publisher=Esprit de Corps |date=July 2009}}</ref> Franco was aware that his air force would be quickly defeated if going into action against the [[Royal Air Force]], and the [[Royal Navy]] would easily be able to destroy Spain's small navy and [[blockade]] the entire Spanish coast to prevent imports of crucial materials such as oil. Spain depended on oil imports from the United States, which were almost certain to be cut off if Spain formally joined the Axis. Franco and Serrano Suñer held a meeting with Mussolini and Ciano in [[Bordighera]], Italy on 12 February 1941.{{sfn|Pike|2008|p=48}} However, an affected Mussolini did not appear to be interested in Franco's help due to the defeats his forces had suffered in North Africa and the Balkans, and he even told Franco that he wished he could find any way to leave the war. When the [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]] began on 22 June 1941, Franco's foreign minister [[Ramón Serrano Suñer]] immediately suggested the formation of a unit of military volunteers to join the invasion.<ref name="Moreno-Juliá2018">{{cite book |last1=Moreno Juliá |first1=Xavier |editor1-last=Stahel |editor1-first=David |title=Joining Hitler's Crusade |year=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-51034-6 |pages=197–198 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMk-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA197 |chapter=Part II - The Volunteers}}</ref> Volunteer Spanish troops (the ''[[Blue Division|División Azul]]'', or "Blue Division") fought on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] under German command from 1941 to 1944. Some historians have argued that not all of the Blue Division were true volunteers and that Franco expended relatively small but significant resources to aid the Axis powers' battle against the Soviet Union.
[[File:Entrevista de Bordighera (Franco y Mussolini).jpg|thumb|Franco with Italian leader [[Benito Mussolini]] in 1941]]
Franco was initially disliked by Cuban President [[Fulgencio Batista]], who, during World War II, suggested a joint U.S.-Latin American declaration of war on Spain to overthrow Franco's regime.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802544,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080825011807/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802544,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 August 2008|title=Batista's Boost|magazine=Time|date=18 January 1943|access-date =2 March 2010}}</ref> Hitler may not have really wanted Spain to join the war, as he needed neutral harbours to import materials from countries in Latin America and elsewhere. He felt Spain would be a burden as it would be dependent on Germany for help. By 1941, Vichy French forces were proving their effectiveness in North Africa, reducing the need for Spanish help, and Hitler was wary about opening up a new front on the western coast of Europe as he struggled to reinforce the Italians in Greece and Yugoslavia. Franco signed a revised [[Anti-Comintern Pact]] on 25 November 1941. Spain continued to be able to obtain valuable German goods, including military equipment, as part of payment for Spanish raw materials,<ref name="Golson2011">{{cite thesis |last1=Golson |first1=Eric |title=The Economics of Neutrality: Spain, Sweden and Switzerland in the Second World War |url=http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/178/ |publisher=London School of Economics and Political Science |page=145 |date=15 June 2011 |type=phd |quote=This chapter demonstrates that, although nominal trade increased consistently from 1939 to 1943, Germany suffered from increasingly poor terms of trade after 1939, as Spain paid less for its German imports and charged more for its exports. As part of Germany’s payment for Spanish resources, Spain was able to exact particularly valuable goods from Germany, including military equipment needed for the German war effort.}}</ref> and traded [[Tungsten|wolfram]] with Germany until August 1944 when the Germans withdrew from the Spanish frontier.<ref name="rockoff"/>

Spanish neutrality during World War II was publicly acknowledged by leading Allied statesmen.{{sfn|Hayes|1951|p=151}} In November 1942, US President Roosevelt wrote to General Franco: "...your nation and mine are friends in the best sense of the word."<ref name="DOS"/> In May 1944, Winston Churchill stated in the House of Commons: "In the dark days of the war the attitude of the Spanish Government in not giving our enemies passage through Spain was extremely helpful to us.... I must say that I shall always consider that a service was rendered...by Spain, not only to the United Kingdom and to the British Empire and Commonwealth, but to the cause of the United Nations."{{sfn|Hayes|1951|pp=152–153}} According to the personal recollection of US Ambassador to Spain Carlton Hayes, similar gratitude was also expressed by the Provisional French Government at Algiers in 1943. Franco placed no obstacles to Britain's construction of a large air base extending from Gibraltar into Spanish territorial waters and welcomed the Anglo-American landings in North Africa. Spain did not intern any of the 1,200 American airmen who were forced to land in the country, but "gave them refuge and permitted them to leave."{{sfn|Hayes|1951|pp=150–151}}

After the war, the Spanish government tried to destroy all evidence of its cooperation with the Axis.

On 14 June 1940, Spanish forces in Morocco occupied [[Tangier]] (a city under [[Tangier International Zone|international control]]) and did not leave until the war's end in 1945.

After the war, Franco allowed many former Nazis, such as [[Otto Skorzeny]] and [[Léon Degrelle]], and other fascists, to seek political asylum in Spain.<ref name="Messenger2020">{{cite book |last1=Messenger |first1=David A. |editor1-last=Brenneis |editor1-first=Sara J. |editor2-last=Herrmann |editor2-first=Gina |title=Spain, the Second World War, and the Holocaust: History and Representation |year=2020 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-3251-2 |page=494 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQPcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA494 |chapter=Nazis, Real and Imagined, in Post-Second-World-War Spain}}</ref>

=== Treatment of Jews ===
{{Further|Francoist Spain and the Holocaust}}
Franco had a controversial association with Jews before and during World War II. He made [[antisemitic]] remarks in a speech in May 1939, and made similar remarks on at least six occasions during World War II.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/was-franco-the-good-fascist-1.62863 |title=Was Franco the 'good' fascist? |date=23 November 2015 |author=Robert Philpot |work=The Jewish Chronicle}}</ref> Franco believed in the existence of a "Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy",<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/all/far-from-helping-jews-franco%27s-regime-was-implacably-hostile-3Cbfl1pUc6mV7OzYeYMMVg | title=Far from helping Jews, Franco's regime was implacably hostile|work=The Jewish Chronicle|author=Robert Philpot | date=6 July 2023}}</ref> and he deliberately framed the Spanish Civil War as a conflict against Jews and Bolsheviks.<ref>[https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-dictator-franco-built-his-regime-vilifying-the-jews-then-tried-to-hide-it/ How dictator Franco built his regime vilifying the Jews, then tried to hide it] Times of Israel.  JP O'Malley. 5 September 2023.</ref> In 2010, documents were discovered showing that on 13 May 1941, Franco ordered his provincial governors to compile a list of Jews while he negotiated an alliance with the Axis powers.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web |date=22 June 2010 |title=WWII document reveals: General Franco handed Nazis list of Spanish Jews |url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/wwii-document-reveals-general-franco-handed-nazis-list-of-spanish-jews-1.297546 |work=Haaretz}}</ref> Franco supplied [[Reichsführer-SS]] Heinrich Himmler, architect of the Nazis' [[Final Solution]], with a list of 6,000 Jews in Spain.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

Contrarily, according to ''Anti-Semitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution'' (2005):

:Throughout the war, Franco rescued many Jews. ... Just how many Jews were saved by Franco's government during World War II is a matter of historical controversy. Franco has been credited with saving anywhere from approximately 30,000 to 60,000 Jews; most reliable estimates suggest 45,000 is a likely figure.{{sfn|Levy|2005|p=675}}

Preston writes that, in the post-war years, "a myth was carefully constructed to claim that Franco's regime had saved many Jews from extermination" as a means to deflect foreign criticism away from allegations of active collaboration with the Nazi regime.{{sfn|Preston|2020|p=342}} As early as 1943, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded that the Allies were likely to win the war. [[José Félix de Lequerica y Erquiza]] became Foreign Minister in 1944 and soon developed an "obsession" with the importance of the "Jewish card" in relations with the former Allied powers.{{sfn|Payne|2008|p=232}}

Spain provided visas for thousands of French Jews to transit Spain en route to Portugal to escape the Nazis. Spanish diplomats protected about 4,000 Jews living in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. At least some 20,000 to 30,000 Jews were allowed to pass through Spain in the first half of the War. Jews who were not allowed to enter Spain, however, were sent to the Miranda de Ebro concentration camp or deported to [[Vichy France|France]]. In January 1943, after the German embassy in Spain told the Spanish government that it had two months to remove its Jewish citizens from Western Europe, Spain severely limited visas, and only 800 Jews were allowed to enter the country. After the war, Franco exaggerated his contributions to saving Jews in order to improve Spain's image in the world and end its international isolation.{{sfn|Levy|2005|p=675}}{{sfn|Avni|1982}}{{page needed|date=June 2022}}{{sfn|Alpert|2009}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Spain|url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206034.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308174931/https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206034.pdf|archive-date=8 March 2021|website=yadvashem.org}}</ref>

After the war, Franco did not [[international recognition of Israel|recognise Israeli statehood]], and maintained strong relations with the [[Arab world]]. Israel expressed disinterest in establishing relations, although there were some informal economic ties between the two countries in the later years of Franco's governance.<ref>{{Cite journal|volume=37|title=Spanish–Israeli Relations and Systemic Pressures, 1956–1986: The Cases of GATT, NATO and the EEC|journal=Historia y Politica|first=Guy|last=Setton|pages=334–5}}</ref> In the aftermath of the [[Six-Day War]] in 1967, Franco's Spain was able to utilise its positive relationship with Egyptian President [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] and the Arab world (due to not having recognised the Israeli state) to allow 800 [[Egyptian Jews]], many of Sephardic ancestry, safe passage out of [[Egypt]] on Spanish passports.<ref name="forward">{{cite web|url=https://forward.com/culture/374948/how-spain-saved-egypts-jewish-population-after-the-six-day-war/|title=The Angel Of Cairo: How A Spaniard Saved Egypt's Jews|work=The Forward|date=19 June 2017|access-date=15 May 2019|first1=Jeffrey|last1=Boxer}}</ref> This was undertaken through Francoist Spain's Ambassador to Egypt, [[Ángel Sagaz Zubelzu]], on the understanding that emigrant Jews would not immediately emigrate to [[Israel]] and that they would not publicly use the case as political propaganda against Nasser's Egypt.<ref name="forward"/> On 16 December 1968, the Spanish government formally revoked the 1492 [[Alhambra Decree|Edict of Expulsion]] against Spain's Jewish population.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/12/17/archives/1492-ban-on-jews-is-voided-by-spain-1492-ban-on-jews-is-voided-in.html|title=1492 Ban on Jews Is Voided by Spain|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=17 December 1968|access-date=15 May 2019|first1=Richard|last1=Ederspecial}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-this-day-spain-lifts-the-expulsion-1.5377424 |title=This Day in Jewish History 1968: Spain Revokes the Expulsion of the Jews |last=Green |first=David |date=6 December 2015 |website=Haaretz |quote=Although technically the Inquisition had been dismantled with the passage into law of Spain’s constitution of 1869, which abolished religious discrimination, it was not until this 1968 legislation that the regime under Francisco Franco explicitly invited Jews to come and openly practice their faith in Spain.}}</ref>

Franco personally and many in the government openly stated that they believed there was an international conspiracy of Freemasons and Communists against Spain, sometimes including Jews or "[[Judeo-Masonry]]" as part of this.{{sfn|Bautista Delgado|2009|pp=303, 321–322}} While under the leadership of Francisco Franco, the Spanish government explicitly endorsed the [[Catholic Church]] as the religion of the nation state and did not endorse liberal ideas such as [[religious pluralism]] or [[separation of Church and State]] found in the [[Spanish Constitution of 1931|Republican Constitution of 1931]]. Following the Second World War, the government enacted the "Spanish Bill of Rights" (''Fuero de los Españoles''), which extended the right to private worship of non-Catholic religions, including Judaism, though it did not permit the erection of religious buildings for this practice and did not allow non-Catholic public ceremonies.{{sfn|Rein|2013|pp=17–18}} With the pivot of Spain's foreign policy towards the [[United States]] during the [[Cold War]], the situation changed with the 1967 Law on Religious Freedom, which granted full public religious rights to non-Catholics.{{sfn|Rodgers|2002|p=337}} The overthrow of Catholicism as the explicit state religion of Spain and the establishment of state-sponsored religious pluralism would be realised in Spain in 1978, with the new [[Constitution of Spain]], three years after Franco's death.