Ruined buildings standing along the Main Street of Belchite. Most of the destruction that is seen today is due to plundering or the lack of preservation from the ruins, it is calculated that the war accounts for the destruction of 30% of the village. Situated at 50Km South-East of Zaragoza, in 1936 people mainly lived from the agricultural resources. On the outbreak of war, most the local council of Belchite chooses Franco's side, almost immediately a terrible repression against anyone who was suspected to be in favor of the Republican Government took place.
Mass graves from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) still account for missing, Spain occupies the doubtful honour of being the second country with most disappearances after Cambodia. More than 70 years after the Spanish Civil War many wounds are still open and little has been done by the different governments to heal them despite pressures from the public and important organisations. The Spanish Civil War became the culmination of a fight between social classes hidden behind political colours, its cruelty and hatred levels were close to those that Nazi Germany practiced against the Jewish population during World War II. Still today, it is possible to find hard feelings related to the civil war, especially in small villages were some times the executioners live next door of their victims or families. After the Spanish war and during the 36 years of Franco's dictatorship a tense silence about what really happened during and after the war was enforced and any criticism of the official statements was rapidly and brutally retaliated against. Still in modern Spain many people who fought on both sides or were victims of the dictatorship prefer not to talk about this period. To understand the Spanish Civil War and its outcome it is necessary to go back to the first decades of the XX th. century, a period where Spain's main asset was its agricultural production and the recent bloom of industry in the main cities. Working rights are scarce, especially in the rural areas were latifundium is the main property distribution and the peasants still live in a sort of Feudal estate. Poverty and illiteracy are endemic and the colonialist war in Morocco produces a substantial number of deaths mainly affecting poor families, since the well standing ones could pay the 1,500 Pesetas that was required to avoid being enrolled (A waiter in Madrid earned about 125 Pesetas/month in 1920). (...)
Size: 3872px × 2592px
Location: Belchite, España
Photo credit: © Xabier Mikel Laburu / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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