Children of War

As part of my research for City of Children, I’m reading Hijos de la guerra by Jorge M. Reverte and Socorro Thomás (Ediciones Temas de Hoy, S.A., Madrid, 2001). The book is a series of testimonies by different people who were children during the Spanish Civil War, from all over Spain, raised in diverse ideological contexts. It conveys the reality of war’s complexity, a far cry from the black-and-white simplicity of a film reel.

The children watch the adults executing their enemies against the white cemetery wall—both sides, always in retaliation for a previous crime. The daughter of a nationalist remembers Italian fascist troops straggling one by one into her village after their defeat at the battle of Guadalajara; the soldiers’ friendliness, offering her fresh-baked bread dipped in olive oil; but also her whole family’s horror when a judge, a friend of the family, is executed for being a freemason, and her father’s realisation, listening to Queipo de Llano’s discourses on Radio Sevilla, of the lies that the nationalists were propagating: “[Dad] told us he had a bottle of sherry at the radio. Sometimes he interrupted his speech, filled his glass, burped and said: ‘There, to the Pasionaria*’s health!’ My Dad didn’t like him at all.”

Other children remember spending days in bed, unable to venture outside because of the bullets whining past the house, forbidden to lock their doors by the nationalists, in case they are harbouring “reds”.

These children’s memories, retold by their adult selves, reveal the quotidian horror of war, mixed with a matter-of-fact acceptance of the situation. The horror is real, creating understandable trauma, yet these young people function, are capable of pushing the terror into the background, integrating it into their daily routine, and continuing their existence. It strikes me that despite how vulnerable children may be, they are also endlessly resourceful in their ability to overcome traumatic events and to go on. Maybe this is true of all human beings; that no matter how bad the horror gets, we are genetically incapable of giving up.

*La Pasionaria, Dolores Ibárruri Gómez, was one of the Spanish Communist leaders throughout much of the 20^th century, a member of the Spanish parliament for Asturias, exiled in the USSR from 1939 to 1977, General Secretary of the Spanish Communist Party in exile, and once more an MP after her return to Spain. She died in 1989.

Spanish history repeating on Libyan soil

Current events in Libya bring to mind similarities with the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) even if contexts differ. Yet both wars have captured world attention for their wishful idealism, a struggle for freedom and democracy against repression.
Spain was torn by war after decades of internal strife. The country’s ultra-conservative factions saw a military uprising against the democratic system as the surest road to political and economic stability, a bid to reinstate the iron calm of Primo de Rivera’s earlier dictatorship. The fascist rebels envisioned a swift, bloody coup yet faced the grinding reality of a 3-year war. Difficulties in communications were a factor influencing both sides.
The Libyan situation has been sparked by external events. Access by a segment of the population to the social media (FaceBook, Twitter, etc.) has been decisive in enabling information to spread. The Libyan people are seeking democracy and freedom after more than forty years of dictatorship.
However, like Franco and Mola (the military mastermind behind the 1936 coup to which Franco was a late addition), Gaddafi is employing foreign mercenaries because their brutality can be trusted when one’s own people must be slaughtered. Terror is a key strategy in repressing civilian populations. Mola’s exact words were: “We must spread terror… we must create the sensation of dominance by eliminating, unscrupulously and unhesitatingly, all those who do not think as we do.” And they are pertinent to Gaddafi’s strategy.
The Libyan people, like the Spanish Republicans in 1936, are poorly armed, untrained and lacking professional army officers, the majority of whom have remained loyal to Gaddafi. They are inspired by a will to overcome. Yet it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to triumph over the bullets and bombs of a highly trained army.
Lastly, the Non-Intervention Treaty which kept Britain, France and the USA from sending aid to the beleaguered Spanish government was a key element in the fall of Spanish democracy. Allied as this was to the siding of 75% of Spain’s diplomats with the Fascist uprising, and Germany’s and Italy’s flouting of the Treaty, many saw Spain’s defence as heroically doomed from the start. Yet still they fought and cried: “They shall not pass!” Today it looks increasingly doubtful whether the international community will pass from words to action with the ephemeral promise of a no-fly zone over Libya, but it’s looking as if Libya’s democracy will be stillborn.