Hunting Nazis in Franco's Spain

4. Petitions to Franco: German Activism and the Fight to Stay in Spain

99 4 petitions to franco German Activism and the Fight to Stay in Spain Germans actively engaged in Nazi intelligence operations and official economic or political work in Spain during World War II often were veterans of the Condor Legion or had been involved on the Nationalist side in the Civil War. Others had been resident in Spain from before the Civil War. Appealing to Spanish officials, who ultimately would be responsible for implementing their repatriation to occupied Germany, these Germans used that history to request exemption from repatriation. The memory of the Nationalist cause was invoked by these Germans as a way to detract from or downplay their role in the Nazi cause during World War II. Their ties to Spain were documented in every detail. The archives of the Spanish Foreign Ministry contain hundreds of petitions from Germans seeking exemption. The language and arguments used by these ex-functionaries and agents of the Nazi regime in Spain offer a unique insight into one of the unexplored uses of the memory of the Civil War in Franco’s Spain. Unlike Nazis who claimed little affiliation to the hard-core ideology of Hitler, ex-Nazi officials and agents in Spain could argue that they had been motivated by ideology and that they had made a political commitment—to Franco. If that was not enough, many argued that through familial relationships, marriage, and attitude they were more or less Spaniards. Some even tried to legally obtain Spanish citizenship. In short, using a variety of means, Germans facing repatriation from Spain drew upon a unique history to advocate for themselves and shape their own postwar future. In seeking to avoid the denazification procedures that would follow deportation from Spain, these ex-Nazis cast themselves as associates and partisans of one of the last remaining dictatorships in Europe. Hunting Nazis in Franco’s Spain 100 As noted in the previous chapter, Spanish officials were willing to exempt Germans from repatriation if they concluded that such individuals were “incorporated into Spanish life.” Numerous Germans adopted the language of citizenship to request exemption even though actual legal citizenship was rarely possible. Again, Nancy Green’s concept of citizenship as a resource, as a means of obtaining protection from the state, is significant. This choice was possible even in an authoritarian state like Franco’s, and one made easier by terms defined by Franco and his regime themselves. How could Germans wanted for repatriation tap into the existing dialogue about belonging in Franco’s Spain to protect themselves? If we take Green’s idea that citizenship can be interpreted as social, not necessarily legal, or, as Green puts it, as “practiced identity,” then it can be found in post–Civil War Spain. There was, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a clear discourse about what membership in the New Spain meant and what it entailed. Moreover, in the case of these Germans the claim to have been loyal to Franco’s Spain was a claim made by choice, or at least cast in the language of choice. In reality, many of these Germans did not disavow their ties to Nazism and its history while proclaiming their commitment to Franco ’s Spain. Indeed, the continuation of Nazism remained a prominent part of life in the German colony in Spain. Germans wanted for repatriation pursued a variety of avenues of argument to emphasize their ties to Spain, all of which advanced the claim that these Germans, despite wartime and even postwar activities that associated them with Nazism, wanted to be seen as Spaniards, or at least as allies of the causes Franco had pursued during and after the Spanish Civil War. the german colony, nazism, and allied officials When World War II came to an end, the German colony in Spain was large and economically significant. Many of its members had been compromised politically owing to membership in the NSDAP and through service to the German government during the war through official or supposedly covert intelligence operations. As outlined 101 Petitions to Franco: German Activism and the Fight to Stay in Spain briefly in chapter 2, German commercial activity in Spain had been growing since the turn of the century, as had the size of the German colony. This activity had intensified during the war as Nazi Germany became Spain’s primary...