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Basques mark 70th anniversary of Gernika bombing
Euskal Lagunak, the local Basque Association, held a memorial commemorating the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Gernika, Spain on Friday, April 27 at the Mountain Home Basque Park.
The event commemorated the aerial attack on April 26, 1937, when planes of the German Condor Legion, an adjunct of the Luftwaffe, bombed the city of Gernika, Spain, killing 1,600 civilians and wounding 800 more.
The memorial honored victims and survivors of the bombing of Gernika. Survivor Mari Carmen Egurrola Totorica from Boise spoke of her experience during the bombing, She was just over five years-old, and she was at home with her mother and ten month-old brother when the church bells began ringing. They went to the mountains close to Lumo to hide from the attack rather than going to the shelters. Totorica remembers a lot of planes and wanting to move while hiding in the chestnut tree, but her mother told her not to. "I saw with my own eyes how they were throwing things," said Totorica. She remembers something went down and a lot of dust came up-it was a bomb.
They did not come out of hiding for three hours and when they started moving she had such bad leg cramps, but her mother told her to move and jump. They knew they could not go into town because it was burning, so they went to a farm house. "As we walked, there was a body here and another body there, another body there," said Totorica. At the farm house people began asking about relatives, and she remembers her mother saying, "We lose everything, but at least we have Daddy to start over again."
Her family was lucky and they began reconstruction together although it was hard. Her father had a hard time getting his job back as a post man because he was not a friend of Franco's. The economy was bad, so her mother helped bring in what money she could. The family moved a lot, but moved back to Gernika once state housing was constructed.
Basilio Susaeta was the second survivor to speak of the bombing. He said, "The shooting was killing so much and the destruction of bombs put fire to the whole town." When they got permission from the mayor to go to their house there were "no windows in the house, no anything." He was almost eleven when the bombing occurred.
After the two survivors spoke of the bombing, Mayor Joe B. McNeal congratulated all of the survivors and told them that he appreciated them passing the story on to young children to try to help it not happen again.
A proclamation was then read by Mayor McNeal recognizing the bombing of Gernika on April 26, 1937 as the first known bombing on a civilian population. It was then proclaimed that April 27, 2007 be recognized as the anniversary of the bombing of Gernika in the city of Mountain Home, Idaho and he asked all citizens to celebrate. He added that the Basque flag was flying under the city hall flag in honor of the anniversary.
Patxi Kearns then performed Agurra, a dance for honor and respect for the survivors of Mountain Home who include: Geronimo Ocamica, Paula Anchustegui, Mary Sheekan, Esther Totorica, Maria Jesus Monasterio, Marie Carmen Egurrola Totorica, Basilio Susaeta, Ensebia Susaeta, Frank Felibe, John Lasuen and Matilda Lasuen.
After which, the choir, Biotzetik, sang and an oak tree planted in the Mountain Home Basque Park was dedicated in remembrance to the victims and survivors.
The importance of the tree dedication was to the reference of the Tree of Gernika, an oak tree where representatives from Basque towns would meet under to vote on issues, said Joe Lasuen, president of Euskal Lagunak.
That was the first commemoration held in Mountain Home for the bombing of Gernika. The North American Basque Organizations (NABO) encouraged all Basque cities around the world to do similar programs, said Lasuen.
The Boise event was held on Thursday, April 26, Mountain Home's memorial was held on Friday, April 27, and Gooding held its event on Saturday, April 28.
April 26, 1937 was market day in Gernika, so the center of the city was completely full with people from the surrounding villages and outlying areas. The residents of Gernika did not know they had been marked by their attackers to become pawns in an experiment designed to determine just what it would take to bomb a city into oblivion.
Franco's Nationalist forces had little air power. But Nazi Germany was eager to try out its fledging Luftwaffe. As a result of a developing relationship between Franco and Hitler, Franco offered Gernika as an experimental bombing target.
Gernika was and is the cultural capital of the Basque people. The city had great meaning to the Basque people, whom fought against Franco's Nationalists on the side of the Spanish Republicans. It was bombed to send a clear message to Republicans of the military power the Nationalists had, even though, the city had no military strategic capabilities or value as a military target.
The "blanket-bombing's" purpose was to break the spirit of the Basques and their resistance to the National forces.
Hitler deployed his Condor Legion, led by Lt. Col. Wolfram Von Richthofen, cousin of the Red Baron of World War I.
The first bombs fell on the city at 4:30 p.m. More than 50 German planes rained bombs on the town and machine-gunned the streets incessantly.
The surrounding villages were similarly bombarded. The planes even machine-gunned flocks of sheep in the fields. Townspeople were cut down as they ran from crumbling buildings.
By 11 p.m., the entire city was in flames, not a single house standing. The streets and the square were crammed with goods and belongings snatched from the inferno. By the time the Condor legion left, the center of Gernika was in ruins, but the Tree of Gernika still stood, even though the city burned for three days.
News of the bombing quickly spread and the world was horrified, but the Nationalists and Germans immediately denied any involvement.
The bombing served as a catalyst for the British to modernize their outdated Royal Air Force. Britain, above all else, feared that a southern English city could be similarly bombed. That advance build-up saved them during the Battle of Britain three years later.
On April 24, 1999, the German Parliament formally apologized to the citizens of Guernica for the role the Condor Legion played in bombing the town.
The German government also agreed to change the names of some German military barracks named after members of the Condor Legion.
No formal apology to the city has ever been offered by the Spanish government for whatever role it may have played in the bombing.