Episode 13- Gernika: The Massacre in Context

The bombing of the Basque town of Gernika on April 26, 1937 by the planes of Germany’s Condor Legion, fighting for Franco’s rebel forces during the Spanish Civil War, today stands in the historical memory as one of our most powerful reminders of the horrors of war, thanks in no small part to Picasso’s famous painting. But what were the Germans trying to accomplish in this terror bombing, how exactly did the events of that day unfold and did the Germans achieve their goals? In this second part of our series on Nazis in Spain, Xabier Irujo, Director of the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada- Reno, answers these questions as well as addresses the aftereffects of an event that we still remember with horror more than 80 years later.