The Pete Quiñones Show - Pete Reads 'The Last Crusade' by Warren H Carroll Part 11 - The Finale

Episode Date: July 27, 2024

34 MinutesPG-13Pete concludes a reading of Warren H. Carroll's 1996 book, "The Last Crusade: 1936." In this final episode, he reads the "Road to Victory" chapter: 1937-1939.Antelope Hill - Promo code "peteq" for 5% off - https://antelopehillpublishing.com/FoxnSons Coffee - Promo code "peter" for 18% off - https://www.foxnsons.com/The Last CrusadePete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'VIP Summit 3-Truth To Freedom - Autonomy w/ Richard GroveSupport Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky. They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter Sports Extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampact with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for their terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen?

If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frankine Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you.

Ireland's largest award-winning light show experience is back. Wonderlights is now open in three spectacular locations, Malahide Castle and Gardens, and Marley Park in Dublin and Photo House in Cork. Follow the enchanting walking trail that will captivate all ages as the night comes alive with dazzling displays and unforgettable moments. Who will you Wonderlights with? For dates and bookings, visit wonderlights.i.e. I want to welcome everyone to part 11, the finale of my reading. of The Last Crusade by Warren H. Carroll.

Thomas and I are still doing our watch and movie reviews. We're going to keep doing them. We did the movie Resurrection Man from 1998 and put that up on Gum Road. That's an amazing, remarkable movie. And Thomas provides so much background on the history behind the real people that are depicted in that movie. And you can check that out of Freemamand Beyond the Wall.com forward slash movies. Also, my partnership with Antelope Hill. Put in Pete Q, all lowercase, at checkout, and get 5% off your order.

All right. Basically, this book was meant to be, the title of it is really the Last Crusade, Spain, 1936. This is supposed to talk about 1936 because that's when the most horrific tariffy, targeting happened. And, you know, it's just a build-up to it. So he went and did it the whole year. And now this is Road to Victory. He does a very short wrap-up of 1937 and 1939,

and how Franco's forces the Nationalists win. So I'm going to finish us up. Let's do it. The inability of the Spanish Nationalist Army even spearheaded by its finest fighting, men to take Madrid in November 1936 was the main cause for the prolongation of the Spanish Civil War for two and a half more years. Both sides remained committed to their cause to the very end, though many historians argue that Franco could have ended the war a year earlier by promising

amnesty to all or most of the leaders and principal supporters of the Republic. But he insisted undeviatingly on unconditional surrender. While this is not a truly moral position, it was taken by the United States in World War II for almost exactly the same reasons to Franco and the Nationalists took it in the Spanish Civil War. The conviction that the crimes of their opponents in the war were so great that no terms of amnesty could be justified. During the winter months of 1937, Nationalist offenses in the Arama River Valley and around Guadalajara attempting to outflank Madrid were unsuccessful as were counter-attacks by the Republicans. In April, Franco order the unification of the very dissimilar Falunge and Carlos, brushing aside strong

protest by leaders of both groups. In that same month, in a struggle which had remarkable similarities to the siege of the Alcazar of Toledo on a smaller scale, about 250 civil guards from the Andalusian city of Jain. Their families, some Falangis, and about a thousand civilians from Anduhaar were holding out at a mountain top shrine of Our Lady of La Cabeza. The defense was led by Santiago Cortez, a captain and the Civil Guard, his wife and children, like those of Muscardo etoledo, were under the control of the revolutionaries in Yan. Nationalist planes' airdrop supplies into the small areas held by the defenders attached to turkeys, which acted as living parachutes descending more vertically than the man-made variety.

By May 1st, 20,000 attackers outnumbering the garrison 14 to 1 overwhelmed the defenders. The shrine went up in flames. Cortez, Trudeau is valiant namesake, who liberated Mexico from the acolytes of Satan, fought to the end, received a mortal wound, and died without revealing where he had buried the image of Our Lady of La Cbeza to preserve it from desecration. Apparently, it was very important to them to desecrate that. It has a lot to do with, like, democracy and republics, right? On this May Day, tension between the Republican government now increasingly and obviously under communist control and the anarchists in Barcelona, who were intolerant of any control,

reached such a pitch that the usual parade speeches and other celebrations of the workers' holiday were banned by the Catalan authorities. Two days later, anarchists at the telephone exchange opened fire on communist forces advancing on the building. Fierce fighting went on for five days. Some 400 were killed and more than a thousand wounded. Let them fight. The communists were eager not only to put the anarchists firmly under their authority, but also to wipe out a rival organization called P-O-U-M, headed by Trotsky's former private secretary, Andre Nien, which had thousands of members in Catalonia. when Largo Caballero balked at liquidating Nien and the P-O-U-M, the communist forced his removal as Prime Minister of the Spanish Republic. He was replaced by Juan Negrin, an enigmatic figure who, though never a communist,

was invariably willing and eager to do their bidding. As finance minister, he was to man who had earlier shipped the entire National Gold Reserve of Spain to Soviet Russia without hesitation. protest to pay for Russian arms. Manuel Zania, still titular president of the Spanish Republic, who was supposed to select or at least approve prime ministers, could only ring his hands in despair as, quoting his journal, he watched, quote, revolutionary hysteria passing from words to deeds in order to murder and steal, ineptitude of the rulers, immorality, cowardice, calumnies, shooting by one trade unionist of another, presumption by foreigners, and,

insolence of separatists, disloyalty, pretense, empty talk by those who had failed, exploitation of the war to make money, negative approach to those desiring to organize an army paralysis of the war operations, end quote. One hardly needs cite nationalist descriptions of the conditions of Republican Spain in view of these devastating comments by its own president, who as Prime Minister of the Popular Front government, bore much of the responsibility for the disintegration of order, which made the war inevitable. On June 1st, General Mola died in a plane crash near Burgos. He was the only remaining rival to Franco among the army officers, though his failure to make any strong protest against Franco's designation as Generalissimo and head of state in the conferences of September 1936, make it most unlikely that he would have tried to supplant him later. He had become a great friend and advocate of the Carliss, whom he had so intransigently rebuffed in the critical negotiations with Valcande, just before the rising, as a result of witnessing their splendid courage and faith in the

armies under his command. Now in the process of being neutralized as a political force by Franco, they could very likely have benefited from Mola's continued presence among the leaders of Nationalist Spain. I mean, why would you do that? Well, because look at what's happening on the left. You have the anarchists and you have the communists and they're killing each other and you need unity. you need unity. Despite Franco's mishandling of the lyrically Catholic Carlis, during the first half of 1937, he manifested his own Catholic commitment repeatedly.

On the personal level, he attended daily mass and often a daily rosary. As head of state, he guaranteed... I want to check something here about the daily rosary. They said, the attempt of Franco's latest biographer Paul Preston to impugn the sincerity of his Catholic convictions and practice at this point in his life is,

like much in his vehemently hostile, thousand-page biography, contemptible. So, apparently, somebody writing in 1993, Paul Preston, um, seeks to call into question Franco's faith. There's so much rugby on sports extra from Sky,

they've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-backed with rugby. the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live. Plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. That's the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments

than ever before on Sports Extra. Jam packed with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for €15 a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen? If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as

New Car Joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frank Heen Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you. Ireland's largest award-winning light show experience is back. Wonder Lights is now open in three spectacular locations.

hide castle and gardens and Marley Park in Dublin and photo house in Cork. Follow the enchanting walking trail that will captivate all ages as the night comes alive with dazzling displays and unforgettable moments. Who will you Wonderlights with? For dates and bookings, visit wonderlights.I.E. As head of state, he guaranteed the full freedom of the church in nationalist Spain, including the freedom of former primate Cardinal Segura when he returned to criticize the Falunge for its fascist characteristics and prescribed daily prayer in the schools

to which crucifixes were returned. In the words of Hugh Thomas, the Catholic Church permeated every aspect of Spanish nationalist culture. On July 1st, all but two of the Spanish bishops, the Archbishop of Tarragona in exile in Switzerland, and the Bishop of Victoria, who had been with the Republican Basques, signed a letter to all the rest of the world's bishops upholding the justice of the nationalist rising in civil war to prevent the destruction of the Catholic faith in Spain. And on August 28th, Pope Pius D. 11th, formally recognized the nationalist government and sent an apostolic delegate to Burgos. By then, the nationalist had taken the last Republican Basque province Vizcaya with comparatively little resistance so that no active Catholic population remained with

Republic. During the summer of 1937, another and more costly prolonged battle was fought. in the searing plains around Madrid near the town of Brunez. When it was over, there were no significant changes in the original battle lines, but the Republicans had lost more men than the nationalists, trying to draw nationalist pressure away from the two remaining separated areas in North Spain, still holding out for the Republic, the region around Castilian Port of Santander and the Asturias. An army commanded almost entirely by communists taking orders from Russian general

Grigorovic and a Russian Air Force general attack nationalist post in Aragon. At Cotto 300, Carlos held out for days without air cover against seven to one odds. When at last they were overwhelmed, the temporary victors found written on the wall a sentiment echoing the original crusades. When you kill a red, you will have a year less in purgatory. The town of Belshita was defended with equal to now. and after taking it the communist offensive in Aragon ground to a halt in September 1937. Meanwhile, undistracted by the fighting in Aragon, the nationalist had pressed on to take Centander, where the pro-Republican historian Thomas admits that the majority favored them on August 28th.

The years nationalist victories were crowned by securing the whole province of Estudius in October, including the ruins of the Samankas barracks at the Asturian port of Guillaume. Few days later, Prime Minister Negren officially moved the seat of government of the Republic from Valencia to Barcelona, apparently in order to assert his personal authority more directly over the fractious Catalans, and avoid any repetition of the war in the streets with the anarchists in May. Catalonia, the most economically developed region of Spain, had suffered, not surprisingly, a drastic drop in production of all kinds from the moment the anarchist and communists had taken it over in July,

and it was not improving, but continuing to drop. Such was the naivete of Negrin. He had been a professor of physiology before the war, an incessant drumbeat of socialist and communist propaganda, both within and outside Spain, that few in the republic could really believe the truth, since proven again and again all over the world that socialism, to say nothing of anarchism, simply does not work economically, no matter how much you try and marry. Negan probably thought that his presence might help in boosting production. Also, Barcelona was a much larger city than Valencia and closer to France, from which Negan still hoped to get help in addition to the aid he was receiving from the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, it is surprising that more consideration was not given to a return to Madrid, which had, after all, been the capital of Spain for centuries, where the Republic had won its most remarkable military victory, which would have, which would have to be their base if they were ever to win the war, in which, in fact, they held to the end of it. Whatever its motives, Negrans moved to Barcelona was a huge mistake. Many Catalans, who passionately desired self-government, little though they seemed to be able to practice to govern themselves, resented the presence of the national government in their own capital and became increasingly apathetic in their own almost universal support of the Revolutionary War.

At the end of December 1937, the Republicans attacked a nationalist salient, the easternmost territory they held in Spain, the bleak province of Terul, which regularly records the coldest winter temperatures in the country. Terul was chosen as an objective partly because, of its threatening position, but more because its isolation and the harshness of its climate, made the attack unexpected. Only about 2,000 nationalist troops aided by an approximately equal number of militia, garrisoned the ancient Walls, provincial capital of gray-weathered stone as communist and Erique Lister led his 11th division to attack it through thickly falling snow.

Franco ordered the garrison commander, Colonel Ray Dharcourt, to hold. on to the last and sent a large force under General Sverella and Aranda, the hero of Oviedo, to relieve them. Just as they were approaching the beleaguered town, the temperature fell to 18 degrees below zero. Most of the nationalist engines froze, and the entire countryside was buried under four feet of snow. Water ran out. The garrison melted snow to drink. On January 8, 1938, Colonel Dark Court finally surrendered when his decimated soldiers can know longer fight under these Arctic conditions. Bishop Anselmo Palanco of Terul was also taken prisoner at this time. Lister's men put the colonel and the bishop into close confinement, where they were held

until the fall of Barcelona to the nationalist the next year. Then they were both killed before they could be rescued, riddled by machine gun bullets after which their bodies were doused with gasoline and set on fire. Bishop Palanco of Terul was the last of the 13 Spanish bishop's to die at the hands of the enemies of Christ during the Spanish Civil War. A final sign in proof of the implacable hatred of the Catholic Church by the revolutionaries in that war. When the weather around to rule finally cleared in late January 1938, the nationalist forces were able to go over to the offensive.

The communist international brigades were brought up, but many of their most committed fighters had become casualties, and increasingly more of the gaps in their ranks were filled by Spaniards. consequently the brigades fought less effectively than in the past and were driven back and outmaneuvered by Varela and Aranda's nationalists. On February 7th, the nationalists won a battle north of Turul by a tremendous cavalry charge, the last significant military action in the history of warfare in the West to be decided by men on horseback. General Yagwe and his Moroccans had now come up, and a three-day struggle from February 17 to 20, the communists were driven out of to rule, and a great victory won over the one over the Republican army.

Lister and El Campasino, the famous gigantic communist peasant warrior, each accused the other of abandoning him, and El Campasino also made the same accusation against Russian general Grigortovich. Revolutionary solidarity was fading fast, even among the communists. Figuously following up their advantage, the nationalist armies pressed on from to rule toward the Mediterranean only about 75 miles away. They reached it on Good Friday, April 15th, cutting the Republican too. The morality international brigades broke. A significant number of their surviving men were shot by their own fanatical officers in desperate and futile attempts to keep them fighting. They never were again a significant factor in the war. By November, all survivors of the

communist foreign volunteers had left Spain. Nevertheless, the communist command in Spain were still determined to fight on, and the Soviet Union was still providing them means to do so, including much-improved fighter aircraft. On July 25, 1938, they launched a last offensive along the Ebro River, 70 miles northwest of its mouth at the Mediterranean, hoping to out-flank and out-maneuver the nationalists on the coast to restore communications with the remaining Republican areas in the south around Valencia and Madrid. In this offensive, every corps and divisional commander and all but two brigades, commanders were communists. Lister led the initial attack advancing 25 miles in the first day, but the nationalist commander in that sector was the redoubtable Yagway, and by August 1st,

he had halted the communists at a hill fronting the town of Gondessa. The nationalist brought up a large quantity of artillery, which hammered away at the enemy day after day during the fierce heat of August. By the 14th, Yagway began making periodic counterattacks, and on September, 3rd, he pressed forward with two corps and regained almost all the territory that had been lost. After a steady buildup, the nationalists were able to launch a full-scale offense of their own on October 30th, and by November 16th, had secured a decisive victory in what was to prove the last major field action of the war. When on December 23rd, 300,000 nationalist troops moved north from the Ebro into Catalonia, there

was hardly any resistance. Just over a month later on January 25th, 1939, Barcelona was taken, almost bloodlessly. An enormous exodus followed nearly 400,000 people flooding across the border into France. Many had good reason to fear Franco's justice in view of the enormous number of savage crimes committed particularly in Catalonia in the first year of the war, though many other innocence of those atrocities undoubtedly fled along with the criminals because they had been terrified by the propaganda of the revolutionaries. At least a quarter of the refugees quietly returned to Spain before the year was over. The leaders of the Republican government all departed, though Negren and a few others returned to Valencia in a forlorn and for doomed effort to carry on the war in the southeastern

provinces still held by the Republic. At long last, Zanya submitted his resignation as president. Nearly everyone in Spain and out concluded that the fall of Barcelona effectively doomed the Republic. Virtually all the senior officers in Madrid quickly came to that conclusion. When Negren still stubbornly refused to listen to them, Colonel Segis Mundo Kassado assembled a group of officers in Madrid who proclaimed themselves a national defense council, no longer accepting Negrin's authority. General Miyaha supported Cassado, and Negrin had to flee to Africa, excuse me. Negan had to flee. to fleet of Africa. Communist troops in Madrid then rose against Casado, led by Colonel Luis

Barcelo, who had commanded the Revolutionary Militia against the Al-Qasar of Toledo in July 1936. Barcelo shot three of Casado's staff officers, but a few days later was captured and shot himself. So in a last hail of fratricidal bullets, the revolution in Spain came to a bloody finish. Madrid surrendered to Franco and nationalist troops occupied the city on March 28, 1939. Three days later, all remaining cities in the Republican zone had also surrendered, and Franco announced the end of the war. The victors in the last crusades celebrated with a glorious parade in Madrid in which thousands of carless veterans with their red berets received the most tumultuous applause. On May 20th, 1939, Franco attended a te deem,

service in the Church of Santa Barbara in Madrid offering this prayer. Lord, benevolently accept the effort of this people, which was always thine, which, with me and in thy name, has vanquished with heroism the enemy of truth in this century. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky, they've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jam packed with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Franken, Volkswagen?

If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence, and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frank Heen Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you.

Ireland's largest award-winning light show experience is back. Wonderlights is now open in three spectacular locations, Malahide Castle and Gardens and Marley Park in Dublin and Photo House in Cork. Follow the enchanting walking trail that will captivate all ages as the night comes alive with dazzling displays and unforgettable moments. Who will you Wonderlights with? For dates and bookings, visit wonderlights.I.E. Then he laid his sword before the high altar with the solemn promise to God and man

never to draw it again, save in defense of his country against invasion. He kept his promise all through the 36 years of life and governance that remained in him. ever since that day Spain has, ever since that day Spain has known peace and the full freedom of her people to practice their Catholic faith. Franco's description of the enemy, which the last crusaded vanquished, was extraordinarily profound, especially for a man who had never been nor considered himself to be an intellectual, and is scorned and hated by most intellectuals to this day. The revolutionaries and their necessary philosophical allies, the relativists, are indeed and how, have always been the enemies of truth in the 20th century. All their pretensions, their ambition,

their methods and goals rest upon and derive from the denial of objective truth and objective moral law. Nowhere in all their shattering history has that been so clearly demonstrated as by the horrors of the religious persecution in Spain, which made the Spanish Civil War a crusade. The total number of Catholic priests and religious martyr in the territory of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, with 6,832, most of whom were killed without even the simulacrum of condemnation by revolutionary tribunals. The total included 4,184 diocesan clergy, 2,365 male regular clergy, and religious 283 nuns, the greatest clerical bloodletting on the entire history of the Christian Church, exceeding by a substantial margin, the clerical victims of the

the French Revolution and of the Communist Revolution in Russia. This amounted to 12% of the total number of clergy and religious in Spain, and about a quarter of those caught in the Republican zone, which at the beginning of the war, was comprised only half the country, almost half the country. In the diocese of Barastro, 85% of the priests, 123 of 140 were killed. In Madrid, 30%, 334, in Valencia, 27%, 327, and in Barcelona, 22%, 279. Most of these killings occurred during the first six months of the war, the period chronicled in this book. Of the total of 976 priests and religious killed throughout the war in the diocese of Barcelona,

all but 59 were killed in 1936. Quoting, in addition to these deaths, an incalculable number of lay persons were killed because of their religious associations either as well-known churchgoers, members of fraternal and charitable religious organizations, or as the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends of clerics. Some were killed because they professed their faith by wearing some outward symbol of belief, perhaps a religious medal, or scapular. Some were killed for acts of charity, for granting refuge to clerics attempting to escape the fury. In their joint letter to the whole world in 1937, the Spanish bishops estimated that 20,000 churches and chapels out of the total of 42,000

in Spain had been destroyed. In Barcelona, more than 800 churches and chapels were totally destroyed. Only 10 in the entire archdiocese emerged from the Holocaust unharmed. In Madrid, the overwhelming majority of churches were also damaged or destroyed. In Valencia, 800 churches were destroyed and more than 1,500 damaged. In Oviedo, the corresponding figures were 357 and 287. In the diocese of Ciadraal and Seigurbe, every church without exception was destroyed or damaged in almost all of the diocese of Cartagena, Quenca, Girona, Santander, and Toledo. These appalling facts and statistics, not now questioned by any serious historian of the Spanish Civil War, are the enduring and irrefutable proof that the Spanish crusade of 1936 was justified, and that the dominant elements in the Spanish

Republic were as profound, thoroughgoing, and vicious enemies of the Christian faith has ever met anywhere in all its history. It remains to discuss the issue of deaths for which Franco and his government were responsible. In considering this vexed question, it is first necessary to set aside all deaths which were directly or indirectly the results of war, whose justification or lack of it comes under the heading of whether this was a just war and not of Franco's personal policy. It is also necessary in fairness to set aside those accusations which were ordered by others without Franco's knowledge or consent, especially in the first two months after the rising before Franco was named Generalissimo and head of state. During the war, Franco repeatedly pledged to bring to justice

all persons whom he could find, whom there was good reason to believe. leave guilty of committing, aiding, or abetting the criminal horrors of 1936. He never granted amnesty to such people, and continued relentlessly to pursue them until 1959. Whatever one may conclude about the wisdom or desirability of such a pursuit, it is not necessarily contrary to the Christian teaching of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a personal response to the soul of an offender. Justice is a state responsibility to find, convict, and punish the guilty. The decision on which persons to prosecute and what penalty to exact if they are found guilty is a decision of public policy.

The conviction and especially the execution of the innocent or the designation of innocent and justified behavior as criminal is always wrong. Procedures to determine guilt or innocence may be faulty and errors may be made in carrying those procedures out, but only the condemnation of a person wholly without regard to his actual guilt or innocence is inherently wrong. An immense number of the most terrible crimes imaginable, acts which would have been crimes in any organized society or any culture which history has ever known, had been committed in the Spanish Republic during the Civil War, mostly in the last six months of 1936. Not only were those who had actually committed these crimes guilty of them, but also all who had accessories before, all who were accessories before or after the fact, those who had

called for and facilitated the commission of these crimes and aided the crime. criminals knowing what they had done were doing, a plan to do. Those who had aided them because of fear could present that as an extenuating circumstance when their punishment was being deliberated. But motives do not affect the objective fact of responsibility for crime, nor was there any moral imperative to end the pursuit of these criminals at any particular point in time. No country has a statute of liberations on murder. In recent years, we have seen striking demonstration of this often overlooked or ignored truth in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. Nearly every Western country has concluded that those actively involved in carrying out the

horrendous crimes of the Nazis, particularly their attempted extermination of all Jews, even the ones in the United States, deserve neither amnesty nor an end to pursuit. Nazi war criminals are still being arrested, tried and imprisoned 50 years after the commission of their crimes, even when aged, and now obviously harmless. Justice is held to demand it. Justice does demand it. But if justice demands his lifelong pursuit trial and even, as for Adolf Eichmann, execution of Nazi war criminals, then it makes the same demand for Spanish criminals who attempted to exterminate the priests and religious of Spain, and many other Catholics as well, whom no sane man could have believed guilty of any crime any more than the Jewish children who died in the Nazi death camps.

Franco was not utterly merciless. He commuted many death sentences to periods of imprisonment of varying length. It can be reasonably argued that he should have commuted more of them and ended the process of search, investigation, and trial sooner, except for a few of the best known and worst offenders. But no moral law required him to do so, for justice as the supreme duty of the state. This is the context in which we should view the total numbers of executions and murders by the two sides in the Spanish Civil War, which have been assembled with as much accuracy as we have ever likely to get. in the magisterial study of Ramon Salas Lesarabal published in 1977. In the Republic, from 1936 to 1939, the total was 72,344. And Nationalist Spain, from 1936 to 1950, it was 57,662. Of the Nationalist total, 16,763 were executions during the first two years after the war,

with 5,878 more during the next 10 years. One of these were done in a country, all of these were done in a country at peace under judicial process. Many, perhaps a majority of the executions and homicides during the war, were without a genuine trial. That there were at least 22,641 Spaniards who deserved the worst judicial penalty for the crimes of 1936 in the Republican zone can hardly be denied by any fair, any honest and fair commentator. many would now declare that their penalty should not have been death, but every Western nation in that period used the death penalty with some frequency. It is important to note that in France, immediately after World War II, over 10,000 people were executed for treason, collaboration with the German occupation forces during the war. Even in notoriously liberal Norway, a considerable number were tried, and some, including Wittgen-Quisling, executed for treason committed during the German army. occupation of their country.

Though trials during the war and nationalist Spain were on many occasions conducted without due respect for the rights of the accused, this was not the case after the war. Certainly there were some miscarriages of justice, but there was guilt to be found and justice to be done, and Franco was pledged to bring

these criminals to justice, as much as any Nazi hunter today is pledged to bring the butchers and torturers of Hitler's concentration, Kansas Jones. It ill behooves those who, have never seen nor really tried to imagine the kind of horrors that were routine in Auschwitz and Daquow and Treblinka. All things in the West, I'll put them in the East. From 1942 to 1945 or in Barcelona, Madrid, Barbastro, and Toledo in 1936 to call for them to be left

unpunished. He's a boomer. A convincing case against Franco's executions requires not simply their total numbers, but proof of widespread deliberate violations of justice. convicting the innocent or defining innocent behavior as criminal for which he was personally responsible. There is no such proof. But ultimately, the last crusade was far greater than its leader. Franco, like all the other crusaders, was born by its tide. A militant minority of the people of Spain had committed themselves to destroy its age-old Catholic faith, indeed every foundation stone upon which their state and society was built in total revolution. though clever and deceitful propaganda, the Spanish revolutionaries had gained the support of most of the Western world.

The Spaniards who in July 1936 took their stand against the Forward Marching Revolution had all the odds against them. They could expect help only from two men, Hitler and Mussolini, who were potentially as great a threat as to Spanish and Soviet revolutionaries. Against a hostile or heedless world, against the course of history, against all the furies loosed by the apostates of the 20th century, they raised up the cross of Christ and proclaimed their crusade and won it. For those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength and rise up on wings as, and rise up as on wings of eagles. I'll scroll through the bibliography here, so people who are watching it can see it.

Go, index. Yeah, yeah, probably the bibliography is what most people would want to see. So there you go. All right. I hope people understand why I read that. I was talking to Daryl Cooper today, and he said that he had read it, but he had read it in the past, and it was a really hard read, but he was listening to me to do it again, and he was listening to me read it. And he, yeah, it always hits him, like in ten parts.

He says there's like ten parts in the book where you just get, to the point where you're like, I have to put this down. That's our enemy. They exist today. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking they don't. They may not be executing priests in the street, but they want to. There were ads during this. If you want to support the show and get the episodes early and ad-free, freem Beyond the Wall.com forward slash support. You can do it through the website there, Patreon, subscribe star, gumroad, and substack. And I'll be back. I already recorded two episodes of the new book.

So I guess you'll find out in a few days. Take care, everybody. Thank you for taking this journey with me. I appreciate it. Take care.