Hitler Stopped by Franco

by Jane Boyar and Burt Boyar

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0971039208
• ISBN13: 9780971039209
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Marbella House
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Refreshingly Objective Work on Franco

This book is wonderful in so many ways. May I start out by pointing a fault in a previous review on this site. One gentlemen, who accused Franco of being a Fascist butcher (which is shall address later), stated rather frankly that Franco caused the War and that he was responsible to the damage to Spain. May I remind the audience that it takes 2 sides to fight a war, and at this point in history such an event was unstoppable. His bias shows clearly in his last line: "One last thing. Hitler wasn't stopped by this man. He was stopped by the Red Army in the Eastern Front." Such a view is highly popular amongst socialists, communists, Slavophil's, and anti-US/UK "historians", and for a brief period in time, me. However this view doesn't hold up to well in today's historical outlook, and while I shall not go into it, use it to point out that this man was clearly not an objective source. As far as the book is concerned I must first say that I was very excited to read it. As someone who has studied the Second World War a great deal, I was looking forward to the historical and strategic significance of Franco's non-belligerency and later neutrality. What I found was that and more, and indeed found myself gripped to the story like a Tom Clancy spy novel. The character of Canaris was highly intriguing, and really opened my mind to his role as head of the Abwher. Even if you have reservations about Franco, this book can still be enjoyed for its literary style and plotline. As far as Franco being a Fascist, this statement is certainly biased and simply not accurate. See Prof. Stanley Payne's "Fascism 1914-1945" in which the world's foremost expert on Fascist history and ideology can surmise that Franco's regime was only "semi-Fascist" at best. I would perhaps go even farther then that and deduce Franco's was not Fascist at all, but rather a neo-Monarchist/Authoritarian which did not have the mass appeal or totalitarian control that Italian Fascism or German National Socialism had. Furthermore I'd like to briefly comment that both sides committed atrocities in the Spanish Civil War, and from a military standpoint it makes sense to execute POW's if you do not have facilities to house them (which Franco did not have until years after the war.) If the Nationalists had lost, I do not think the Republic would have been able to stop the Loyalist forces from doing likewise to the Nationalists'. Remember, War is an ugly business, and considering how many civilians were killed in Allied Air raids during the Second World War, sometimes as hard as it is we must look past the death tolls. This book is not bias, and it is not pro-Franco, despite I'm sure the attack it takes from Europe's ever increasing socialist population. It does not deny the thousands who Franco condemned to death during and after the war, but it does not chastise him for it as so many historians duo. It is objective, which in their mind is as good as bias, simply because i

Franciso Franco: Protector of Sephardic Jews

Many have the true notion that Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco craftily prevented his Civil War ally Adolf Hitler from marching 20 divisions through Spain in World War II and occupying British controlled Gibraltar. This prevented the Axis from sealing off the western end of the Mediterranean and made a major contribution to ultimate Allied victory.What many may, however, learn for the first time in the Jane and Bert Boyars' 2001 documentary novel HITLER STOPPED BY FRANCO is that Franco also got away with provoking Hitler by his bold assistance to Jews.An introductory quote (p. 104): "The Sephardim, Jews of Spain and Portugal, had not seen Spain since Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled them in 1492 after giving them the opportunity to remain by becoming true Catholics."Franco's positive attitude towards Jews is at least six years older than Hitler's 1933 rise to power in Germany. As early as 1927 as a fighting Colonel commanding thousands of men in Spanish Morocco, Francisco Franco received permission from Madrid to use his troops to protect from Muslims the local Sephardic Jews. The Sephardic community was grateful and in 1936 supported Franco with money at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.In 1927 Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera had also told Franco that Sephardic Jews might return to Spain, become citizens and worship as they pleased. This invitation was deep in Franco's memory when, in 1940, French Jews began beseeching Spanish authorities in Vichy France for asylum on the basis of Spanish citizenship. (p. 104)As told by Franco's wife to the authors, Franco then briefly but decisively mulled over what to do. "...I have sworn to give my life protecting Spaniards." (p. 105)After prayer, Franco authorized issuing Spanish passports to Sephardim as their right under Spanish law. Asked by consular officials how to tell Sephardim from non-Sephardim, Franco ruled, "They are all Sephardim."By September 1940 Hitler was pressuring Franco to cede to Germany one of the Canary Islands and to allow the Wehrmacht to march on Gibraltar through Spain. (p.106)By November 1940 Hitler told Serrano Suner, Franco's brother-in-law, that he had at the moment 186 inactive German divisions and he intended to use some of them to take Gibraltar. Nor had he failed to notice Franco's Jewish policy. "Spanish passports are being issued to Jews who have never seen Spain, nor have their ancestors in precisely 448 years. ... Suddenly French are Spanish. And from Poland suddenly Poles are Spaniards. And in Denmark and the Netherlands ... overnight my enemies have Spanish passports and are able to leave my jurisdiction." (p. 159)And leave they did. Nor did Jews ever forget that Franco was their benefactor. For the rest of this little known story -- and for much more-- read HITLER STOPPED BY FRANCO.-OOO-

preconception shattering

All of which brings us to the Boyars' excellent historical novel. Having lived in Spain for nearly thirty years and become friends with folks like their landlady, Franco's daughter, Carmen, they found both Franco's Spain and Franco's reputation in Spain to be much different within the country than they were perceived from without. With such connections, the authors were given extraordinary access to members of Franco's family and inner circle and to former government ministers. They have combined this access with what was obviously quite extensive research to produce a scrupulously documented (how often have you read a novel with citations and footnotes) account of how Franco kept Spain out of the War, focussing on the years from 1940 to 1943, when Spanish acquiescence to Hitler's demands would have allowed Axis forces to use the Spanish coast as a staging area for an attack on Gibraltar and eventually complete control of the Mediterranean and North Africa.The weaknesses of the book are mostly a function of the task it is trying to perform. Characters are required to recite large chunks of historical background, which is obviously artificial and somewhat pedantic, but is also probably the most effective way of conveying the necessary information (it is certainly less disruptive than the technique that Herman Wouk used in Winds of War, where he interspersed chapters of an imaginary history of WWII). And in almost every instance, the authors give Franco the benefit of the doubt in regards to his motivations and the farsightedness of his vision. This creates the impression, which even I find unlikely, that he never seriously considered joining the Axis and intended all along to simply hold Hitler at bay until America joined the War and swung the balance of power.On the other hand, Franco has been treated so viciously by almost every other author (H. G. Wells called him the "murderous little Christian gentleman"), that it's hard to begrudge one overly favorable treatment. Moreover, it is entirely plausible that Franco, who had after all fought to preserve a traditional Spain, based on Church, Crown, and commerce, never seriously intended to allow the Nazis a free hand in Spain. No true patriot, which Franco must by any measure be considered, would fight off the Comintern only to put his nation at the disposal of the National Socialists.Meanwhile, the books strengths are significant. First, there is a very real tension to the story, even though we know its outcome, as this small and recently wartorn nation holds off Hitler, who is perched on their border just waiting to pounce. Second, there's the fascination of seeing people like Franco and Canaris presented as three dimensional beings and as genuine heroes in the resistance to Hitler, rather than as enemies of humanity, simply because they too were fascists. Finally, books that challenge our precious preconceived versions of events are so rare that it is always a good thing when one, espe

Franco did Allies a favor by staying out of the war

This is an unusual history book written in the format of a novel. This makes the book very readable and presents the historical figures in a more lifelike way than the usual dry history books. The material for this book is drawn from historical records, documents, and interviews with surviving members of Franco's family and retired officials of the Spanish government.I have always wondered why Franco and Spain did not enter the war on the side of the Axes and this book gives a good answer: Franco was for the survival of Spain. Spain had just ended a savage civil war with over one million dead. The country's infrastructure was on the verge of collapse and the population was on the brink of starvation. Spain owed huge debts and the army did not have the equipment or supplies to enter any conflict. Franco had to seem to favor the Axis and played a very dangerous game with Hitler, keeping him believing that as soon as possible, Spain would enter the war. Franco was a cleaver fox and knew how to play the game of words as a means of delay.Hitler badly wanted Gibraltar and Franco refused to let him move troops through Spain to capture it. Enraged, Hitler moved 20 divisions of the German Army to the Spanish border, but Franco refused to be intimidated. He moved his own troops to the border and poured concrete bunkers (Spain had no shortage of concrete) and threatened Hitler with guerrilla war. Hitler realized that it would be too costly to wage that kind of war and backed off, eventually having to withdraw his army for use against the Russians.If Franco had allied Spain with the Axis and given Hitler the doorway to the Mediterranean, the results would have been disastrous for the Allies. Franco did us a huge favor by remaining neutral and keeping his country from German occupation.

Will do much to reveal Franco

Hitler Stopped By Franco is the true and documented history of how, in 1939, the Spanish Fascist General Franco prevented Adolf Hitler from moving 20 divisions of the German Wehrmacht out of Spain for three years and defied him (at great risk) by providing 60,000 Jews with refuge and asylum in Spain while the Nazi Holocaust was in full sway throughout the rest of German occupied Europe. Franco is not a popular figure in the west. The Russians hated him because he was unrelentingly anti-Communist and defeated the socialist coalitions in the Spanish Civil War. The Americans didn't like him because of his suppressive and oppressive regime. But with the quiet support of Admiral Wilhem Canaris (Germany's highest ranking spy) Franco successfully fended off Hitler's urgent demands to let German troops occupy Spain as a path to Gibraltar and thereby close off the Mediterranean to British shipping. A fact that played large in the Allied defeat of German and Italian forces in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Hitler Stopped By Franco is very highly recommended reading for students of World War II and will do much to reveal Franco, while an unabashed totalitarian fascist, was no friend of Adolf Hitler, and a stalwart benefactor of the Jews the Nazis had marked for extermination.