Comments by "Voryn Rosethorn" (@vorynrosethorn903) on "Why Franco & Spain stayed out of WW2?" video.

  1. That got out of hand. As the OP said the inquisition and so on have a propagandised reputation that is only now being corrected. The whole nationalist rant about Queen Elizabeth, British colonialism ect is...errr....debatable. Franco was personally anti-Semitic though the Nazi's probably wouldn't have considered him such but he was also not sympathetic to the holocaust and as a Catholic was more than happy to shelter any of it's potential victims that managed to get to Spain but didn't help them with anything outside his borders beyond being a potential protection to Spainish Catholic priests who were suspected of being involved in ratlines to Spain. Should be noted that it any of those Jews or any other suitable (e.g. Not British or American) foreigners were known leftists, communists, ect he packed them on the first train to Germany, but he was generally uncooperative otherwise. It's hard to say how much he helped as unlike the polish resistance most of what happened stayed off the books especially as the same people smuggling networks (or ratlines) that were set up would be used post war for Nazi's to escape capture, also Franco had little personal involvement as it was mostly done by the church (though he supported anything they did up to the hilt). There may well have been Jewish children who ended up in Spainish Catholic orphanages however if so the church unlike in Poland failed to record original identities or inform anyone of the fact post-war and they were raised Catholic (which would have been a win win as far as Franco was concerned).
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  2. To address the original post, no the Spanish would likely have been quite a bit better that the Italians especially if facing the Soviets but would suffer from poor motivation against the western allies and the resource issues would mean they would be heavily reliant on veterancy and competent leadership and given Franco's personality they would be the axis nation most likely peace out early as despite what TIK said Franco's ideological sympathies for Nazism didn't go much deeper than loathing communism and Franco was one of the most politically astute and realist leaders in Europe at the time (not that that was a very high bar) and was more willing to change tactics and outlooks than most of the other autocrats, as was shown by him dropping theories if they didn't work (meanwhile Hitler would invade people and nick their stuff to keep things going and Stalin would just pretend they did work). The main issue is that Franco had little tangible incentive to join in the first place beyond kicking the Soviets while they were down (which without the western allies he most certainly would have jumped at).
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  3. Aye, but it was also chock full of rabid Falangists who were chaffing at the bit. Knowing Franco is was a one size fits all solution to political undesirables.
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  4. There wasn't, he was a raving loon.
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