On June 15th, 2024 el Professor José Luis Rodríguez (Contemporary History area of ​​the Faculty of Arts and Humanities) was entrevistado at the radio program The past is no longer what it was, from RTVE, presented by David Zurdo. The full interview can be heard through this link (“Nazis in Spain”).

The program, which deals with “the part of the story that is not usually told,” focused on the findings that Professor Rodríguez exposes in his new book Under the mantle of the Caudillo. Nazis, fascists and collaborators in Franco's Spain, which we reported on April 2.

Why did Spain welcome Nazis when Germany was already defeated? beyond the affinity between both regimes? According to professor, “several things must be faced: the first is that a part was here, that is, they were in Spain because they performed different functions, mainly issues of espionage”. On the other hand, "you have to think that Spain is the country in the world where there are more German spies from both military service and the SD, party service, also Gestapo personnel and after that commitment that he played economic work in companies, those member that Spain had put in the hands of the Germans to encourage the export of raw materials to the Third Reich. Therefore, a part was already here and others arrived throughout 1944, before the end of the war; some are fled from the Vichy government after the Allied landings in France and others from different countries, including leaders of the Independent State of Croatia, also collaborationists with the Third Reich. Then we can talk about Luburic, the responsible for the Jasenovak extermination camp, which is an enigmatic case. Luburic “He showed up at the Franco-Spanish border on foot, disguised, with a false name and managed to enter.”

Vjekoslav Luburic was possibly the most relevant among the military commanders responsible for war crimes and genocides who were not brought before a court. About him, the professor Explained that “We do not know Luburic's itinerary and the same for others. Luburic arrived in the fall of 1944, with a false documentation, with Hungarian name, He was allowed to enter Spain, he was placed in a concentration camp, still used for Republican and International Brigade prisoners.. There she was with a fake name for several months, until someone helped him leave…well, we talk about the route of the Franciscan monasteries in the Mediterranean area, to start a “new life in towns in the province of Valencia”.

Another, like Leon Degrelle, also a Nazi war criminal, became a popular character in Malaga that Even in the 80s, in democratic times, he had significant freedom of action. These and other stories can be heard in the full interview.