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Orwell wasn’t the only Englishman to write of his time spent fighting in the Spanish Civil War. British soldier Peter Kemp fought on behalf of Franco’s National

by _iyig 6y ago

Orwell wasn’t the only Englishman to write of his time spent fighting in the Spanish Civil War. British soldier Peter Kemp fought on behalf of Franco’s Nationalists (i.e. the side with the fascists) and documented his experience in the autobiographical “Mine Were of Trouble.” Although he had sided with Franco’s quasi-fascists* in Spain, Kemp would later fight the Nazis as a British commando in WW2. After the war, he worked as a foreign correspondent for The Spectator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kemp_(writer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kemp_(writer) https://www.amazon.com/Mine-Were-Trouble-Nationalist-Account/dp/B08673MBF1 https://www.amazon.com/Mine-Were-Trouble-Nationalist-Account... *While Franco’s authoritarian conservative coalition include the fascist Falange, it also included monarchists, Catholics, and other social conservatives who Franco balanced against one another while in power.

kibwen 6y ago
...Why on earth would this be downvoted? Would anyone care to elaborate?
- _iyig 6y ago
  I‘d guess it’s due to the humanization of anyone ever associated with Franco’s Nationalists, however critically and impermanently. Even fighting actual Nazis in occupied Europe (which Peter Kemp describes in the autobiographical “No Colours or Crest“) doesn’t rub out the stain for some users, apparently. Personally I favor open minds and paths to redemption.
  - monocasa 6y ago
    You can still be pro-Fascist and not want foreign Fascists invading and bombing your country, given the intrinsic link between Fascism and Nationalism.
  - hutzlibu 6y ago
    "Even fighting actual Nazis in occupied Europe (which Peter Kemp describes in the autobiographical “No Colours or Crest“) doesn’t rub out the stain for some users" Well, fighting Nazis alone, does not make you a saint. Stalin fought the Nazis, too. From the skimming of wikipedia, he really does not sound like a nice guy to me. But still, thanks for the suggestion, I like reading other sides of view.
    - _iyig 6y ago
      > Well, fighting Nazis alone, does not make you a saint. Stalin fought the Nazis, too. Quite so! I encourage you to check out the book and reserve your opinion on its author: >Kemp, neither loyal to the House of Bourbon nor Roman Catholic, also hadn’t been personally affected by the “Red Terror” political violence that had incited the conservative uprising. Still, he had been appalled at the bloodshed preceding the July 1936 outbreak of the civil war, explaining to a friend he couldn’t stand by while leftist mobs murdered people “simply because they were priests or nuns” or “because they had a little money or property.” [0] We know now that while Republicans did massacre and rape civilians, the Nationalists did so too and on a much larger scale. But to someone on the ground in the middle of that chaos, with bullets and propaganda flying everywhere, I imagine the full picture would have been next to impossible to discern. We can only truly see what’s right in front of us. [0] https://www.historynet.com/peter-kemp-set-europe-ablaze.htm https://www.historynet.com/peter-kemp-set-europe-ablaze.htm
    - neves 6y ago
      Don't forget that Churchill may be called a white supremacist and genocidal: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29701767 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29701767 And there's also that other country that exploded nuclear bombs over two mass populated cities killing a good number of innocent people. There's not a lot of people that can save face in a world war. At least there is a consensus that the Germans were the most atrocious.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

by _iyig 6y ago

kibwen 6y ago

...Why on earth would this be downvoted? Would anyone care to elaborate?

_iyig 6y ago
I‘d guess it’s due to the humanization of anyone ever associated with Franco’s Nationalists, however critically and impermanently. Even fighting actual Nazis in occupied Europe (which Peter Kemp describes in the autobiographical “No Colours or Crest“) doesn’t rub out the stain for some users, apparently. Personally I favor open minds and paths to redemption.
- monocasa 6y ago
  You can still be pro-Fascist and not want foreign Fascists invading and bombing your country, given the intrinsic link between Fascism and Nationalism.
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  "Even fighting actual Nazis in occupied Europe (which Peter Kemp describes in the autobiographical “No Colours or Crest“) doesn’t rub out the stain for some users" Well, fighting Nazis alone, does not make you a saint. Stalin fought the Nazis, too. From the skimming of wikipedia, he really does not sound like a nice guy to me. But still, thanks for the suggestion, I like reading other sides of view.
  - _iyig 6y ago
    > Well, fighting Nazis alone, does not make you a saint. Stalin fought the Nazis, too. Quite so! I encourage you to check out the book and reserve your opinion on its author: >Kemp, neither loyal to the House of Bourbon nor Roman Catholic, also hadn’t been personally affected by the “Red Terror” political violence that had incited the conservative uprising. Still, he had been appalled at the bloodshed preceding the July 1936 outbreak of the civil war, explaining to a friend he couldn’t stand by while leftist mobs murdered people “simply because they were priests or nuns” or “because they had a little money or property.” [0] We know now that while Republicans did massacre and rape civilians, the Nationalists did so too and on a much larger scale. But to someone on the ground in the middle of that chaos, with bullets and propaganda flying everywhere, I imagine the full picture would have been next to impossible to discern. We can only truly see what’s right in front of us. [0] https://www.historynet.com/peter-kemp-set-europe-ablaze.htm https://www.historynet.com/peter-kemp-set-europe-ablaze.htm
  - neves 6y ago
    Don't forget that Churchill may be called a white supremacist and genocidal: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29701767 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29701767 And there's also that other country that exploded nuclear bombs over two mass populated cities killing a good number of innocent people. There's not a lot of people that can save face in a world war. At least there is a consensus that the Germans were the most atrocious.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]